Thank You Brenda: A Finished Quilt

My eldest is finishing grade three at the end of June. Her teacher is also retiring after twenty-five years of teaching. There were some times early in the school year when I wasn't sure about this teacher, but by the end I knew my daughter lucked out. The teacher's experience and patience helped my daughter grow and focus on her strengths at the same time.

Every June I make a quilt for her teacher (and this will become much harder the school year after next when I have two daughters in school!). This one is using the pattern Diamond Tread by Freshly Pieced and a bunch of fabrics I picked up quite some time ago by Elizabeth Olwen (and a bit of Denyse Schmidt I had no idea what to do with).

Here is Thank You Brenda:

The strip of pattern to the left with so much empty space reads as very modern to me.

In reality there are just a lot of HSTs arranged in a clever way.

It creates this great secondary pattern of the twirling ninja star in the middle. I straight line quilted this having (*gasp*) marked lines with a marking pen. Honestly I hated trying to press out the ink afterwards so I will avoid it if I can!

The back is a single fabric (unlike me but I think more to the teacher's taste). I didn't try to match up any seams because there was just enough of it and because, well, it is the back.

The pattern on the backing fabric is kind of cool.

I used that Dot Leaf mustard fabric for the binding and I think it really pops against the navy.

My daughter also wrote a thank you note on the label, another tradition since kindergarten and always the teachers' favourite part!

In a couple of weeks time this will be taken and gifted with love. I hope that the teacher loves it but also that she has it for a long time as a memory of her last year of teaching!