Teacher Appreciation Gift: Kids Art Quilt

I can't believe it is that time of the year again - my two smallest bunnies have finished their year at nursery school and it was time to think about teacher appreciation gifts again. (On a small Mummy note I am struggling with how fast these little people grow up and how I long to have more - oh dear husband of mine are you reading this???)

I have wanted to make a little art gallery quilt for a longtime now and this was the perfect opportunity. (I find giving gifts is a great way to try out a new idea!) Each child's parent in the class gave me their favorite piece of art work - we have had some really great/fun art work come home this year.

I scanned each piece of art work and enlarged them so they were all of a similar size. I printed the artwork onto a yard of fabric using Spoonflower. I added a simple 'frame' to each picture as well as the artists name.

  
I wanted the background fabric to look like wallpaper as though the art was hanging on a wall. I tried very hard to get the seam to match perfectly so you can't see the seam. Can you see the seam? (and yes I was quietly proud of this moment in my sewing history.)

Part of what I love most about these gifts is the labels. I took the class photo and made it into a label. I use printable paper and our home printer to make the labels - you heat set the ink with an iron (it does fade a little with washing) but it does the job well. 

I did some very simple quilting on the quilt. Double loop the loops on the background and a little bit of quilting on the art.  You can see the detail of the quilting much clearer from the back.

Another year has dashed past. Thank you to all the teachers out there that bring joy, laughter and learning to our little bunnies on a daily basis.

 

If you remember for the past two years we have made hand print pillows that were mighty cute too - you can check those out here Teacher Appreciation Hand Print Pillows (2014) & Teacher Appreciation Hand Print Pillows (2013).

I have another teacher appreciation quilt in the works - its a really great quilt so stay tuned I will be able to share that with you soon too. 

Memory Quilt: Toddler Dresses

Just to recap these toddler dresses were given to me to make a pillow. I couldn't bear to just cut chunks out of the dresses without using up all the material given to me - so I suggested a quilt as well.

I have had this idea of having an actual dress sewn to the middle of a quilt - as if in a picture frame for a while now. This quilt is for a 4 year old girl - the youngest of all the sisters who have worn these dresses.

The back of the blue dress was so pretty with its buttons and wide bow -  I knew that was the dress to use.

I used some petals left over from the memory pillow to create her flowers. The ribbon on her flowers and in her hair are from the dresses. Her shoes are made from the grey wool dress.

I used the remaining pieces from the dresses to create a 'picture frame' around the dress.

 

Mini orange peel is a little bit of a favorite pattern for me at the moment.  You can take orange peel in some many different directions - it is a fabulous pattern to play with.

In the border there are lots of cute little details like lace, the stitched boats on the pink striped dress and the pleats and stitched flowers in the blue satin dress front.

Here is some up close detail of the quilting around the girl. 

Therapeutic Mctavishing for the sky.

She is standing on the shore looking out. There are a lot of pebbles and shells beneath her feet.

Some of the pebbles are very small. 

Hair has become a small obsession of mine to take further next year. The braid is actually another piece of brown fabric appliqued onto the hair shape and then I quilted on top of the layers in a lighter thread color to highlight the shape of the hairstyle. It turned out really well.

 
 It sits wonderfully on a queen bed.

I'm excited for the little girl to receive it. I'm planning it will get to her in time for Christmas. I really hope they enjoy using it.

 

Memory Quilt: Toddler Dresses

How lucky am I to be working with these pretty dresses!!

Such cute details on each one. 

Urm - someone stole my camera .... (Bunny #3)

How to include all these lovely details in the project!

I have already begun to start the process of deconstructing these dresses and my eldest said "Why are you cutting these up - they are too pretty to be cut up." And I have to sort of agree with her - yet I intend to do them justice!

The ticket is for cushion for the mom's bed & a quilt for the youngest girl of 4. I have many many ideas. Stay tuned to see what becomes of these.

Flora & Fauna

"Fauna is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is Flora." - so Wikipedia tells me.
This is a quilt I have been thinking about making for quite some time - not so much the flora & fauna aspect of it but the big colorful initial in the center and then detailed flowing quilting all around on the white fabric. 

