My friend X is creating a quilt for her son's kinder class. 30 squares that the kids will draw on. The teacher wants to use muslin! There has to be sashing in a quilt like this or it'll look horrible. X does not want to iron after prewashing. X has no idea that cutting the sashes will be a lot of work. I told X that she will spend up to $100 since she is starting from scratch. The backing alone (68x80) will be 14 yards of material! She doesn't know all that goes into making a quilt. She volunteered because she's very involved and helpful, but wow... she does not know what she's getting into. Thank goodness a real quilter will be doing the quilting. (I don't think she knows yet that the top needs to be pieced - which implies sewing!!)

how funny

uh oh

for the backing, tell her to buy a flat sheet. better quality fabric and much less expensive.

Yeah, that's going to be an eye-opener for her.

Great suggestion!

I am still a beginner, but 14 yards of material for backing sounds like an awful lot. If this friend doesn't sew it will be a lot of work for her trying to figure it all out.

I agree that 14 yards for a back sounds to much. Go to your local Goodwill and/or thrift store and get a sheet. You can often find them in very good shape.

She'll learn by her mistakes!!

14 yds of fabric for a back what is she making a quilt the size of a living room????????? I have NEVER heard of 14 yds for a back.

I do a project with my second graders every year and someone wins the quilt at the end of the year!!! It's a great project and I hope it doesn't overwhelm her. Why pre-wash the fabric? If X does not want to iron it, don't pre-wash!!! What are the kids going to draw with? She has to be careful if she wants it to be able to be washed. What will she do with the quilt? Even with narrow muslin, she won't need 14 yards for the backing...she needs to recalculate. I wish her luck and hope she's not in over her head!!!

I did 4 last year for our first grade class auction item and I will never volunteer to do anything again. I spent well over $100 on fabric and way to many hours to count. I had volunteers that didnt quilt and I ended up having to re cut a lot of the squares to make things match and they didnt pre wash or iron set the fabric before/after letting the kids draw on the squares and the quilts are now fading.

68x80 quilt will not take 14 years for backing. 5 to 6 at most depending on how it is pieced or use sheet or wide backing.

6 Yards of fabric will back and bind this quilt...

I'd say 4 yds for the back...but if using it to wrap over for the binding, then I'd add another yard.

So 30 blocks will go together nicely with 5 x 6 blocks. For sashing, to make it easy, use a jelly roll or a moda solid. You can buy those on sale for $18 or $20. Use a fun print that coordinates for the corner blocks of the sashings -- a fat quarter is plenty. The backing -- I don't know what you have in mind, but I think I could do that just fine with 4 yards of fabric, running say $5 / yard. What are we at now? Under $50.

Yes it will take time and some aggravation, but it's not as bad as you are making this project out to be.

RST

I'm also puzzling at the 14 yards. Did you mean to type 4? 4 is probably enough. I might use 4 1/4 to be safe on the width.

It sounds like your friend is not a quilter - I suggest you loan her a book that shows a simple block/sashed quilt for a guide. There are also 'quilting with kids' books available. Is she looking to you for help in a subtle way?

Perhaps there are other mothers that can help with sewing & donation of material to help off set cost.

I find that people who don't sew get the feet and yard measurements for fabric mixed up alot. It sounds as if that's what she's done....because 14 feet of fabric would give her a little over 4 1/2 yards.

I did a project like that a long time ago. My sister handled the logistics from Germany and I had her hand out pieces of paper cut to the correct dimension. Each kid drew on the paper the message they wanted to send the teacher. Some were more creative than others. My sister sent me the papers and I scanned them into the computer and printed them on fabric. I liked that better because it gave ME the control over ALL fabric-related processes.

Unfortunately my PC crashed and I lost the pictures but it turned out soooooooo darn cute. I used kid/teachery fabrics in the sashing.

Actually, this sounds like a teacher IDEA project that someone else is supposed to execute. I've been stuck doing quite a few of those. Teachers have no clue of cost, time needed, nor benefits derived from an IDEA they have. They just saw it somewhere and it was CUTE. Good luck. Maybe the kids' pictures could be made smaller..... It will be a bigger project than necessary.

She will probably be calling you to help her when she finds out how much work it is going to be... lol :)

How in the world would she need 14 yds for backing??? Half of that would be 252 inches long!!!!

My daughter does this every year with her class--not that difficult if X has some sewing skills. She backs muslin with freezer paper, pre-cuts a little larger than needed in order to square up. Students use crayons to draw and she heat sets. Simple sashing and then she quilts on our LA. The quilts are auctioned off as fundraisers and always bring a good amount of money. The students have a great time doing these and incoming classes always ask when they get to do the quilt. Perhaps your X person could recruit a couple of parents with sewing skills to help her out. I don't think she will regret this and it really is not that expensive.