How did she like the quilt?

I was able to get a few pictures of my son's teacher opening her quilt.
She was surprised to say the least!

I guess I caught her in the middle of saying something!

Ian took this picture of Mrs. T and me holding the quilt. Every time I saw Mrs. T that day she would give me a hug and tell me thank you - again! But how can I tell her thank you for all that she has done for Ian?

Such a great way to start the summer!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Amy, over at Amy's Creative Side, has been hosting the Blogger's Quilt Festival for the past week. If you are in need of some inspiration, head on over there right away.

My entry for the festival is also my latest finish. I made this quilt for my son's third grade teacher. She is one of those teachers that changes your child's life. Before her, Ian tolerated school. Now he LOVES school. She has truly inspired him to want to learn!

I am a substitute teacher at my children's school and subbed for Mrs. T several times this year. One day I took all the house pieces into class with me and each child got to design their own house. We then put their house into a baggie and labeled it with their name. Even the intern got to make a house! Then I brought everything home and assembled it. I love how each house shows a little bit of the child's personality. (All the pictures are clickable.)

This is a close-up of my son's block. As you can see, I labeled each house with the child's name.


I presented the quilt to her this past week at our end of the year party. She was speechless! She said she is going to hang it in her classroom next year. This group of 3rd graders is looping up with her to 4th grade. We are all very thankful and excited to have such a wonderful teacher for another year!

Thanks to Bonnie Hunter for such a wonderful pattern!

And thanks to you for checking out my blog! I hope you will check back often!

Summer is almost here!

Summer is almost here! Two more days of school and several end of the year/season parties and then two and a half months of freedom. Maddie's 5th grade graduation was on Friday. Grams and Papa came down for the ceremony. Maddie earned a "President's Award for Academic Excellence" for straight A's. My smart girl. Next year is on to middle school. It will seem strange not having the kids at the same school - that won't happen again until Maddie is a senior in high school.

On to quilts - here is my (our) latest finish. Over a year ago, I talked Mom into making these blocks with me. We were each making two blocks and then we would exchange them and each end up with a lap size quilt. We decided about six months ago to combine them into one quilt. I finally got the blocks together and quilted. Me and mom were scheduled to give a short talk/show and tell at my local quilt guild in May- so I was rushing to get it done. I'll share pictures from our talk later. We both love how it turned out.




When Mom and Dad got here Wednesday night, Mom handed me this heavy trash bag and told me happy birthday. When I got inside, I found my grandmother's antique Singer sewing machine. This is the machine my mom learned to sew on. It was originally a treadle machine but was at some point electrified. I looked up the serial number - are you ready?? 1892! Wow! The bottom case need to be replaced and I haven't checked to see if it even runs - but I am thrilled to own it!


And the week's other big score - a Singer sewing table and machine. The machine runs and dates to 1930. What I really wanted was the table. It is in excellent condition. $60 at the thrift store!! I felt like Nina, finding one of her excellent finds! Now to figure out where to put it!


This weekend I need to put the binding on a lap quilt for Ian's teacher. The party is on Monday. I will post a picture as soon as it is done.

Here's to more quilting time this summer!

May??? How???

How did it get to be May already? In 9 more days, my baby boy will be 9. I have decided to stop feeding him in hopes that he will stop growing!

This quilt (above) started life as a baby quilt, but turned out to be too big. So I tried a second time and ended up with these quilts. So this one has been hanging out for about six months with no purpose. Every spring the kids' school has a spring festival and silent auction. I decided to quilt this up and donate it to the auction. The school's art teacher ended up winning it! She was excited and I was happy someone I knew won it. Next year, if I do another , I will do a Auburn themed quilt - simply because Auburn stuff always does well.

This week I am hoping to quilt a top that I have made for Ian's teacher. Only three more weeks of school so I had better get moving! It is another one of Bonnie's wonky house quilts, like I made for Maddie's first grade teacher. I cut the pieces out and then let each child pick out their own houses. I labeled each house with the child's name. The top is ready to go and the back is ready to be pieced. I will show it when it is finished.

I also need to work on the top me and mom are making together, shown below. We each made half of the blocks. I need to add a couple of borders (one skinny and one wider) and then get it quilted. It needs to be done by the 20th when Mom and I are supposed to give a presentation at our local quilt guild. The talk is supposed to be about quilts we have made together - but we are starting to realize that we haven't really made that many together. I have quilted a lot of her quilts for her and we have made several quilts from the same pattern (sometimes at the same time). We have also done a couple of quilts where I have pieced the top and she has hand quilted it for me. It is going to end up being more of just a show and tell.


Nina has inspired me - again! Go check out the quilt she is working on! I drew it up in EQ6 and plan on working on it as a leader/ender project. It should be a great stash buster. I am hoping to make it in colors similar to Nina's.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!