Retirement quilt for BOO's teacher

This year BOO had an amazing second grade teacher.  This teacher was one of those amazing ladies who really helps kids grow and loves to see their creativity.  BOO is a huge reader and very smart, but she's a little ditzy and needs an extra push to remember what she's supposed to be doing!  This special teacher is retiring this year and I hate that she is leaving because I want SASSY to get a chance to be in her class too :(.

I came up with the idea to make this special teacher a special gift!  I made her a quilt with the help of all the kids who each did their own quilt block for her!  She loved it, and the kids wer so proud of their work. (Even though some of them didn't take much time or effort on it....)

If you want to make your own, here is what I did!

Cut enough 9 inch squares for each child in the class from high quality white or tan fabric and my rotary cutter.

The teacher takes every Wednesday off to go to the dr. (She had a Tumor removed last summer in her head) so that was great for me to get into her class without her teacher knowing!

I bough a big pack of permanent fabric markers and took them and the fabric to school.  I gave each of the children a square and a piece of cardstock and told them to draw a picture of their favorite thing about the teacher/to do with their teacher/ thing their teacher had taught them this year.  Some of the kids drew elaborate pictures, some wrote 3 words, the rest were in between.

Once all the kids were done with their squares, I took them home and ironed them to make 100% sure the marker was set.  The markers I bought said they were set and washable after 24 hours, it's been 3 months so I think we are good :)

I stressed for those 2 months about what fabric I wanted to use to sash the squares.  I didn't want anything too busy, but some of th squares were quite plain.  Once day BOO mentioned that they had been learning about rainbows.  DONE!  Off I headed to the fabric store and bought 1/3 yard of rainbow colors.

Armed with my new fabric, I headed home and cut the fabric into 3 inch strips.  One color at a time I sewed the fabric to each of the 4 sides. I went through the rainbow and then started the rainbow over again.  Soon I had 19 squares ready to iron!

After all the squares were ironed, I layed it all out to see how I wanted it.  I ended up doing a 5x5 pattern even though I started by laying it out as 4x6.

Once I decided on my pattern I sewed them together making sure I stayed in rainbow order.

Once the quilt top was sewn I ironed it, making sure all the seams were going towards the color size so you can't see them.

At this point you can quilt it however you wish.  Send it out, tie it with yarn, or my favorite, free motion question it it!  I love doing free motion quilting, but these swirls on this big of a quilt were killer!  I even broke my quilting foot completely....

After the quilt was finally quilted I made some binding with leftover rainbow fabric.  My favorit way even to make binding is with 2 1/2 inch strips and if I am doing it scrappy, I cut each strip in half so the colors have more change!  Someday I Will take a bunch of pictures and shar my method!

I finally complete my project last night, so today was the day to take the quilt in.  I ended up at the school right as the kids bell rang to come in form recess, which is good because I normally end up there right as they head out.  The kids were so excited as I told her how they had made her something. Maybe was shocked they kept it a secret for 2 months!  She seemed to love it, and I assure her that it is fully washable and meant to be used!

There were 2 squares that were blank so I let the kids all sign their names.  I think it turned out great!

Projects like this just make life so sweet!  What a fun memory I won't soon forget!