School auction projects

I'm completely, totally immersed with finishing the single girls and with Downton Abbey. Seriously, it's all I can do - sew or watch. While I'm head down working on quilts (or head up, eyes on the TV), I thought I'd tell you a little bit about the auction projects that I worked on for the past few months.

Our school auction takes place every other year. This is the second time that I have been in charge of the kids' art projects. We have 9 grades (K - 8th) with two classes per grade. I come up with an idea for each grade and then each of the classes makes a variation of that idea. I get a lot of help from the art teacher - she takes on a few of the projects herself and uses class time with the kids to work on their art. Certain grades need more time to work on their projects. If that is the case, I go in and work with them or find parent volunteers who can help out.  I also asked for volunteers to help with prepping and finishing some of the projects.  Things like painting base coats on furniture, grouting mosaic tile, quilting and other sewing were done outside of school by myself and a few other parents.  I feel really lucky that our school has many talented, willing people that helped me this year. I couldn't have done it alone.

The hardest part of this whole process is coming up with good, doable projects that people will want to buy and have in their home that don't cost too much to make. This year our projects included play tents (K), advent calendars (1st grade), painted/collaged canvases (2nd grade), painted desks (3rd grade), batik quilts (4th grade), painted rain barrels (5th grade), mosaic bird bath/planters (6th grade), painted outdoor furniture (7th grade) and black and white photography (8th grade). I plan on going into detail on the quilts tomorrow. If there are other projects that you want to know more about, let me know in the comments and I will do my best to cover it all.