Darlene's Retirement Quilt

In my other life, I am a Kindergarten teacher at a really nice elementary school.  It is a great school with a wonderful group of teachers.  Part of the reason it is such a nice school to teach at is our principal, Darlene.  She has been at our school for fourteen years and this month, she is retiring to the beach in Florida.  We are all sad to see her go.

My friend, Lesli, came to me and asked if I would help make a quilt for Darlene.

Of course I said yes.  

Lesli came over a few times and together we got it made.  The staff all signed the back.  We had to chase some of them down but most of the teachers signed it.  I added a few fish and a few crabs to spice it up a bit.   The words were from a book (She) and we printed them onto iron on printer paper (which I do not recommend!  It is not easy to work with and it cannot be ironed.  Not fun.). 

I quilted it with some waves and Lesli put the scrappy binding on.  We gave it to her at her retirement party Thursday night (which was fun!).  Darlene said she has a place in mind at her new beach house.

I used the two beige critters for our quilt label.

Best of luck to you in Florida!!!


Linking up to:

Flip and sew table runner

I took a workshop with Jacquie  Gering (Tallgrass Prairie Studio) through my guild, the Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild.  Jacquie had a great trunk show and we were all in awe!  She has only been quilting for about five years but she has quite a wonderful body of work.  The quilts are fresh and colorful and a little edgy. 

 Jacquie was wonderful to work with.  The workshop was a lot of fun-everyone did different projects under her direction and a good time was had by all.  

I made mine in all black and whites with pops of red.  My daughter had requested a new table runner and this was my chance to get something done!  I got most of the squares pieced, laid out, and sewn into rows.  I finished setting the top and began quilting it at another guild sewing day. 

I quilted it with black thread in a loopy meander.  It is a little bit hard to see when you match the thread to the quilt so closely.  I guess that way no one can see my mistakes.   I got the binding on the day after Christmas.  I had some squares left over so I made her some matching coasters.

back- text fabric from Joann's with a few leftover squares pieced in.

Coasters!

I'm linking up to:

A Toasty Quilt

 I made a Christmas present for my wonderful mother-in-law, Ann.  She was without power for a few weeks last year during and after Hurricane Sandy.  I keep picturing her freezing in her own home and I knew I needed to make her a quilt!  So here it is.

I really enjoyed quilting this.  I went around with each layer of color and tried different stitches. Some swirls, some straight stitching, I even did some feathers!

The back is a rainbow with more gray.  I am still not done with the gray, I'm afraid.  It is my favorite neutral.  I just keep collecting more, too.  It's an illness.

So now Ann has her quilt to keep her warm and cozy, just in case another hurricane hits New Jersey!