Bloggers' Quilt Festival: Handprint Quilt

Lately, nearly all of my crafty time has been focused on completing an end-of-year gift for my son's preschool teacher. As it was a surprise, I had to stay quiet about the project here until it was presented to her at preschool graduation. As graduation was yesterday, I'm excited that I can finally share this project here. And I'm just in time for Spring 2012 Bloggers' Quilt Festival! Woo!

A couple months ago, the families of the "graduating" preschoolers (those who are moving on to Kindergarten next year) started discussing various options for an end-of-year gift for our fabulous teacher. Someone suggested a quilt. I ran with that idea and came up with a simple design using Electric Quilt and volunteered to make it.

After sharing the design, everyone agreed that it would be the perfect gift.

We started by having each graduating kiddo made a block that included his/her handprint and name. Since there were only 17 graduates, I used the remaining three blocks to feature the school's name, the class info, and the school mascot (a cute little turtle which I hand appliqued and embroidered).

Then I put together kits with instructions and asked for volunteers to help me sew the borders on the blocks. Once I got those back, I stitched the top together. As our school mascot is a turtle, the turtle print (from Anne Kelle's Urban Zoologie collection for Robert Kaufman) seemed perfect for the sashing and borders. Once the top and back were complete, I hosted a basting party. I invited everyone to come on over and baste (assuring them that no sewing experience was required). It was a Monday night, so there wasn't a huge response (or maybe they found out that it involved crawling around on the floor with safety pins?), but even with just four of us, we made quick work of the basting. And I discovered that basting is a LOT more fun with friends!

Next came the quilting. I just did an all-over stipple over it with some outline stitching around the handprints and applique. You can see the quilting really well (maybe too well!) from the back as the off-white thread shows up very strongly against the dark green print (so maybe that wasn't the best plan there-- but I was trying to use what I had).

Finally, I stitched the binding and added the label. It finished at about 54" x 68"-- a nice lap-sized quilt that she can snuggle with on the couch (but I added a hanging sleeve too, on the off chance she'd rather have it on the wall).

I found the poem online (author unknown?) and tweaked it a tiny bit to make it work.

Yesterday, after the graduation ceremony, we presented the quilt to Teacher Dorothy. There were tears involved (hers and quite a few others, I think). She loved it. Yay!

This was such a fun and meaningful project for me. I loved making something so personal for a woman who has been such an important part of my son's life in our four years of preschool. I am also so glad I took the time to try and involve the other families in the process. It was tricky and there was some stress involved as there was not a lot of time to work with (from start to finish, we had about a month to get it done). But it was worth it. I really enjoyed working with the other moms (and grandmas!) and having the opportunity to get to know them better as we worked on this project. And I know some of them really appreciated being able to contribute to the process. It just made the project that much more special.

Baby shower!

Last night I attended a quadruple baby shower for four pregnant mamas in Big Bear's preschool class. Our hostess provided a big basket for each expectant mama and the guests filled them up with gifts. I decided to make little tag blankets for the new babies:


Super quick and easy, and nice little stashbusters.


They gave me a fun excuse to go out and buy lots of ribbons!


Each blanket is about 18" square-- just right for a little hands.


Three of the mamas are expecting boys, and one is a surprise (fun!).


It was a lot of fun getting to watch the mamas unwrap the blankets and see their big smiles. Hopefully, the babies will like their new blankets too!

Thankful

I hope all of you had a wonderful weekend! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and we had a wonderful celebration here at home. Family and good friends joined us for a happy feast. Of course once again I was so engrossed in food preparation (and then eating), that I failed to take any pictures. Sigh... But-- I can show you my gravy boat!


A couple of weeks ago, I went to a Mom's Night Out with some preschool mamas at a paint-your-own ceramics place. And for the first time ever, I actually had a gravy boat in which to put my gravy. Huzzah!!! Of course I managed to fumble and chip it just a few minutes before filling it with gravy. Doh! But, it is glue-able and now it just fits right in with the rest of my chipped dinnerware. :P

I can also show you our fabulous centerpiece, courtesy of Big Bear:


He made it at preschool. I guess everyone else used pinecones for a base. But he wasn't into those. So he made his with playdough and pumpkinseeds. It is definitely a festive conversation starter!

I truly have much to be thankful for in my life, including my wonderful and amazing family, good friends, the abundant love in our lives, as well as all of the material stuff too (fabric and otherwise). Having a time of year like this, with the idea of thankfulness at the forefront, is a wonderful reminder for me to be grateful for all the good in my life. I just love this season of thanks and giving. And feasting. Gotta love the feasting!

First day of school!

This year, Big Bear is going to 3-day preschool. In the welcome-to-school letter from his teacher, only two required supplies were listed: a photo (to post on his storage cubby) and a tote bag. And seeing that, I immediately decided I had to make my boy's tote bag.



I used the Mail Sack pattern from Pink Chalk Studio. I originally bought the pattern for myself. But did you know that it includes both an adult version and a child sized one? How cool is that?!



