Friday, May 7, 2021

Green Pinwheels (plus OMG)

Last year, my son and I made a quilt for his teacher.  This year, his dual language program kicked in so he has two teachers, one for English and one for Spanish.  Okay, two is do-able.  But his English teacher, Ms H, was on medical leave from the start of the school year through February, so two non-classroom from the school shared the position.  Considering how much of the school year they were his teacher and how challenging this school year has been, I couldn't not recognize them.  Which means I have 4 quilts to finish by the end of this month.




Once he was in school in person, I gave Fire Monkey the assignment to try to find out teacher favorite colors.  He gleefully got all four in one day, telling me in the car, "I need one green, one pink, and two purple."  So that was a good starting point. 

All four will be made with Island Batik, since I have a lot of it.  This is the first of the four that is completely done.  I'm calling it Green Pinwheels.  (Yes, super imaginative name, I know.)  This is for Ms. W, one of the two teachers at his school who was his teacher from August through February. 

 

I used scraps in any shade of green and used my accuquilt to cut 4" HSTs with Island Batik solid white, which then became 8" pinwheel blocks.  I did a maximum of 2 in any given fabric so there would be a lot of variety.  The cornerstones and binding are a blue fabric from the Lemon Grass collection last year; I thought the touch of blue would be a nice compliment to all the greens.  

For quilting, I used the wavy line decorative stitch on Willa the Wonder Machine and I used a fabulous green variegated 40wt Aurifil thread.  I ordered backing for all 4 teacher quilts from Backside Fabrics; I really like this green sunflower print.  

photo K. Mellnik

Since the school year ends in May this year, I'm using the One Monthly Goal (OMG) with Patty from Elm Street Quilts as an additional motivator to get the other three teacher quilts done.  Two are quilted and just need binding; the fourth is still in the piecing the top stage, so it's the one I'm most worried about finishing.  I told my husband to remind me next year that four is too many!

photo by K. Mellnik

8 comments:

  1. This Green Pinwheels quilt (love the name ;D) is fabulous, Ms W is very lucky. As the three others! Good luck finishing all of them!

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  2. I love the fabric you used in this quilt Emily! Very pretty. Good luck on your OMG. You will have a busy month!!

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  3. Sweet! LOL on his assignment and how enthusiastic he was in getting the fav color answers!!! Great job, FM!!! Oh, I love the greens and your photo shots, Emily! Looking forward to the other 3. You can do it!!!

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  4. Great quilt for gifting! I like the addition of that little blue square. He is definitely into helping you with quilts - such fun!

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  5. Lovely quilt! I like that you get a good size pinwheel with those 4” hst’s. Great job and good luck getting them done!

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  6. Lovely teacher quilt; I'm sure she'll appreciate it. Just be forewarned -- once your son gets to middle school there will be a lot more than four teachers. You may have to break down and settle for Starbucks gift cards at some point! ;-)

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  7. Blue and Green on a White background is a perfect combination with universal appeal. I am sure Ms. W will love it. In fact, I have a feeling there might be a tear or two. Can hardly wait to see the other three.

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  8. Just wonderful...I love it...boy you are a great quilter oxoxo

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