A little girl named Flora just turned 5 so it seemed like a perfect opportunity to create this quilt and go wild with feathers and flower-ish shapes. 

The letter F is made from sewing scraps from my scrap bins into strips. I ironed the strips to a light iron-on fusible & cut the letter 'f' out. Then ironed it to the middle of the fabric securing with a small zigzag stitch.

I played with swirls, pebbles, feathers and petals.  The quilting was 100% improvised as I went with no marking.

Feather trees bloom on this quilt. 

In fact all sorts of wonderful flowery plants bloom on this quilt.

I didn't forget the odd vegetable - peas in the pod are really easy and fun to quilt.

I realize now that I forgot to photograph the strawberry patch that lives in this quilt. Can you spot it? There are a few strawberries peeking in on the top left hand corner of the photo below.  

There are also some fauna for little Flora to hunt out. In amongst the feathers and flowers live a caterpillar, a snail, a butterfly, a dragonfly, a lost peacock feather and a birds next with 3 eggs waiting to hatch (I need to work on my nests a little before I'm happy to share photos of them - I'm hoping a 5 year old will be more forgiving!)

I love quilting like this - free & easy - quilting what ever comes to mind next - experimenting with combinations of designs and shapes. Nothing could make me happier. (Although possibly someone feeding me diet coke & chocolate while I quilt .......) 

 

There is also a rather cute label on the back of this quilt. 

 

What your parents teach you ....

Like every child there times that I found my parents embarrassing. I'm a bit mortified that already by 5 years old I'm being spoken back to and being told to stop doing what I'm doing because I'm clearly being just too silly .... (Moi? Jamais!)

After having had my own children I developed a new sense of appreciation for everything my parents have ever done for us - granted they still do stuff I don't quite understand - but I get that now because I am constantly doing things that my kids don't understand at all! It occurred to me the other day that my love of recycling fabrics and things does come from a lifetime of my parents recycling and remodeling things into beautiful toys and things for us too. They taught me to look beyond a paper roll or potato and turn it into something else.

Here are some examples.

This is a quilt that my mother made for me when I was very young. It is a twin quilt made out of recycled clothes. I think a lot of them are her old clothes - but the light blue gingham border & name is made from our old summer school uniforms from when we were very young.

I have to be honest Mummy - I'm not sure what the rat and the worm are about ;-) ...

.... I used this quilt on my bed until I was in the mid twenties and finally indulged myself to a double bed!

You can see how worn the fabrics are - and it really needs some repair. 

My mother was surprised to learn I still had this quilt. But it is something that is now very carefully wrapped up and looked after. I hope to mend/restore it in someway in the future.

And here is my sisters quilt - equally as loved, used & cherished.

My father doesn't sew (although he has done some mean splicing of rope in his time) but he does make the most amazing things out of old wooden wine cases.

I have an art box that he made me and that came to school & then onto art school with me. It is very heavy - but I lovingly lugged it around with all my paint & paint brushes in it.

And he made the most beautiful advent calendar for the kids. When we were little he made versions of this out of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other - every day a new box with a new little goodie in it. It was fabulous and we loved it - but now I realize how hard it is to find 24 different little things that fit into small spaces every year for the advent calendar! How much you don't think about when you are little. Do much taken for granted. I want to be little again!!

And most recently he made the most beautiful 'box of secrets' for Bunny #1. We haven't actually given it to her yet as we really want her to fully appreciate how lovely it is (and have some hope of cracking the crazy homemade secret mechanism he invented for opening the box.) It is really incredible and he doesn't quite give himself enough credit for the amazing things he makes.

So when families thank me for the quilts I make them from their loved ones clothes - I should remember to thank my parents too - because there is rather a lot that they taught me about the potential of and beauty in recycled things - and they should be credited (just a little bit) for the work I do.

But how I dearly wish I had a picture to share of the giant rocking sheep they made us when we were little ... that was an epic homemade toy!!!