The main body of the bag finished at about 12" x 12". I don't know how long the straps are exactly, but I just used the pattern as-is with no alterations (though the pattern does include instructions for ensuring a perfect fit). It turned out just right for my three-and-a-half year old little dude.








There are even some fun little pockets inside. I chose a back-to-school print, mostly because my son loves buses and letters and the print features both. The accent fabric is from In the Beginning's Oceanica line, and I used a Riley Blake dot for the lining.

The bag went together super-fast and it is awesome:


He loves his new school bag! (Though I think he's even happier about going to school!) :)

A different kind of "nesting"

I've been nesting! But not for the upcoming baby. April is the start of a new theme at preschool: oviparous (a.k.a., egg-laying) animals!

So I decided that the first craft of the month will be making bird nests. I took some time on this one to look about on the Internet for ideas and saw some really awesome ones-- but almost all of them involved serious dry-time, something that is just not practical in our school setting. So, I went pretty low-tech:


It's simple, but I think it is a cute and fun little spring craft. The prep for this one wasn't too bad either. I already had a pile of paper plate centers left from a craft earlier this month (I'm so glad I found a use for them!). But I (and my husband) ended up spending a good amount of time cutting out the bird and egg shapes (though we left some uncut so that the older kids can use them to practice their scissor skills). I also shredded a lot of paper, but that went pretty quickly.

And, of course, I found a few bird nest facts to go along with the craft:

• Birds build nests for breeding in trees, on cliffs, and even on the ground.
• There are many different types of nests, from simple holes in the ground to complex multi-chambered nests.
• Nests are often made from a large variety of natural materials including sticks, twigs, mud, grass, and saliva. But some birds will use almost anything that works and that they can carry, like candy wrappers, home insulation, shredded money, and even barbed wire!
• Some birds lay their eggs in other bird’s nests.
• The nest of a bald eagle can be 12 feet deep, 10 feet wide and weigh over a ton.

References:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/
http://www.cockatielcottage.net/trivia.html
http://www.earthlife.net/birds/nests.html
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdnests.html


Phew! With all that done, now maybe I can do some of my own crafting again. :)

Fish stitchin'

I've spent the last few evenings prepping craft projects for my son's preschool.

This one I call "Flying Fish":


The theme is still underwater exploration, so a flying fish seemed like a good fit. And I even got some stitchin' in! I cut out the fish shapes and then used my sewing machine (and an old needle) to stitch around the edges. I stuffed the fish with shredded paper, and then did a little more stitching to close it up. And now the fish are ready for the kids to decorate.


I thought stitching would actually be easier/quicker than glue, and I was right. But, this was still a pretty labor-intensive craft preparation, particularly since I had to prep 70 of them!

I did find some fun facts about flying fish too:

• There are over 40 species of flying fish.
• The most striking feature of flying fish are their unusually large pectoral fins (located on the sides of their bodies).
• Flying fish use their large fins to leap out of the water, allowing them to take short flights through the air.
• Flying fish can glide up to 665 feet through the air!
• Flying fish can soar high enough that sailors often find them on the decks of their ships.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_fish
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/flying-fish/

Fishy, fishy, fishy...

Fish!

One of my jobs as a co-op preschool parent is to help plan, organize, and prepare some of the art projects for the last couple months of the school year. The theme for March is underwater exploration, and so I decided it might be fun to create a little coral reef scene.


I used some sponges and paint to make my little reef. And I roped my my husband and our unwitting houseguest (I have a feeling maybe this was not a part of his vacation plans!) into helping me cut out a few hundred little fish to help decorate the scene. It's simple, but the projects have to work not only for pre-kindergartners but also for toddlers. Projects also have to be able to be completed in a pretty short amount of time so they can't be too in-depth.

I had fun putting it together and think turned out pretty cute. Hopefully, the preschoolers will have some fun with it, too!

Just for fun, here are some facts about coral reefs that I found:

• Coral reefs are one of the most diverse ecosystems and are often referred to as the rainforests of the oceans. A great variety of fish, more than 4,000 species, and other organisms, such as sponges, jellyfish, crustaceans, and turtles, inhabit coral reefs.


• Coral reefs develop in shallow, warm water (between 70° and 85° F), usually near land.


• Coral reefs are among the oldest ecosystems on Earth.


• Coral reefs are the largest living structure on the planet.


• Although coral reefs cover less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, they are home to 25% of all marine fish species.


• The Great Barrier Reef (off the coast of NE Australia) is the largest coral reef in the world. It is over 1,257 miles long!


• Reef growth is extremely slow. An individual colony grows ½ inch to 7 inches a year, depending on the species.

References:
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/biomes/coralreef/coralreef.shtml
http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/coral.html
http://www.nature.org/joinanddonate/rescuereef/explore/facts.html
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/programs/coral/facts.htm
http://www.kidscantravel.com/familyvacationdestinations/berenice/funstuffkids/index.html