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:

Elizabeth said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

Linda said...

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

kat | Taylor Made designs said...

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!)

Liz said...

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

Quiltin Jenny said...

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

sarah, rsm said...

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.

Amy Jo said...

What a great teacher gift!!! It's so cute!

Needled Mom said...

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

Suzy said...

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

Lina said...

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

ZONE F DG TEAM said...

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

Amanda Jean said...

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

Roxanne said...

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

Samantha said...

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.

Katherine said...

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)

Stephanie D said...

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

Melissa said...

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.

dutchcomfort said...

Great idea, great quilt!

the pesky bombolino said...

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!)

Tine said...

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

Anonymous said...

That is a sweetest teacher gift! So perfect.

Maria Stahl said...

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.

Vicki W said...

What a great teacher gift!

QuiltedSimple said...

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

* elizabeth * said...

That is such a thoughtful gift!

jacquie said...

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

lera said...

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?

kate said...

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

SewAmy said...

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

Blakely said...

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

Anina said...

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

Philigry said...

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

*~hj~* said...

I LOVE it! Great job :)

Shelli said...

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

Emily Cole said...

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

Pat said...

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).

Karen said...

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

Sherry said...

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.

Meredith said...

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 :)

Heidijayhawk said...

that is just plain awesome!!! what an amazing gift!

Anonymous said...

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

Kari said...

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

sulu-design said...

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.

Unknown said...

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

Rebekah said...

what a great and memorable teacher gift!

Elsie Montgomery said...

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...

house on hill road said...

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

Clair said...

Cool quilt.

Louise said...

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!!

Lisa said...

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

Anonymous said...

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

Marit Johanne said...

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

PAMTASTIC! said...

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

QuiltNut Creations said...

that is fabulous! wonderful gift for her teacher

Anonymous said...

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

SK said...

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