A quilt for Alan in Iraq! Let's send a quilt around the world to literally wrap our favorite guy in our love and support. Besides, he says its cold there and their hot weather desert gear ain't keeping him very warm!
We will be decorating squares of muslin with fabric markers and crayons, as well as printed photographs. The final quilt will use red and white fabrics for a patriotic red, white and blue theme.
I've "delegated" it to Juneanne to figure out the photo blocks, so we'll get more info to you about them a little later, but here's what you need to get started decorating your crayon muslin blocks:
SUPPLY LIST:
- 100% Cotton Muslin. Be sure on the 100% cotton part. Mom and I have lots we can send if you like, let us know.
- Crayola brand regular crayons. (we don't need special fabric crayons as long as the muslin is 100% cotton). NOT washable crayons!
- Freezer Paper. This will stabilize the fabric while you decorate it.
- Permanent Black fabric marker. This is optional, but will be handy for drawing designs to color, writing messages, etc. Don't use Sharpies, Peg says they look gross after time passes- get one specifically for fabric (look at fabric stores), and make sure its permanent. One web site says "micron pigma" brand, available at Michael's and art supply stores, works well (here's a picture of them).
- Iron and ironing board.
- Paper towels.
- Optional: light box and color book pages. This is to trace pictures onto the fabric. Or try taping the freezer-backed fabric over the page onto a sunny window. You can look online and find good color-book images to print off too (for this quilt patriotic ones like flags or other Americana stuff would look good. Or other things Alan likes- Ideas, Juneanne?) Or skip that altogether, and free-style it, draw your own pictures, and outline them with the black pen for more definition if you want.
0. Get your digital camera out and take pics of you and your family doing this so we can see each other doing it "together!" :)
1. Prewash your muslin, and don't use any fabric softener or dryer sheets, because they'll leave gunk on the fabric.
2. Cut the muslin into 8 1/2 inch squares.
3. Iron the squares onto the freezer paper for stability. (You can do this before cutting into 8 1/2 inch squares if you want).
4. Go crazy with decorating with the pen and crayons! Press hard with the crayons, the darker the better. REMEMBER: Don't take your design to the edge of the block, leave about 1/2 inch border on all sides, because the seam allowance will be cutting into the block edges 1/4 inch.
5. Now set the color and absorb the extra wax. Put several layers of paper towel down on your ironing board, to protect it. Put the colored fabric face up, cover it with a couple paper towels. With iron on medium, press it with the iron to absorb the excess wax. Change paper towels until you don't see any more wax coming up.
6. If you don't think its dark enough, color and press again.
7. Let it cool, and remove the freezer paper from the back. Press the back with paper towels like you did the front, to set it and remove extra wax.
For your block decorating, have the theme be family love and support for Alan, and that we are proud of him for his sacrifice and serving our country. Have everyone in your family participate- itty bitty people scribbles are precious, right on up to adults writing messages or signing their names (or scribbling too! I know I'm getting my crayons out!). Have fun, be creative! Go with a patriotic theme if you want to, or just do whatever you want to to send your love and thoughts to Alan in Iraq.
Here are two websites that describe the crayon blocks that you might find helpful:
http://www.quiltbus.com/crayon.htm
http://www.thepatternco.com/crayon.html
That's it! I'll post a bit later and tell you who to send the blocks to, we haven't finalized yet who is going to assemble the quilt. Call/e-mail/post here with questions. Happy scribbling!
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