A Thank You Quilt

 A Thank you quilt

My kids get out of school at the end of May. And right about the end of April, it dawned on me that they only had a month left!  (yes, i'm that mom lol) 

Calli had had the same teacher for two years running, and I'll tell ya... that woman had her hands full!! So I decided quite at the last minute that the kids and I should do something to say thank you. Thank you for taking such good care of our kids, for teaching them, pushing them to grow, for keeping them in line... basically for putting up with them for two solid years! (some more than others lol)  I was lucky enough to be a part of the class during those two years, and got to know most of the kids.  And I was blessed immensly, by being allowed to help a couple of the kids that struggled with reading. I would come home every time, verbally venting... wishing... if i could just have them for two hours a day for two weeks!! What if I could set up an after school tutoring time for those 3?  Would their parents allow it? Did their parents even care? And on and on it went... well i'm getting way off topic here! lol  Long story short - the parents didn't care. :(  Who cares if their kid can read and write?  arrrggghhhh. This is something primal in me. Teaching kids is the root of who I am, and where God wants me! So, needless to say it was very frustrating, but very rewarding at the same time.  By the time fourth grade was done, those three kids were doing 300% better! But it was still touch and go whether they could graduate into fifth grade, which had me holding my breath (and actually wishing the teacher would hold them back for fourth grade again!! Because once you move into 5th grade and onto middle school there will be no more one on one time working on reading - but much higher expectations that those kids were not prepared for. Sad huh?)   And in case you're curious - they did move up to 5th grade.  :(

Ok, so i digressed. Sorry!

Soooooooooo... I approached the office about putting together a secret meeting with all the kids after school.  They suggested talking to the art teacher. Which I did - and was sooo thankful that she was such an absolute rock star!!  She let me have the class for three thursdays! Granted they were only an hour and 15 minutes long, so we had to hustle!  I gave each of the kids an 8x8 piece of snow kona, a bunch of fabric pieces with wonder under fused to the back, scissors, and big packages of fabric markers.  I told them they could do ANYTHING they wanted... the only rules were, they had to leave me a 1/2 inch border, and they had to write their full name on there somewhere. LOL

Oh you should have seen these kids go to town!! They were soooooo excited!! And they got themselves all tied in knots, because they wanted it to be just perfect for their teacher!  The girls were such girls!! (you know - lots of hearts and lovey dovey stuff lol) , and the boys... they were just precious! They were hesitant and embarrassed because they wanted to tell her how much she meant to them! And still had to be guys and reference the NFL and soccer! haha! 

We were going to have them each sew on their appliques... but in the end we ran out of time and that didn't get to happen :/  But each square was soo unique to each of the kids - it was so neat!! :)

I sewed like a manic woman on the days I wasn't at school. I got all the patchwork borders put on each block (teach loves red and blue, so that's the theme we went with)... brought all the blocks back to the kids to finish up on them, and back to the sewing machine I went getting the sashing done.  On the third week they got to see the quilt top finished - and their eyes... ohhhh their eyes!!! The pride! The amazement! The excitement! That those little squares had turned into an 80 x 80" top just blew them away! Pointing out where theirs was... checking out everyone elses..  and omg... the tension of having to KEEP THAT SECRET!!!!!!!! I thought it was gonna dang near kill them!! LOL!! (everytime i'd walk into class they'd all start whispering that they hadn't told the teacher, that it was still a secret! ... ahem... the teacher could hear them! lol) 

Anyway... this turned into wayyy more words than i had originally planned! ha! But I couldn't show you this without you knowing the story behind it!

I'm happy to say I got it quilted and bound with one day to spare! LOL! Wrapped it up all pretty in a huge box, shiny wrapping paper and a big bow...and brought it to school on the second to the last day.  

She was shocked! The kids about wet their pants! And they kept telling her how "they made this just for her!"  ....

It was truly priceless! :) 

                             And mad rush and stress?.... alllll soooooo totally worth every minute! :D