Sunshine Gifts

 A while back when a young family member was having surgery, I found an idea for a "box of sunshine." This box included yellow items such as food, stickers, or other small items. It was fun to shop for yellow items that would fit in the box.

Since then I've gifted yellow items other times for different reasons. 

As the school year comes to a close, all the feelings are there. Kids are ramping up for summer, there are many end of year things to do, and teachers are tired. One new teacher has been counting down her first year of school and it seems like it's been a particularly stressful year. I thought she could use some sunshine.

Once again, I hunted down each aisle for yellow items. Some staples I've found each time included lemon flavored drinks, peanut m&ms, Juicy Fruit gum and Nilla Wafers. 

I figured we had a small paper bag at home, but unfortunately we must be out. I knew I could make a simple fabric bag which I have made before. I googled first to see if there was an even simpler idea to try. I basically followed this simple gift bag.

First I looked for yellow fabric and chose which had enough fabric for the pile of items I wanted to include. Then I cut it just bigger then my pile. Next I loosely followed the ideas of turning down the top edge, creating a casing (fold down edges and topstitch, then tuck under the top and bottom long edge and sew down to the bag) for the outside (I made one for the front and one for the back), and finally sewing the sides right sides together, then serging and boxing the corners. Because I had created two casings with openings on both sides, I could run two rows of ribbon to cinch it together.

Everything fit well into the bag and I think it's pretty cute.

Afterwards I had another teacher I wanted to bring some sunshine to. I created a mini tote with the leftover lemon fabric and added handles out of ribbon. That went together very quickly. Once again I used the serger and boxed the corners.

Quilt for School

 My cloffice (closet/office) is directly across from one set of doors used for arrival and dismissal. Once outdoor temperatures dropped below 20 degrees Fahrenheit along with strong winds, my space's temperature also dropped. Aside from wearing a winter jacket indoors, I thought about other options. Ultimately I decided to look for small blankets and quilts. In one closet I found many forgotten blankets and quilts, many I had made before my third baby was born. They were all on the smaller side and perfect for a lap quilt. Before I had looked around my house, I did a quick search for interesting fabric. While the mini quilts I brought into school did serve their purpose, I kept remembering the cute fabrics I had found and wondered if I might be up for a sewing project. It has been years since I quilted anything. Finally after looking at the new fabric one more time, I found a panel that seemed like a quick and easy way to get back to some quilting without a bigger commitment of a pieced quilt. 

Because I teach English as a New Language, I was looking for fabric with the world on it. The winner ended up being a Michael Miller panel called "Wonderful World." Thinking back to my early days of learning to quilt, I considered different methods for putting this panel together. Instead of spending a lot of time planning or buying many materials, I bought the panel and later some matching fabric for the binding and was able to locate some fleece from my stash for the backing. One option was to just sew right sides together and flip it, but once I found the fleece, I decided to go ahead and pin it for quilting. After pinning the panel and fleece, it sat for a couple weeks. Fortunately, I had a school break coming up and that ended up being the perfect time to start quilting. 

I wasn't sure how I wanted to quilt it. Being out of practice and knowing I didn't want to baby my sit down quilting machine, I wondered if I could just sew lines on my regular machine. Remembering the specialty sewing machine feet I have made it easier. I started with the even feed walking sewing machine foot. Instead of just making straight lines along the world's oceans, I made wavy lines. It worked pretty well and I added more as needed. Then I needed to tackle the nine blocks around the world. Initially I sewed straight lines around each block. Remembering back to rules about how many inches apart quilting should be, but also taking into account that I wasn't using batting, I decided I did need more stitching. 

Another specialty sewing machine foot I have in my little box is for free motion quilting. I

remember really enjoying "doodling" with that foot and because this project is smaller, it wasn't difficult using my regular sewing machine. It was really neat to start right in on a white block and squiggle along without a real plan aside from getting from one side to the other and not sewing through any faces. After a short time I had filled up all nine squares. Checking the back of the quilt is a great way to see the stitching and check for any large unstitched areas. Some of the printed blocks have such large images or words, it seemed important to add a bit more stitching. When I was considering how to quilt this project, I was drawn to the words and wondered about stitching on them. Once I started squiggling, I didn't think I would revisit the words, but it was fun to highlight them after all.

I'm glad that I decided to buy new fabric and get back to quilting. Choosing a panel made it easier, but still allowed me to have fun free motion quilting. I used matching blue fabric from the collection for the binding and followed Heather Bailey's tutorial for continuous quilt binding. A 1/4 yard was more than plenty for the binding and two small loops for hanging.

This little quilt will keep me warm in the winter, but I already have plans to hang it from a shelf in the warmer months. Even if the world doesn't always feel welcoming or wonderful, I will continue to maintain a welcoming and wonderful environment for my students.