teacher quilts

It seems like forever that I have posted, or sewn for that matter. I've been trying to makeover my dining room and I'm almost done with it. And then in between that I've been sick. And this week I got called for jury duty. And then the kids are out of school - and all my time is gone!

But a few days ago I realized that if I wanted to make quilts for my kids' teachers - I'd better get to it! My 3 kids in school all had wonderful teachers this year (I haven't been able to say that every year.) And so I wanted to make them something special.

This first quilt is for a teacher who loves green. I think she likes owls too, but who wouldn't love that cute little guy. I just improv pieced the center part from scraps and then added borders. I wish I would have made the improv piece just a little bit bigger, but I do like how it turned out. I did a large scallop for the quilting on my home machine. It's something I've wanted to try for a while and it worked well. I'll definitely be using it again.

This next quilt is for a teacher who is fairly patriotic. I figured I'd be safe with red, white and blue. I used Jeni's giant vintage star quilt tutorial which was easy to follow and came together really quickly. I did change the center blocks to squares, but that was the only thing I changed. I used my stash for this one, except I didn't have quite enough for the background, so I did go buy that. I just did straight, vertical lines for the quilting to get it done quickly.

Is it horrible that I didn't make the 3rd teacher a gift? She told my son her favorite colors are pink, brown, and purple. Those are the colors I have the least of in my stash. And I just wasn't quite sure of her style. I'd hate to make her an entire quilt that she didn't end up liking. I think I'll be making her a Jane Market Bag and fill it with summer stuff. If any of you have another great idea - I'd love to hear it :)