Teacher Pillows 2009 Complete

The four Teacher Pillows are complete. I have one more pillow form, but the Child is being uncooperative about the last drawing, so I may just save the pillow form for next year. I could take a drawing out of his drawing book and use that…. We’ll see. I think I am done with this project except for the wrapping the pillows in pretty paper.

Tangled Star - EQ6
Tangled Star - EQ6

The above is the outline/color drawing that can be printed from EQ6. It turns out that this was useless to me when I went to make the block, or so I thought.

Resource Teacher Pillow
Resource Teacher Pillow

This is how my version came out. I keep pictures of all of the pillows so I know what the past pillows looked like. That way I can use the same or similar fabrics and the teachers end up with sets of pillows if they teach the Child more than one year. This is the 3rd or 4th pillow I have made for this teacher.

Key for Foundation Piecing
Key for Foundation Piecing

This block is foundation pieced, so I also printed the segments (see below). When I looked at the printed segments, they made no sense to me. The design page ended up as a wonderful key to the colors and placement of the fabrics. I wrote letters on each piece, which correspond to the letters I wrote on the pattern pieces.

Pattern pieces ready to cut out and sew
Pattern pieces ready to cut out and sew

You can see, if you click on the picture to make it bigger and look carefully a letter, a number and a color. The color notes which fabric I need to use. The letter corresponds to the letter on the design key, which I added to make sure I didn’t assign two segments to the same section of the block. The number is the piecing/sewing order. Doing the prep took some time, but it was worth it once I started to piece. The segment pieces/patterns really don’t look like they will make the Tangled Star block, so these strategies really helped.

Piecing Order detail
Piecing Order detail

Above shows the segment after I have pieced the fabric on to it. The red and gold needed to be pieced first, which they were. I then trimmed them and sewed on the green. In this photo the green still needs to be trimmed.

Resource Teacher Pillow back
Resource Teacher Pillow back

Above is the back. The drawing is a sort of label. The Child has a distinctive drawing style that the teachers seem to enjoy. I usually let him draw whatever he wants.

Teacher Pillow Labels
Teacher Pillow Labels

To make the label, I divide up a sheet of copy/printer paper into 4 sections. Then I draw in the seam allowances and have the Child draw inside the lines. Once done, I copy onto fabric backed with freezer paper or something. I get it from Dharma, but The Electric Quilt Company and many other companies sell similar products. Once the drawings have been transferred, I rotary cut the labels apart on the cutting lines and add each label as part of the back of the pillow cover.

Omega Block Pillow, Social Studies Teacher, 6B
Omega Block Pillow, Social Studies Teacher, 6B

I let The Child pick out the blocks. I do have to guide and encourage him a little as this is a boring exercise for him and he, usually, just wants to get it over with as quickly as possible. This year he took more of an interest. Above is the block (Omega) he chose for his social studies teacher. They just finished studying Greece, so I think the Greek alphabet was on his mind. He also informed me that Omega is his favorite Greek letter.

I printed out the rotary cutting directions for the Omega, thinking that I could just make it that way. The pillow forms were 14″ so I had to scale up which resulted in a lot of 16th inch measurements. After cutting about the 10th 16th inch cut, I decided that foundation piecing was the way to go.

Sometimes he gets a little too enthusiastic. He wanted me to make a Mariner’s Compass for his resource teacher and I flat out refused. If I am going to make a Mariner’s Compass I have to start a lot earlier.

Omega Block, back
Omega Block, back

The Child used a lot more words on his  labels his year than he has in the past.

Homeroom Teacher, 6A
Homeroom Teacher, 6A

This is the first block I made. I wanted simple blocks. They got harder the more The Child was involved. He did the color selection on this one (orange and purple). I was skeptical until I found the flower print with a similar color scheme.

Homeroom Teacher Pillow, back
Homeroom Teacher Pillow, back

I hope she can read the back. It is really squished.

Teacher Aide Pillow
Teacher Aide Pillow

I really like the color scheme of this pillow. The Child went with the colors EQ6 had in their example and I think it works.  I took the opportunity to use the blue in one of the Infinity blocks as well. The color scheme reminds me of the color scheme for a RUSH day I organized in college. We wore yellow, red and green dresses and looked really bright and cheerful.

Teacher Aide Pillow, back
Teacher Aide Pillow, back

I was a little concerned about the drawing on the back as the Aide does not look very happy in his drawing. I asked the Child about the drawing and, being a boy of few words, refused to discuss it with me. I asked if she always had a lot of filing to do and he said no. That was really the end of the discussion. Oh well, I have a policy of not censoring his art if it isn’t rude or p*rnographic, so she will have to make of it what she will.

From the past:

2008 Teacher Pillows

2007 Teacher Pillows

And here are a couple from prior to 2007, as far as I can tell. 😉

4th Grade Aide Pillow
4th Grade Aide Pillow
3rd Grade Teacher Pillow
3rd Grade Teacher Pillow
4th Grade Teacher Pillow
4th Grade Teacher Pillow