Teacher Appreciation

...& the blog I forgot to post...


Last week was teacher appreciation at my son's school.

 I made these

 ('cause in case you don't remember, there's a moratorium on sending in home-baked treats...)

Now, there was a teacher who'd moved away in the middle

of the year. Two of our boys 

had him for percussion

& band the past 5.5 years; but the rest of our family loved him & his tribe, too. (A few years ago I made a quilt for his baby girl & blogged about it here.)

 
Well, baby girl now has a baby brother, & of course we had to make a quilt for him! Last fall I found out the nursery was to have a woodland theme, so I bought a set of appliquéd forest animals from Bunnycup Embroidery.

Next came the arduous task of finding the perfect backing fabric. None of my local shops carried something that would coordinate with the embroideries; but a shop on Etsy had some yardage I loved!

Then I heard the baby would be a "he" so I had to make sure my fabrics for the appliqués were boyish.

I had plenty of help from Duncan, who has lots of experience with quilts...

I quilted by using a double needle & "stitch-in-the-ditch" -- I like the way it turned out, for the most part.

Next big decision was what to bind with & my friend Cindy gave me the best advice, "Orange Minkee" she said.

Perfecto!

Then all that was left was to stick it in the mail...

Some heroes wear NG tubes & cannulas…

Once upon a time a beautiful princess found her handsome prince. They were married in a splendid wedding.

But the prince had to travel for long months at a time. He carried with him a little sock monkey to pose for pictures in ports of call to send to the princess when he could. After a time his travels were ended and he was home to stay.

On the day it was announced the princess was having a baby, I knew exactly the quilt I would make to celebrate the child. Julie had an adorable appliqué set of a sock-monkey alphabet. I bought it! Instead of using both the boys & the girls, I wanted to make the quilt according to the gender of the baby. In the meantime, the search was on for fabric with small figures for each of the letters.

Finally it was revealed that the princess was carrying a man-child. Oh! the excitement! Now my big rush was on to find just the right “boy” fabrics to complete the quilt.But then the heart-rending news came that all was not well with the baby, he was found to have a congenital heart issue that would require extreme measures to correct immediately after birth and for years after.

At this juncture I could tell the quilt-making was going to extend beyond Teddy’s baby shower & birth; so my goal was to finish by the time he was able to leave the hospital.

From the very start of his life on the outside, this plucky little guy was a fighter. He bravely jousted with every procedure his condition required of his caregivers. His Grandma would keep us updated on facebook. Every morning/evening we’d look for news of Teddy’s latest victory. She’d relate to us his conversations with the world he was about to conquer.

Then one day came the wretched news that the villain CHD had overpowered our hero Teddy. We. were. crushed.

I was roughly halfway through embroidering the blocks. But in a conversation with his bereft mommy, we decided I’d go ahead & finish the quilt to honor his memory.

It was tough! I’d cry over the fabrics I’d chosen for appliqué because I would remember this one was picked up for Dad’s favorite sport, or that one because Grandma loves gingerbread men…

But with a little help from a friend(actually, very little help…)I got to the point where I could piece it all together.

THAT was fun

but not as fun as binding.

There was just SOOOOOOOO much “help” to be had!

After all was stitched, bound, clipped & laundered, I even got some assistance removing all the lint…

Anyhow, here is my tribute to a brave lad. Stitched with love & prayers for his mom & dad - his grandmas & grandpa - his aunt & uncle - his extended (extensive!) family…

If you know a “heart baby”, pray for him/her & the family.Sometimes they almost live at the hospital. Sometimes they live separately because there are ones to care for at home. Thank you Teddy, for reminding us to live life with our whole heart.

my machine’s humming away

you know how deadlines are

this is for someone special

someone who’s been in my heart for a long time

arrrrrrrrr matey

Friends from church are getting a second grandson sometime this month.

His nursery is pirate-themed.

I made him a fleece blankie

(hook appliqué from here)

with treasure-map fabric on the back

and pleated satin around the edges.

I made an eye patch out of black velvet. (His older brother also got a one, it's a little larger!)

(here's one modeled by "James")

I stitched up a cute bib with this design:

(appliqué for the face & kerchief -- used bandanna print & there's embroidered  fringe on the end...)

(but I can't find my photograph of the finished bib!) 

source

Both Wyatt's daddy & his abuelo proudly serve in our U.S. Air Force.

an ONLINE, HANDMADE gift exchange

I posted earlier in the month that I was excited to participate in Craftaholics Anonymous' summer gift exchange.
Linda, from Craftaholics Anonymous, set up about 650 of us into an Elfster account. We were automatically paired up with a "giftee" and a "gifter" on June 7th. We have (had) until June 30th to create & ship the item(s) to the recipient.

My giftee turned out to be Rebecca from Boise. I was able to ask her a couple anonymous questions to formulate my plan of attack:

Oh good! Maybe I'll make a coffee-something design for her kitchen since she likes food.

ugh! Not coffee...

Green, I can work with green.

hmmmmmmm -- perhaps a tea towel with cookie cutter designs & her name?

So, as I'm going through my designs I realize I don't have any suitable cookie cutter-ish files to stitch on a towel. (I had in mind those old-fashioned aluminum ones with the little green wooden handles...)

(source)

I then determined I would just appliqué her name onto the towel. In green fabric. Make that alternating green fabrics. 

(I modified the "Cheri" alphabet from Bunnycup Embroidery)

So I did.

I also made some microwave finger mitts to coordinate.

(I enclosed a card I made with her name, as well.)
I'm still waiting to see what I receive in the mail...


***6/30/2012 -- Saved by the buzzer! Guess what was in the mail this evening? (Guess you'll just have to "stay tuned" for that post...)