Preschool quilting projects
My posts the last few months have been very One Monthly Goal focused. I've been sewing beyond those goals; much of it just hasn't made it into posts! Time to change that.
In April, right about the time that I was assembling the Row by Row quilt, another project needed time-sensitive finishing. I had volunteered to create a quilt for my middle son's preschool using fabric handprints traced by the kids and the seniors at the church where preschool is held. Hooray for fusible web! Preschool parent volunteers cut out the majority of the hands (thank goodness!); my mom and I finished the rest.
The quilt was fairly simple to assemble--after I'd laid out the hand prints into rows (each set of two are the tracings of a preschooler's hand and his/her senior partner)--I just added sashing and an outer border. I'd considered using more colors and/or a patterned print, and/or adding appliqued words to the border, but ultimately decided the hand prints were busy enough and nothing else was needed.
The second, connected project was a gift for our wonderful preschool teacher. She taught each of my two older boys for two years. This was her last year, and while I would have loved to make her a duplicate of the above quilt, it just wasn't going to happen. Instead, I created a wall hanging, re-using some of the hand shapes from the kids in the full quilt. The Bible verse hand embroidered on the front is "Children are a gift from the Lord." -Psalms 127:3. My friend Stephanie offered to do the hand embroidery for me--I was so grateful, as I'm not good at that, and she did a wonderful job! I quilted it myself.
It's always gratifying to use my sewing talents to create gifts for special people!
In April, right about the time that I was assembling the Row by Row quilt, another project needed time-sensitive finishing. I had volunteered to create a quilt for my middle son's preschool using fabric handprints traced by the kids and the seniors at the church where preschool is held. Hooray for fusible web! Preschool parent volunteers cut out the majority of the hands (thank goodness!); my mom and I finished the rest.
I finished the quilt top in time for it to be displayed the last day of preschool--it'll be quilted and bound by fall to hang in the room when preschool starts again. (Though my son will be in kindergarten--two in school and one to go!)
The second, connected project was a gift for our wonderful preschool teacher. She taught each of my two older boys for two years. This was her last year, and while I would have loved to make her a duplicate of the above quilt, it just wasn't going to happen. Instead, I created a wall hanging, re-using some of the hand shapes from the kids in the full quilt. The Bible verse hand embroidered on the front is "Children are a gift from the Lord." -Psalms 127:3. My friend Stephanie offered to do the hand embroidery for me--I was so grateful, as I'm not good at that, and she did a wonderful job! I quilted it myself.
Another guild friend, Pam, offered to machine embroider the label for the back. (Thank you again, Pam!) I thought this verse was so appropriate for a preschool, but it was too long for the front of the wall hanging. The label was a perfect spot for it.
