Pages

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

teacher quilt


My son had a wonderful first grade teacher this year. She loves her students and they love her. Heather and I both sons in her class and we wanted to do something special for their teacher. We worked with the art teacher to have the each of the children draw their own self portrait on a piece of fabric. We really wanted the quilt to be a surprise. The portraits turned out pretty cute. Each of the children's personalities shine through their artwork.

Heather sewed the quilt top together, we basted it, I quilted it and made the binding and then Heather hand stitched the binding on to the back of the quilt. I added a label. The quilt turned out cuter than I had expected. I was ready to chicken out and give up on the idea of the quilt, but Heather kept me on track. It was very well received. (yay!) And the kids kept it a secret. (again, yay!)

57 comments:

  1. Love it! You and your gal pal rock!! Lucky teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous7:27 PM

    dude that's really great. she'll never forget that class of kids!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is too cute! Love Z's with his red hair! Just too cute! I'm sure she will treasure it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. no way! you and your friend, simply rock. I bet this is the best gift she has + will ever receive. nice job.

    (Oh, I'm trying to figure out which one is your son!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm a teacher and I would LOVE to get something like that! What a thoughtful gift!

    ReplyDelete
  6. So cute! I'm sure it will be a treasured memento. What medium did the kids use for their portraits?

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a stupendous gift! As a teacher I would be IN LOVE with such a meaningful present! She will be delighted and you and Heather are wonderfully thoughtful.

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a great teacher gift!!! It's so cute!

    ReplyDelete
  9. What a fabulous gift. I am sure the teacher loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a cute idea! Not only is it a unique gift, but she will always remember each and every one of them. :o)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Wow! What a wonderful teacher gift - makes a change from a box of chocolates!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'm sure she'll treasure that for years to come.

    ReplyDelete
  13. quiltin' jenny,

    the kids used sharpies to draw their portraits on a medium weight fabric. they bled a bit on the fabric, but not too bad.

    aj

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a great idea! I'm sure she will treasure it.

    ReplyDelete
  15. That's such a beautiful quilt. I think my kindergarten class did something similar when the teacher had a baby. It's so personal, and I'm sure it will be treasured.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Your son's teacher is one lucky lady to receive such a beautiful and heartfelt gift from her students (and thanks to the talented quilting mom duo ;o)

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a cute idea! Now, she needs to get them all together when they are seniors in high school and compare pictures then!

    ReplyDelete
  18. WOW -- that's very nice. Nothing like a handmade gift -- like someone else mentioned, I bet this will be one of the best gifts this teacher has received.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Great idea, great quilt!

    ReplyDelete
  20. How wonderful- I bet the teacher was overwhelmed! (and what a lovely small class your son's in- there're 30 in my daughter's class!)

    ReplyDelete
  21. What a wonderful gift!! WOW! I´m sure that'll be a favourite at her house :-)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous5:30 AM

    That is a sweetest teacher gift! So perfect.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Sharpies, eh? This is so great!

    I wonder if it would be even more stable (no bleed) if the fabric were pretreated with Bubble Jet Set.

    thinkthinkthink

    Word Verification Word of the Day: vjcyhgsm. It's a Russian soup.

    ReplyDelete
  24. What a great teacher gift!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Great gift - I did that for my daughter's teachers one year (she had 2 that year) and all the other teachers are fighting over who gets Jessie in their class so I will make them one. It's a really great keepsake for the teachers.
    Kris

    ReplyDelete
  26. That is such a thoughtful gift!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Such a cute gift. She'll remember this class for a long time to come. Great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  28. That is beautiful. I'm so happy you shared it with us. The kids did an amazing job of drawing themselves and keeping the secret.

    What size is the quilt?

    ReplyDelete
  29. That's the most awesome teacher gift EVER! I'm sure she will treasure it always. Good for you!

    ReplyDelete
  30. that is awesome. The quilt and the idea and the children's work.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Wow! What a great idea! I'm sure the teacher loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I think that's the best teacher gift I've EVER seen! So cute!

