A baby quilt for Aaron's teacher

baby quilt for Aaron's teacher, originally uploaded by LauraJ_Sews.

I'm not usually one for giving gifts at the end of the school year. This year though I made an exception to my rule and made a baby quilt for Aaron's teacher. She's been his teacher for 2 years. In those two years he has blossomed like I'd never seen before. It was amazing to see the changes in him and I credit much of it to her handling of his needs. Challenging him when he needed challenging, giving him a break when he needed one. She did an amazing job for a first time teacher of a mostly fully inclusive student.
For some time (last Christmas)I knew I wanted to make her a gift of apprecieation for having done such an awesome and amazing job with Aaron but I didn't know what. I thought a bag would be nice but it's hard to make things for people when you don't know their tastes or preferences.
I went to the school for a transition meeting regarding Aaron moving up to middle school. (*Sob* pass the tissues please?) The meeting went fine. When the teacher got up from her chair I noticed she was very pregnant. I assumed correctly that she didn't eat a watermelon whole for lunch that day. The meeting went by the way. I'm confident they are prepared for Aaron and will accomodate his academic needs according to his development. I'm not worried in the least bit, yet. (Says the mama who wants to keep him in elementary school forever! Not really but...)
I decided once I learned she was indeed having a baby that I would make a baby quilt. I did ask the teacher if she knew what she was having and what colours the nursery were. She didn't know the sex of the baby and I didn't quite catch the decor colours.
I went home and hopped on flickr to do some quilt research. I thought a coin quilt was in order. Not just any coin quilt an I Spy coin quilt. I chose "I Spy" theme because during the meeting she mentioned how much Aaron loved "I Spy" books.
Tuesday I chose the fabrics.
Wednesday I cut the fabrics out. Thursday putting the top together and sandwhich the layers together. Friday I morning I quilted and added the binding and it was in the wash by noon.



For the binding I like to play around with my machine sometimes and I chose this fun little star burst pattern

I spent most of the school day helping out Aaron attend his year end swimming and bowling class activities. After lunch with some help from me we presented the gift to his teacher. She was very surprised and very touched. I showed her a few details that were my favourites like the school house and school bus fabric strip, my own personal label. I explained that we were fostering a love of I Spy in her baby since she gave that I Spy love to Aaron.



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I stopped counting the hours in my 100 hours challenge two weeks ago. My main goal of this challenge was to get moving and get sewing. I accomplished a lot in the last 3.5 weeks and with 2.5 days left to go I still have time to squeeze one more project finish in.