Mrs. Przystup's Signature Quilt

MacGregor had another great teacher this year who also happened to have a soft spot for him.  Maybe he's just that kind of kid.  Chase also had Mrs. Przystup and I loved her then too.  She often told me how much she enjoyed teaching both my boys and how she thought they were well behaved and good friends to others.

MacGregor brought home all his papers in a manilla envelope each Monday.  We had to sign that we received all the paper.  There was also a box for comments, yet we never wrote anything in there.  One day in April MacGregor said to me, "Do you think you could write a comment like Daddy did last week?  Because Mrs. Przystup will write you back."  Dan had written "Hi" and Mrs. Przystup has replied, "Hi".  MacGregor is really cute.  So I had been asking MacGregor to find out what Mrs. Przystup's favorite color(s) were so I could plan the quilt but he had forgotten time and time again.  So I wrote in the comment section, "What is your favorite color?"  She replied, "Blue....hmmm??"  And so I was faced with what blue collection to work with.  I was worried I wouldn't find a collection with a lot of blue.  I went to my favorite fabric store - Sauder's.  In reality there were WAY to many to choose from.  I ended up going with an asian mix.  It was in the blue family ranging from light gray to a dark greenish blue and all inbetween.  These fabrics also incorprated metals - gold and silver.  I found a white for the signatures that had a light print of flowers and butterflies.  I thought it carried on with the asian theme.

I emailed Mrs. Przystup a few weeks ago and asked her if I could come in and work on a project with the kids.  I told her she would need to leave the room for a few minutes because it was a surprise for her.  She ended up having a special meeting the next day and said a sub would be there for an hour or so.  I went in and had the sub help me hold the blocks down so each child could sign.  Luckily the only child not in class that day lives directly across the street from me so I had all the signatures in no time.  I told the kids to promise NOT to tell Mrs. Przystup what we did because it was going to be a surprise.  Apparently, she asked the class what they had worked on (sneaky lady...maybe she just can't wait for surprises) and several of the kids raised their hands until the rest of the kids got mad and reminded them it was a secret.

I don't know if she ever found out what it was beforehand but I think she must have been excited about it because MacGregor told me recently that she asked when he would be bringing in the surprise.  He brought it in on Wed. , the second to last day of school.  He said she really liked it.  She called me at lunch that day to say thank you and tell me how much she liked it.  She also said that my card had made her cry.  It just told her how dear to my heart she is and how lucky my boys were to get her.

And here's the back.  I used a pale blue flannel middle layer and this yellow floral print flannel for the back.  I thought the yellow complimented the gold on the front and the flowers were blue ( bonus.)  The flannel gave it thickness.  I still haven't figured out how to keep the class photo from fading slightly.  I have to wash the quilt to get the rag look but it causes the picture to lose its crispness.