Grade 2 Baby Quilt

My youngest son started his school year off with 2 teachers.  His afternoon teacher was having a baby, and meant to work until May before having her baby hopefully late in May.  She ended up having to leave work early for bed rest and had her baby a bit early.  The children in class love this teacher and have missed her VERY much.  Having done a similar project with a grade 1 class a few years ago, I offered to help the class make a quilt as a gift for the teacher and her new daughter.

The children each colored their own block with fabric markers and then I put it all together!

TADA!  The finished product!  A VERY girly, very bright baby quilt! (names smudged for posting the pics here - not just messy coloring!)

A bit of a close up of the quilt

The children are in French Immersion so many of the greetings are in French, which is fun!

The back of the quilt - a nice polka-dotted fabric with a marbled binding.  You can see a bit of the machine quilting here as well - just stitch in the ditch along the blocks and sashes.

I can't wait to give it to the teacher.  She is going to be so surprised... she has no idea we're doing this! :)  I think she'll be pleased!  (If I remember correctly, the last teacher cried when she got her quilt like this!)

side note:  (the first paragraphs in the post are coming out with smaller print and I can't quite figure out why.  It shows FINE in the html of the post editor here in blogger and when I try to change it, it doesn't change anything.  I apologize for the small print.)

Grade 3 Art Quilt Project

My son attends an integrated arts school, so art of all kinds is used in nearly every aspect of learning.  I offered to do a class project with his Grade 3 class this year for their Art block in May and June.

Stage 1 was learning about quilts, selecting a theme and choosing blocks to make. 


Stage 2 was making the blocks (piecing/sewing and fabric coloring). 


Stage 3 was cutting the sashing and setting squares. 


Stage 4 was piecing the quilt. 


Stage 5 was quilting.

The children were active in every stage but Stage 5 (partly because of time constraints).

It's all finished now, and it's GORGEOUS! They are so proud!

I'm going to publish a series of posts describing each stage of the project, because I learned a lot doing this, and will likely want to do something like this again in the future.


It was LOTS of fun (and lots of work) but the kiddos LOVED doing it and were a great group to work with!  What great memories!  The finished quilt will hang in a common area of the school.

Quick Little Gift Bag

Yesterday we got a present for my Daughter's friend for her birthday.  She picked 2 great big velvet coloring posters.  In fact, she got her this exact same one shown at YouColorPosters (cute little puppy dogs) and one that has a big heart with the word LOVE on it.

We got home and realized that we didn't have any gift bags big enough for the big posters.... And all the wrapping materials are up in the attic.  (I don't go into the attic unless I absolutely have to, and I can't find anything up there when I do go...)  And no time to go back to the store.  HMPH.

So, being crafty, I measured out some fabric I had from some other project and put together a cute little gift bag.

There it is, leaned up on my couch to snap a quick pic.

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The Nativity

My latest quilting project is completed.  I donated it to our church youth group - they are doing a Silent Auction for a fundraiser to raise money for the team to go on a missions trip to Mexico.

Presenting:

The Nativity

This is a small wall-hanging, about 15" x 18".  It was pieced using the paper-piecing technique.  A nice little project, with quite a few teeny pieces to put together!  (Pattern by Sweet Peas, Inc.)

This is the back of the hanging - a fun tie-dye fabric I had from something else I had taken apart.  You can see on the back better than the front (in the photos anyway) that there are stars quilted in the stipple stitch in the 'sky'.

It was a fun project to do, and I have another one about 1/3 completed.  I hope to post it on my Artfire or Etsy shop when I get it done.

I've donated a few quilts to auctions now, and I'm quite happy to contribute in this way.  I hope the bidders are pleased as well!

Pattern: Silent Night (#630), by Sweet Peas, Inc.  Redmond, WA, USA