Teachers Appreciation Gifts: Hand Print Pillows

I can not believe that the end of school is nearly here again and I found myself yearning to make me all time favorite project - hand print pillows. You might remember that we made them first for Mother's Day and for teacher appreciation gifts last year. 

This year we had 3 pillows to make. A total of 21 children aged from 18months to 5 years popped around at one time or another to let me paint their hands and print them on fabric. With the age of the kids you are working with you just have to embrace the imperfections and go with it. This year I used Jacquard Fabric Paints & painted the leaves & stems onto the pillows.

Thanksgiving Tree

It has become time again to change our seasonal tree. We took off the mice, spiders and cobwebs to make our Thanksgiving Tree.

I found some fake autumnal leaf vines on sale at JoAnn's and wound them around the bare branches. Then we picked out some yellow, orange, red, green & brown card and the girls mixed their own paint colors (from green, red & gold) and made hand-prints on the card. 

Once the paint was dry we cut out the hand-prints and hung them on the tree with gold ribbon.

On the back of each hand-print leaf my eldest bunny wrote all the things we were grateful for. Here is their very cute list:

the color green

pasta & meat

blankets

coloring

toys

Castro (our dog)

food

my sister & brother

my scooter

friends

color tree

blanket bunny

gold & silver glitter

TV

paint

chocolate

clothes

Mummy

Daddy

Ariel

bed

my beautiful children

garden

Cinderella

dressing up clothes

leaves

Hilda

Oma (German for Grandma)

Papa

Teddy

the whole entire world

Listening to the girl decide what they were thankful for was so cute - this might well be our new family tradition.

Take a look at the other projects we have done with our tree so far this year:
Valentine Tree
Swedish Easter Tree
Recycled Cherry Blossom Tree
Coffee Filter Butterfly Tree 
Halloween Tree

Learning to Free Motion Quilt

 Image from TerifiCreations (Teri Lucas)

I am currently taking some free motion quilting lessons with Teri Lucas. Teri is lovely and she is cheering me on.

Despite the projects I seem to take on these days - I have not been free motion quilting for very long.  Here is my complete history of free motion quilting. And Teri - I'm scared you might be reading this - I really haven't quilted very much at all!

I took my first lesson in 2007 which in truth freaked me out and I didn't go back to it before stippling a small makeup case in 2009.

At the time I was extremely pleased with myself - but I have to admit I had trouble posting this picture at all!

I then began popping out babies and concentrate largely on my knitting skills (I just love to knit!) Any quilts I made I just opted to sew in the ditch or tie. I was still very scared of free motion quilting.

Then in 2012 (yes it took me 3 years to try this again) I took a leap of faith and made a playmat for a cousin and quilted it by stippling.

 

Then later in 2012 I made a memory quilt for a 90th birthday celebration. This was a monster sized quilt - I must have been crazy to take it on.

In these 3 widely spaced projects I could already see a vast improvement in my stippling. This year I have completed the following projects.

Valentine Quilt with quilted swirls.

Mother's Day Pillows with quilted swirls & Teacher Appreciation Pillows with quilted echoed hearts.

Fallen Soldier Quilt - stippled.

and our first in a series of Kid Painted Quilts quilted with swirly flowers.

That's it. Not too much experience really. And this was a good post for me to write as it reminds me that I have come a long way with not so much experience. So tomorrow when I sit down to fight with an amazing project I am honored to be working .... I will remind myself. I am getting better - but it takes practice. Hours and Hours of practice .... and I am on a total mission to conquer this free motion quilting!

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Please do not forget about the charity I Spy quilt - we are still looking for scrap fabric donations. 

Teacher Appreciation Gift: Hand Print Pillows

For my eldest bunny - we made her class teacher & classroom assistant hand print cushions.

You may remember that I made these before for Grandma on Mother's Day.

Each child in the class made his or her hand print using fabric paint.

I quilted the front of each cushion (experimenting with free motioning quilting - one continuous line in a heart pattern - not perfect ...

... way harder than it looks) and added some embellishments (felt flower pot & a bow.)

I wanted the pillows to be very fun and happy so this time I made a ruffle trim. (I have a new ruffler foot - which I would much recommend for endless hours of fun easy ruffles.)

I made labels for the back of the cushions so the teacher can identify who made each hand print. I favor a pillowcase closure for cushions - easy and prettier than a messy zipper (I am scared of zips!)

 

I hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday. I can't wait not to have to load all the kids in the car (twice) every morning for the school run and if you are wondering what to do with your little people this summer check out Fun at Home with Kids, Growing a Jeweled Rose and the Artful Parent for endless ideas for fun and inventive play.

Mother's Day: Hand Print Pillows

Mother's Day in the UK is on a different day than Mother's Day in the US. (This year Mother's Day in the UK was March 10th.) One would think that this would give me two days of pampering by my family - unfortunately - this is not the case! However we did need to send Granny a little gift to help her celebrate the day across the pond.

We decided to make her some pillows with hand and foot prints.

First we need to protect the floor so we stuck down some foil under a sheet of fabric. We did our feet and hand prints in a bathroom that hasn't been decorated in 45 years (literally!) so I wasn't too nervous about little hands and feet covered in paint.

First I had the girls sit on the floor and I painted their foot with a thick layer of fabric paint.

 I then helped them stand on the fabric to make our prints.

Once our prints were dry we added stems and leaves by potato printing. (In case you are wondering about the presence of Olivia the Pig - she is the class 'pet' and she was staying with us for the weekend.)
 

 We added a flower pot and a ribbon bow.

I quilted with some swirly whirly free hand quilting ...

... and added some fancy flange to the pillows.

 

Here are our finished cushions.

I opted for a  pillowcase opening sealed with a bright purple ribbon. Here is the back of the cushion.

Such a cute gift that I think any Granny would be thrilled to receive. Even our littlest (6 months) got his feet and hands in on the action - his first official art work!!