I'm very proud to showcase the 1st of this year's Teacher End of Year Thank You gift quilts. I deeply believe that teachers are a very important part of our children's lives. They deserve much more at the end of the school year as a thank you than a gift card to Starbucks for all the hard work they did throughout the entire year and all that they taught our kids. When I first came up with this teacher quilt project last year, it was because I wanted the teachers to know just how special the parent felt they are and based on the continued comments I get from last year's teachers, they honestly and truly appreciate the sentiment, they love their quilts and they continue to remember the kids. That was the whole idea. 

This year I needed to make the entire project simpler so instead of designing the quilts and having the families each choose fabrics, I chose patterns and the fabrics and the families contributed to the cost. One of last year's quilt recipients helped me decide on fabrics that suited each teacher the best and then I went to work.

This 1st teacher quilt is for Sunshine's head teacher and I've named it

Nurturing Young Explorers

It is made with a jelly roll of Moda's Coming Home along with a coordinating Yellow solid. The pattern it is based on is called Skinny Dip by Me and My Sister.

I deviated from the pattern for the block layout. When I laid them out as the pattern instructed, the quilt didn't sing to me. After fiddling with a few other options, I came up with this layout. With the alternating of the solid framed blocks and the print framed blocks, it turned a straight rectangular block quilt into something more visually interesting.

The block construction was super simple and it really highlighted the prints well. Even though the quilt might look quite wonky when you look it, it is an illusion because of the layout and when you look closer you can see the blocks aren't wonky at all.

Those that have been following me for a while know that I typically pick some sort of swirly quilting pattern and this time was no different. My quilter and I auditioned a number of different patterns, even some without swirls, but this one turned out to be the best choice.

The backing that I chose is a quilt block print and the binding is Red scattered dot print, both from the same line.

The quilt finished at 59" x 74". It will be well loved as it is snuggled under for years and years to come.