#1 Teacher

I am sitting here drinking a toast (coffee) to my last day of freedom.  Actually, the kids don't get out til Tuesday, but Tuesday doesn't count because they are released at 10 a.m.

And Monday doesn't count, because it is the day of the Talent (Lip-Sync) Show, so I will be going over to the school to watch my third grade darling perform in a hastily-rehearsed dance with her little friend.

As I was organizing my photos last week, I came across a quilt that I was working on last year exactly this week.  In fact, I think it was gifted a year ago today.  We had a wonderful teacher who was retiring after a zillion years of teaching fourth grade.  I was lucky that two of my kids had her for fourth grade.  

We'll call her "Miss A"  She is truly special!  

I think I've mentioned that I coordinate the Art Volunteers (formerly known as "Art Moms") in our little elementary school, and I go into my kids' classrooms several times each year to do art projects.  So I've gotten to know Miss A pretty well, and when I asked if I could kick her out of the classroom for an hour to do a special art project with the kids, she graciously complied.  

I cut 9" cotton squares and ironed freezer paper to the back to stabilize them.  I gave the kids both Pentel Fabric Fun Pastel Dye Sticks for the thick lines and filling in, and many colors of Sharpies for sharper, thin lines.  They could use either, or both.

I arranged the squares in a nice composition, distributing the rainbows and sunrises/sunsets evenly.  I was pretty lucky with the 20 kid class size, allowing for a nice 4 x 5 grid.  I sashed each square with a different fabric, using bright colors (Miss A's favorite color is "every color") but going deeper with some colors in a effort to avoid preschool-clown-barf-rainbow.  After the sashing I trimmed the squares to 12", so the finished quilt was 48" x  60".

I quilted it with overall squiggle, with clear thread, sparingly, in an effort to hold it together but not detract from any of the special artwork.

It turned out even better than I had hoped.  I got really attached to it during the process.  The kids had done a fantastic job with the squares and they were so cute and special.  Some of my favorites below (one says "be unique" and one says "Miss A rises the sun".  Awwwww:

We gave it to her on one of the last days of school.  Not a dry eye in my head.   It was very special and I was so glad to be in the position of having a child in her last class so I could use my quilting powers for something really good.