progress

It rained all day - making today a great day to stay inside and get some work done on my current works in progress.

This week we launched "Project B" in Grace's 2nd grade class.  As the room mom, I felt some sort of responsibility to attempt an amazing end of year gift for Grace's wonderful teacher.  After much thought and deliberation I decided to make a kid art keepsake quilt. 

My goal is to be finished with the quilt by the end of April, so I wont be last-minute-quilting in May.  That's why we got started on the project this week.  I wanted to make sure I gave myself plenty of time. 

I put together four quilt square kits.  Each one contains a set of fabric pens, one plain white muslin square taped to the front of a yellow folder.  Inside the folder are complete instructions and a piece of test fabric so the kids can get a feel for the fabric pens. 

All of the supplies are then placed in a padded manila envelope for safe and secret travel.  We are trying to keep this project a secret so we can surprise Grace's teacher at the end of the school year.

All Grace's teacher knows about the project is the name, "Project B," and that there are envelopes going home and coming back to school  Grace, my capable assistant, has done a great job of bringing envelopes home and taking them  back to school. 

Our first three squares.  Grace would want me to tell you that hers is the one with the tulips. 

I was a little nervous about launching this project.  So many of the things that have to happen to make this quilt a success are completely outside of my control.  But, so far, the quilt squares are coming back much quicker than I expected and are incredibly cute.  I'm sewing a different colored fabric border on each square as they come in and love the way they are turning out.

I also finished my second Steelers pillow cases.  One of the kids' friends, Jake, broke his collar bone last weekend so we made him a get well soon care package.  Jake's entire family are Steelers fans, so today I made a pillow case for his little brother, too.   (I simply had to get rid of all of the Steeler fabric, bleh!) 

And I'm finally finishing Grace's quilt.  I started the quilt last summer and would have had it finished a long time ago, but I keep deciding to make it bigger.  Today, I added the last of the 48 squares. 

A sneak peek at Grace's pretty curtains and walls. 

I'm hoping to have the quilt finished in time for Grace's birthday in March. The quilt inspired new paint and curtains in Grace's room, so it would be nice to actually have it on the bed.

It's supposed to rain Wednesday and Thursday, too...