    ReplyDelete
  33. such a sweet gift. i bet she will love it forever.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I LOVE it! Great job :)

    ReplyDelete
  35. adorable quilt, yet sad to see no diversity in your son's class... :(

    ReplyDelete
  36. That's so cool! What a great gift for his teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  37. WOW...when I was a teacher, I'd have been so touched with a gift like this and I know the tears would have been flowing. How wonderful that you and your friend made such a special, meaningful gift for this teacher. I can assure you she is very grateful to know how much you value her work with your children. GREAT job (by you with the quilt and by HER, obviously, with those kids).

    ReplyDelete
  38. I'm sure the teacher will absolutely love this cute quilt. What a nice thing to do. The kids must have enjoyed helping!

    ReplyDelete
  39. How neat is that! You & Heather & all the students did a wonderful job. I'm sure that lucky teacher will cherish it forever. Very cool.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Hi Amanda,
    I've never commented on here before, but I found your blog this winter when I was just starting to quilt, and I've been working on the original quilt-a-long for off and on for the past several months. I finally finished the top, and I just had to say "thank you" - I learned a lot and your tutorials are awesome! I just started a blog too...my husband thinks I'm a little crazy :)

    ReplyDelete
  41. that is just plain awesome!!! what an amazing gift!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Anonymous10:36 PM

    What a wonderful gift, I bet she was so happy! Something she will always treasure I'm sure.

    ReplyDelete
  43. We made one of these for grandma with all the grandkid's self portraits. Yours is great!

    ReplyDelete
  44. Oh, I'd be in tears if I ever received such a thoughtful gift from my students. This is truly one of the sweetest teacher gifts I've ever seen (and I've seen my share)! She must have loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Anonymous4:53 AM

    What a truly lovely gift! I am sure that the teacher will be thrilled by this very personal, creative and thoughtful gift!
    ~Emily

    ReplyDelete
  46. what a great and memorable teacher gift!

    ReplyDelete
  47. My first stop on your blog... and I'm so impressed. Love the teaching steps (so clear) but love this quilt and the thoughtfulness behind it. The teacher will love it and fondly remember you and each child for the rest of her days!

    I'm a teacher too...

    ReplyDelete
  48. that is one beautiful teacher's gift! it was so nice of you to make that.

    ReplyDelete
  49. i love these quilts - such a fantastic treasure for the teacher to keep. I have finally, finally, finally finished a quilt - will post later today!!

    ReplyDelete
  50. Looks great! I did something very similar for my then 2nd grader last year.

    ReplyDelete
  51. Anonymous4:01 AM

    What a great quilt and wonderful idea. I'm sure she will treasure it forever.

    ReplyDelete
  52. What a wonderful idea! I am sure that teacher was happy to get this!

    ReplyDelete
  53. I am positive the teacher adores this wonderful gift. Splendid!

    ReplyDelete
  54. that is fabulous! wonderful gift for her teacher

    ReplyDelete
  55. Anonymous11:06 AM

    what a darling idea and the quilt turned out smashingly!!!!
    i just barely found your quiltalong that you already finished, thanks for leaving it up because i'm going to copy it and i'm starting in with your star quiltalong too!!!! you are so nice to do this for us kindergartners!!!!
    brigette

    ReplyDelete
  56. I would like to use your idea to make a quilt for my son's 3rd grade teacher. He has struggled in school with friendships and his teacher this year has been so compassionate to both my son and my husband and I. I am a self taught sewer and am highly motivated to make a quilt similar to this. Can you provide some guidelines on the size of the muslin squares, the stirs and the smaller squares as well as the overall size so that I can get started? I suppose that I could muddle through with the math, sigh, but would be very, very grateful for any help on fabric measurements / quantities. I was thinking about using fabric pain in lieu of sharpies. Thanks, so, much. Stacie

    ReplyDelete