Help with class art project quilt
 

Hey everyone! I am new to this forum and quilting. I volunteered to make my child’s art auction quilt and I am struggling on how to quilt each of the art squares. My initial thought was to just stitch around each square, but I don’t know if that will be sufficient enough. This is my first time free hand quilting so don’t judge too much 😆 Any help would be appreciated.

Cute! What batting did you use? Each type gives a recommended minimum to spacing for your quilting. The 80/20 I use needs some quilting 4” apart. You could maybe tie in the centres of the blocks so it doesn’t go right over their artwork?
I googled “ how to tie a quilt for beginners” and there are a few youtubes on that technique. Here is one of them.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQINVO2v5M

Oh how cute and special!

As @thimblebug6000 mentioned, each batting has requirements for distances for the quilting. So start there. However, I suspect that this will be such a special quilt, that it will not be heavily used ... and may instead be more of an art quilt, to hang on a wall. If so, the distances may not be quilt so important. Although, even a hanging quilt can start to sag, if the quilting distance is too far apart.

This is similar to what I have to figure out when doing some of my embroidered quilts. Sometimes I outline stitch around specific items/features of each block. In your case, that might be to stitch around the Christmas tree, snowman, gingerbread etc. Not knowing the size of each of your blocks, that may be enough. Or choose a second item. If there is nothing else, you could still add something by making a star or a snowman with your stitches etc. When I am at a total loss, sometimes, I do a comic bubble or cloud sort of a bubble around the picture part.

When I am at a loss, and this is hard to explain ... sometimes I draw lines from corner to corner and stitch on them until I get to the picture and stop. Then do the same from the centre point of each of the sides to the other. Also, will do at intervals along the edges. What you get is a nice sort of exploding start outwards, or bringing your eyes inward to the featured work. Wish I knew how to explain it better! Maybe someone else can? And this is where I wish I could share a photo ... I gave up on that process a long time ago.

What I am interested in learning from you @Jaclyn080208 and I am sure many others are interested too ... is more about the process of how you had the kids do their blocks. I think it looks as though you had them paint directly on fabric. What fabric did you use? Paint types? Any special process to stabilize/protect? etc. etc. And I may be all off base here with my assumptions! Please? and Thank You!!

Merry Christmas!!!

I think what QuiltE is describing would also be miy idea. Think of a decorative picture frame mat, the old fashioned scrolling type. I'd probably go for a consistently placed large oval in the middle -- some of the pictures would be right to the top (like one of the gingerbread people)... maybe use the Trees for the overall shape, and then just a little swirl in each corner, that should hold enough for anything but heavy use/washing.

And thanks so much for sharing your project with us!

I start by doing what I know I should do. So stitch-in-the-ditch.

Then decide what's next.

What a great quilt. The kids did a great job and you did too. The quilting on the red is perfect but I do think I’d add some more stitching in the squares. You could outline the figures (gingerbread man, snowman, etc ) and stitch near the snowflake and others. I think it would hold it together better but as others have said, check the batting package for how far apart you need to sew. Maybe you don’t have to do anymore.

Thank you guys for all of your pointers! I appreciate all of them. I think I will practice a couple of the options and see what looks best. I also was playing around with the idea of using invisible thread… but that intimidates me 😆

The kids did such an amazing job on the squares. I actually just bought a bunch of fabric markers for them to use. I cut the squares and then lined the back with freezer paper to make it more stable for coloring/drawing. I made the freezer paper backing a little smaller so that they would hopefully not color the whole square and it would allow me room for the seam allowance. Then when they were done, I just removed it. Very easy!

I have quilted with vertical bars on a similar quilt. The symmetry enables your eye to look beyond the lines and see the pictures.

What talented kids!! Knowing that it was made with love by youngsters will boost ticket sales.! What a great idea!

When I made my girls their art project quilt, I simply quilted around each frame. They aren't washed, they're hanging on a wall.
If I were doing this, I'd use Spoonflower to print the swatches. They work well also. This quilt was made using iron on ink-jet printed pages scanned and Photoshopped.