Teacher Quilts

Every year for the past 3 years, I have make small quilts for my kids teachers. Which wasn't really that big of an undertaking, to make 2 wall quilts during the course of 9 months. With the addition of 2 new children 2 years ago, my number of quilts instantly went up, so last year I made 3 (of course I didn't take pictures of those). Well now there are 4 teachers and I am quilting full time. I lost track of time just a bit this year. :/ I couldn't decide what I wanted to make. One day on a trip to Asheville Cotton Company I decided to buy some pre-cut bundles in 4 different color schemes that I thought spoke to the personalities of all 4 teachers. Then they sat on my cutting table for I don't know how long but at least 6 weeks while I tried to figure out what to do with them. Half yard cuts seemed like a good idea at the time, I mean usually when I buy fabric I end up getting half yards. But I couldn't for the life of me find patterns that I wanted so I decided to just make the same quilt 4 times over with the different fabrics. I still couldn't find ONE pattern that I wanted to make 4 times. On a return trip to ACC, I was talking with 2 of the amazing women that work there and asked if they had a pattern that would work well. My thinking was, if you sell 1/2 yard bales, it would be a good idea to have a pattern that worked well with them. So I ended up chatting with the magnificent Michele (Michie) and she said that she was working on designing a pattern that worked off of those bundles. Then she says "would you test it for me?' I said well "heck yeah I would! 4 times!" So we did a little happy dance, she emailed me the pattern and I set to work...

The first one I finished as for my daughter's 3rd Grade teacher, Margaret Teirney. She was my son's teacher last year and I loved her so much, I went to the principal and asked for her again. On the first day of school when I took Mo into her classroom, the first thing she said was "oh! does this mean I get a quilt this year too?" :D It was great. She has a style that is alittle more on the earthy, funky side of things. I thought the hippie, shroom fabric suited her nicely. I quilted it with a motif called Baroque Swirls in a sort of celery green thread.

Once I finished that one, I pieced the others in a row all at the same time and make 3 quilts at once...With 3 different color schemes, that took a little more brainpower once it came to putting the blocks together.

The next one was for my 4th Grade son's teacher, Rhonda Callison. She is one of those people who has a permanent smile on her face and a beautiful smile it is. She always had great things to say about Jay and he truly adored her. With that in mind, I got very cheerful fabric for her, bright colors with butterflies and paisley as the theme. I quilted this one with gold colored thread, the pattern in the center is butterflys and tulips. The border is paisley.

Then it was on to my other 4th Grader son's teacher, Angela High. She is a very structured and efficient teacher which was perfect for D. She not only could relate to his special needs but she knew how to make him thrive in spite of them. She need something that reflected her teaching style. The kids had done this science segment this year about the phases of the moon. I used the fabrics the New Frontier line to make her quilt. I quilted it with a Celestial pattern and dark grey thread.

Last but not least was my daughter's Kindergarten teacher, Susan Adams. I didn't really get to know her as much as the other teachers this year, but the biggest thing I remember is her laugh. She has one of those infectious laughs that just makes you feel good. She also struck me as someone who would appreciate things that were just alittle on the silly side, plus she is surrounded by 5 year olds all day. So I used the Giddyup fabric by Quilted Treasures. It is very bright and has cute little cowbabies on it. I made the border a little bigger you could really see the print in the fabric on this one. Then it was quilted with orange thread and a pattern that reminded me of sheriff's badges.