Monday, May 25, 2015
#BFTPqal with Stacy
This week, the #BFTPqal is over at Stacy's from Sew Nice to Create. She's a fabulous quilter, and such a sweetheart!
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Teacher Appreciation Gifts
Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week at our school, and I was in charge of coordinating everything (just like last year). Luckily for me, we have a bunch of really great parents at our school, many who were once teachers themselves, who really appreciate everything our teachers do!
I couldn't decide on a theme this year, so I decided to just go with a bunch of themes and tie them all up under a shared phrase. The phrase was "Our Teachers Are...", and here are the way the days played out...
Monday: (individual chips)
Tuesday: (pack of gum)
Wednesday: (cookies)
Thursday: (apple wall hangings)
Okay, I totally get that this phrase isn't grammatically correct -- but I did it for the sake of the pun. :) To go along with this day, I made 39 apple wall hangings -- a ridiculous amount, but I'll explain in a second. Here's what 35 of them looked like:
Friday was our luncheon, so we went with "OUR TEACHERS ARE THE BEST IN THE WORLD!" We served Italian sodas, American sandwiches, English chips (okay, I realize these aren't authentic English chips, but we're going with the theme here... :)), Swedish fish, and French pastries, all with similar signs to link everything together. As always, it went off so well -- even though I had the flu and couldn't help out with the luncheon like I usually do.
I also had a couple of PTA ladies prepare little booklets for the teachers' helpers (usually room moms) who take over the class for about 30 minutes, to give the teachers a little longer lunch the day of the luncheon. The booklets were 1/4 sheets of paper, one for each child in the class plus a few extras, that said things like "I love it when Mrs. Wimmer..." and "My favorite thing about Mr. Fox is...", with a 1/4 sheet of cardstock for the front and one for the back, and a ribbon to tie the whole thing together. The idea is that the teachers' helpers will help the kids make this book, and then they present it to the teacher at the end of the luncheon.
This year I've been struggling a little with anxiety, so I decided to try and simplify some things in my life. As a result, this is the last year I'll do Teacher Appreciation Week -- at least for a while. Hence the 39 apple wall hangings. :) I really do appreciate teachers, but I've started embracing the fact that party planning is not my favorite thing, and I'll leave it to someone else next year.
I couldn't decide on a theme this year, so I decided to just go with a bunch of themes and tie them all up under a shared phrase. The phrase was "Our Teachers Are...", and here are the way the days played out...
Monday: (individual chips)
Tuesday: (pack of gum)
Wednesday: (cookies)
Thursday: (apple wall hangings)
They're covering my ENTIRE design wall -- it's 4' x 6'!!
I also had a couple of PTA ladies prepare little booklets for the teachers' helpers (usually room moms) who take over the class for about 30 minutes, to give the teachers a little longer lunch the day of the luncheon. The booklets were 1/4 sheets of paper, one for each child in the class plus a few extras, that said things like "I love it when Mrs. Wimmer..." and "My favorite thing about Mr. Fox is...", with a 1/4 sheet of cardstock for the front and one for the back, and a ribbon to tie the whole thing together. The idea is that the teachers' helpers will help the kids make this book, and then they present it to the teacher at the end of the luncheon.
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This year I've been struggling a little with anxiety, so I decided to try and simplify some things in my life. As a result, this is the last year I'll do Teacher Appreciation Week -- at least for a while. Hence the 39 apple wall hangings. :) I really do appreciate teachers, but I've started embracing the fact that party planning is not my favorite thing, and I'll leave it to someone else next year.
Monday, May 18, 2015
#BFTPqal & WIPs
Well... I've been kind of a slacker when it comes to letting you know about the #BFTPqal posts. When I started this blog, I did it with the intention that I wouldn't post anything without really making the content great. I don't like looking at blogs where the author has all advertising all the time. But things have been SLOOOW around here, what with making a bazillion apple wall hangings (more on that Thursday!) and working on my very first ever t-shirt quilt. As a result, I haven't been posting about the #BFTPqal posts either. I'm sorry -- I'm scheduling them out as we speak, so you can read all about it from now until the middle of June.
So... to recap, the #BFTPqal posts I've missed are:
Katie at Lady Fortune's Wheel
Marion at My Quilt Diet
Barbie at The Quilting Mill
Konda at Moose on the Porch Quilts
and today's post is at Marion's, but it's from Machelle at Cherry Tree Cottage Quilts.
Whew! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted about these! I solemnly swear to do better!
And what else have I been working on? I am in charge of a local quilting bee we call QBX (for Quilt Block Exchange), and last month I needed a quick project that got rid of a bunch of scraps. I was inspired by my friend Emily's cute son's quilt, but used the tutorial from Ellison Lane as a jumping-off point. So far, I've only collected 6 blocks, but here they are:
And I'm part of the Beehive #21, sponsored by Blossom Heart Quilts. I think I might have heard about it from Gnome Angel, though -- she's super cute too, and was a finalist for Sewvivor last year! I was in charge for the month of March, and asked for the Wanta Fanta block. I'm not sure what that means, but I love the secondary pattern this pretty block makes! I'd gotten all my blocks but one at this point (one poor lady found the envelope completely empty and battered on her front porch one day -- I guess it didn't quite make it to the post office!), and I'm so surprised -- close up, I don't really love this quilt... but just a few feet away, and it's one of my FAVORITES!
So, my plan is to update each #BFTPqal post with a little something I've been working on -- but I've learned the hard way not to promise more than I can do!
So... to recap, the #BFTPqal posts I've missed are:
Katie at Lady Fortune's Wheel
Marion at My Quilt Diet
Barbie at The Quilting Mill
Konda at Moose on the Porch Quilts
and today's post is at Marion's, but it's from Machelle at Cherry Tree Cottage Quilts.
Whew! I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted about these! I solemnly swear to do better!
And what else have I been working on? I am in charge of a local quilting bee we call QBX (for Quilt Block Exchange), and last month I needed a quick project that got rid of a bunch of scraps. I was inspired by my friend Emily's cute son's quilt, but used the tutorial from Ellison Lane as a jumping-off point. So far, I've only collected 6 blocks, but here they are:
And I'm part of the Beehive #21, sponsored by Blossom Heart Quilts. I think I might have heard about it from Gnome Angel, though -- she's super cute too, and was a finalist for Sewvivor last year! I was in charge for the month of March, and asked for the Wanta Fanta block. I'm not sure what that means, but I love the secondary pattern this pretty block makes! I'd gotten all my blocks but one at this point (one poor lady found the envelope completely empty and battered on her front porch one day -- I guess it didn't quite make it to the post office!), and I'm so surprised -- close up, I don't really love this quilt... but just a few feet away, and it's one of my FAVORITES!
So, my plan is to update each #BFTPqal post with a little something I've been working on -- but I've learned the hard way not to promise more than I can do!