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.

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 Madness with Sock Monsters

Mother's Day in the UK and the US falls on different days. This year Mother's Day in the UK fell on Sunday March 2nd - and it so happens that my mother is currently visiting us - so it was lovely to be able to celebrate the English Mother's Day with her this year!

Not only did my mother bring over the requested cans of Tesco's value baked beans (call me odd) but she also brought me a craft book called Stupid Sock Creatures: Making Quirky, Lovable Figures from Cast-off Socks by John Murphy which was quite strange as only the week before I had been given Sock and Glove from the Martha Stewart Show ... something was telling me it was time ... time to make something from socks. Never one to hog all the fun to myself I suggested we should spend the afternoon making sock monsters. Yes - as you can imagine - my mother and my husband were thrilled with this suggestion ... well they couldn't wait to get sewing.

I found some discounted socks at Kohl's ($1 each - bargain) and off we set ... making our sock monsters ...
Finally we finished aren't they sweet!
Introducing Lucky the Dog (Aaron's dog - pattern from Sock and Glove) ...
... Angus the Angry Turtle (my mother's own design) ...
... and the Snuggly Socktopus (my own design).
It really was a fun afternoon and I know my husband scored top points and hundreds of gold stars from my mother and me for joining in so gallantly.