Amazing Teacher Quilt from Squares and Triangles

We featured Tanya from Squares and Triangles not too long ago (here)...and I raved about her quilting gallery (and if you didn't see it then see it now!) I think we could feature almost every one of her quilts!!  I love this quilt though, it's unique and thoughtful.  Plus Tanya is so good about documenting her quilting journey, including all of the things she learned with this quilt.  Tanya also sells some of her goodies if you're in need of a nice handmade gift.

Some background:  My child’s first grade teacher LOVES pirates. She was a pirate on her first day of school.  Her room is decorated with cartoon pirates and ships.  She uses pirate sayings to get them to pay attention.  And for Halloween…yes, she was a pirate.  So, I thought it appropriate to make her a quilt for teacher appreciation week with a pirate (well, pirate ship) theme.

This is her first year of teaching, and I wanted the quilt to represent how I feel about teachers and how grateful I am for the time and effort they put into teaching my children.  So, I drew out a picture with a large ship surrounded by small ships, representing a teacher being surrounded by her students.  It kind of made itself after that.

This quilt represents a few firsts for me.

– This is my first time doing improvisational piecing throughout the whole quilt (the rotary cutter became both my best friend and my worst enemy.)

–This was my first time sewing a curve (the sun)

–This was my first time doing this maze free motion quilting.  I have done block-type meandering before, but I wanted this to look more like a maze.  I think the overall quilting pattern helps the seams melt away.  I love how it turned out.

–This was my first time using fabric marker, which I used for the back of the quilt (It has been blurred in the photo to keep their names private.  Don’t worry, it hasn’t bled…yet)

I am excited for my child to give it to her next week.  Hopefully she will use it as a wall hanging (I plan on using this tutorial to make embroidered hanging loops) or, eventually, I hope she’ll be able to wrap up her grandchildren in it.

This quilt measures 39.5 inches  x 46.5 inches.

Thanks for visiting!