The top of the 2nd of the 4 teacher quilts for this year's end of school year thank you gifts is done. This one only took me 4 days to sew together, working in the evenings and finishing up today.
Friday evening I started piecing the blocks. These were really easy and went together fast.
This part only took about 2 hours to do. At 11:30 pm I called it a day but I had completed half of the blocks.
On Saturday evening I picked up where I had left off. Some more quick chain piecing and by 10:30, when I started to yawn heavily, it was time to call it quits and crawl into bed for some much needed sleep.
The other half of the blocks were done and now it was time for the next step. Again this only took about 2 hours to finish.
The frame for my longarm machine turns out to be a really great place for sorting jelly roll strips and then the blocks.
Most of Sunday was spent working in the yard, getting rid of the Spirea that the builder put in and never did well and replacing them with Pink Knockout Roses. The MIL and BIL came over for dinner and one they headed home and the kidlets were in bed, I worked on laying out the blocks. I didn't like this version nor the other 3 that I tried so I eventually gave up that night and waited for a fresh vision on another day.
Yesterday morning I finally come up with a layout that I was happy with and got the blocks and rows sewn together in the afternoon. The top is now done and here is a sneak peak for you.
After work this afternoon I'll run it over to my longarm quilter so she can get it quilted as soon as possible. The end of the school year is only 5 1/2 weeks away and I hope to not be sewing the last stitches in the labels within hours of when they will be gifted.
You're likely wondering why I'm not quilting them myself. Basically it is a time issue. I'll be doing great to get the tops done and then the bindings finished on time. When I calculated the cost to each family in the kids' classes, buying my own longarm set up wasn't even on the radar yet so the amount to have her do them was already included.
Making 8 quilts in 4 months isn't easy so the fun of quilting my own quilts will have to wait until this summer. I'm really looking forward to doing that and you can bet that as soon as these quilts are done and over, I'll be putting some mileage on my new toy.
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6 Comments:
love the layout Michele!! looks great and yay for the finishes...I think I finally figured out my teacher gifts too this year, I have two baby quilts to giveaway but I think I will give those away soon because they are really for the babies! then just do something "simple" like embroidered tote bags for the 3 teachers- my son's idea :-)
Sometimes sticking to the plan is the way to go. There will be time to play.
Wonderful gifts!
Wow, what fabulous teacher gifts, they're going to love them. My daughter's school has a very strict max spend of $10/teacher so we went with covered notebooks this time and previously it's been mug rugs and homemade biscuits!
That looks awesome. Can I come be a teacher?
Ha - yes I often wonder how I ever managed to put a quilt together without the long arm frame to set things on. It has become exceptionally useful when piecing large backings!!! ;)
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