My daughter attended her last day of kindergarten a couple of weeks ago. It was a sad day. Most kids are probably so excited for summer to start that they aren't that sad when the school year is over. But my daughter loved her teacher so much, she never wanted it to end. I am usually not super sentimental, but even I teared up a bit as we got in the car to go home on the last day. And 2 weeks later she is still talking about her teacher...making up songs about her and writing her notes. It is amazing the difference a great teacher can make in the life of a child! And I couldn't think of a better way to let a fabulous teacher know how much she is appreciated than by making her a quilt!
The idea for this quilt actually came from a picture of a rug I saw on a facebook swap group! It was black and white, but I thought the design would look cool as a scrappy quilt. I don't know why but I have been loving this type of quilt lately. It is a lot like this quilt I made last year. Since I have a slightly one track mind, I'm plotting a couple more that are similar. :)
Since this quilt was for my daughter's teacher, I let her help as much as she would. I consulted her on the design ("Looks great, mom"--that is almost always what she says when I ask her what she thinks of a quilt) and then once I had most of it laid out on the design wall, she came in and said, "I really want some hearts on it!" Well luckily there were already hearts! I like that they are kind of broken so they are not super obvious! :)
The fabrics for this quilt are Lottie Da and True Colors by Heather Bailey for Free Spirit. I love all of it! I love the colors and the prints are just fun. Plus, I think busy, multicolored but coordinating fabrics make great scrappy quilts, so this line was perfect. And I found a sweet deal on a fat eighth pack of Lottie Da so fabric selection was a no-brainer. I threw in the True Colors because they matched and because the more fabrics you have, the easier it is to make it random! The solid is Bella Apron strings Ivory. It looks a little yellow on it's own but was the perfect color to match!
For the quilting I chose a fast feathery swirly pantograph. It is called "Oh my Feathers" by Lisa Calle. I think it was perfect for this quilt!
I ended up piecing the back...I don't usually love pieced backings that much, but I wanted it to match and was trying to clearance shop for the fabric, and let my daughter pick it out, etc. etc. so I just had to take what I could get! I didn't have enough of each fabric to do what I had originally planned so I decided to put a heart on the back to fill some space! My daughter helped pick and arrange the fabrics for the heart!
I photographed this quilt at my father-in-law's swanky new condo. I was excited when he moved in because the place is a quilt picture goldmine! The pool area had this great iron gazebo--so fun!
I bound the quilt in green since green is the teacher's favorite color. And I don't usually label the quilts I make, but this one had to have one! I made the design in Inkscape, printed it out and traced it with a fine-point sharpie marker onto fabric backed with fusible web. I had my daughter write her name on a piece of paper and then traced it onto the label. Sharpie markers bleed super easy, so I didn't want to risk ruining it with big black bleed marks! The little hearts are appliqued on and I stitched the whole thing down by hand once it was ironed on. Kinda fun.
My daughter took the quilt with her to school on the last day. Her teacher loved it and said she would keep it forever! Good! We will love her forever!! :)
It is such a lovely quilt. LOVE it to pieces. Great block with great fabric choice. Congrats on an AWESOME finish.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading about all your decisions, and have two questions.
ReplyDelete1: What kind of machine did you do the actual quilting with?
2: How did you keep the sharpies from bleeding on the label?
Thanks! :) I quilted it with an HQ16 and to keep the sharpies from bleeding, I used a new fine point sharpie and used very light, quick strokes.
DeleteOh, great design! I love the fabric colors and love too how the hearts appear broken. Your quilts are always so gorgeous and inspiring and best of all, original!
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful. You will always remember each other : )
ReplyDeleteLove this! I'm amazed at your pattern creating skills!
ReplyDeleteYou had me in tears! What a wonderful way to do for a beloved kindergarten teacher. The quilt is oh so beautiful! Mrs. Dallimore is blessed!
ReplyDeleteLucky teacher and lucky little girl to have such a great teacher. Another great quilt created! I remember my first grade teacher like that :-)
ReplyDeleteThat is so sweet. My daughter is going into kindergarten and I'm hoping she feels this way about her teacher. I know she is way more into what adults think about her than her peers. So nice of you to make this quilt for her. It's beautiful. I love the colors you chose and I think it's so cool that the hearts are there but not hit you in the face obvious.
ReplyDeleteHow wonderful that your daughter had such a great teacher. And wonderful that you made such a pretty quilt for her. Love the fabrics. I love the broken hearts, it doesn't scream hearts but they are definetly there. Great quilting as well.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest was in a comunity singing group when she was in middle school and their teacher/leader was so amazing with the girls I wanted to give her something. I had all the girls (sneek)sign a blank square then I used lots of music related fabrics and made her a throw/wall hanging. She cried when we gave it to her. She said she had never gotten anything like it. Made me glad that we "thanked" her for her hard work.
I so understand why you made this quilt for her teacher. I made teacher quilts too the past 2 years, 4 last year and 3 the year before. Teachers certainly deserve to know just how much they are cherished.
ReplyDeleteGorgeous, gorgeous! The label is absolutely adorable. Great job!
ReplyDeleteUtterly charming! I love everything about this quilt, and I especially love the label. I'm curious: why do you not put labels one your quilts?
ReplyDeleteThe quilt is beautiful, but especially love your label!
ReplyDeleteIm looking at purchasing a HQ16
ReplyDeleteat least I think thats what I want. Isnt it a sit down, mid arm machine? Do you like yours & why?
Do u have a pattern for this? I need!!!!
ReplyDelete