Double Duty Teacher Quilt

Baby Arthur learning to crawl on the 'Teacher Quilt'

Five years ago, when my youngest son Peter was leaving primary school, his teacher had her first baby. So, of course I had to make her a quilt. Today Mrs Wheatley messaged me to say that she was using the quilt for her second child Arthur. There is something so sweet about babies and quilts! I'm so glad that she gets to use it twice.

I've included the photos added on to the original blog post below.

When my youngest son, Peter's teacher was going to have a baby, I had to make a quilt. The end of term is a useful deadline for this kind of thing. So when the Tuesday of the last week of term came round, I told my friend Allie that I had to finish a quilt I hadn't started yet. I decided to use only what was on hand and gave Peter's teacher the option of brights or pastels. She went for brights.

People who don't quilt think of quilts usually as lots of little squares of fabric sewn together and sometimes it's just best to give people what they want. Tuesday night I sorted through my stash and cut the squares. Wednesday I pieced the top.

Thursday I pieced the back, and the wadding. Yes, I basted leftover pieces of wadding together and it worked just fine in the end. Then I went off task and made a quick table runner for the Headmaster who was also leaving. I called it ' The Writing on the Wall'.

That left Friday for the quilting which was a joy and easily finished in time for a 2:00 leavers service.

I used an overall hearts and loops pattern quilted with a variegated Rainbows thread from Superior Threads #803 Northern Lights and a pre-wound bottom line in the bobbin.

I did keep the quilt over the weekend to put on the binding, which BTW, takes me longer than the quilting!! But it gives me the chance to enjoy the quilt while I'm hand sewing the binding, to glory in the fabric and the texture and be happy to have made something beautiful and useful!

I liked the back almost as much as the front on this one.

Pete's teacher, Mrs Wheatley popped round to collect the quilt yesterday! She was delighted and I'm feeling happy ... and just a bit bereft.

Teacher Quilts

With yet another end of the school year approaching, I thought it would be fun to do a post on teacher quilts. I've made lots of teacher quilts over the years. The end of a school year is a right of passage and the bond between child and teacher is often close enough to warrant a special thank you.

Ironically, this quilt marked the year that my husband and I decided to pull our kids out of school and try home schooling. At the time our eldest was 7 and our twins were 5. I'd been a primary school teacher in my other life and it seemed that all my friends back home were beginning to homeschool. My husband and I were inspired by a book about the English educational philosopher Charlotte Mason. The book was For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay. It's one of the books that inspired the American homeschooling movement.

Anyway, I wanted a graceful leaving and I wanted the teachers to know that I did appreciate them. So I made this quilt as a goodbye. The black centre with the 'wood' border was meant to look like an old Victorian slate board. We used fabric paint like chalk to write the message. Most English schools have gingham summer uniforms often in blue. This is the reason behind the blue and white checkerboard border. The hearts and apples in the corners just seemed fitting.

We did spend the next 5 years homeschooling. It was rewarding and challenging. I'm glad we did it. Katie has graduated and Emily and Ben are now in Sixth Form at local High Schools but they do have happy memories from those homeschool years.