My grandmother turned 91 in April.  She is the last surviving of her twelve siblings and her whole family loved to play games.  In particular, they loved to play Scrabble.  I've made Grandma different Scrabble gifts before, but wanted to do something extra special this year.  I came across this quilt idea and, although I've never quilted before, decided to make something similar.  I semi-followed the instructions found here, but had to adapt a bit to make it look like a Scrabble board and to get it the size I wanted it.

I started planning this back in mid-January.  I used a spreadsheet to lay out the names I wanted to include:  Grandma's maiden name and the names of her parents and twelve siblings.  I drew up a scrabble board on the spreadsheet and colorized the squares so I would know which squares were which.  I knew I wanted to have "LOWDER" span the center square, so I started from there.  It took awhile, but I eventually got them all on.


Next, I counted how many of each color square I would need for both the front and back of the quilt and purchased the fabric.  I started out thinking to make 8x8 squares.  I thought I'd calculated the right amount but once I got cutting, I realized I had underestimated.  I used camel colored flannel for the lettered squares, and then red, dark blue, light blue, and pink flannel for the colored tiles and tan flannel for the blank squares. After two trips to buy fabric and batting, I finally began the process of cutting the squares.




While not quite as tedious as cutting all the squares, this was still extremely mind numbing.




After finishing the Xes, I realized that my squares were going to be too big, so I cut them down by an inch.  This resulted in a large scrap pile that was very soft!






Once I had the squares sewn and cut to size, I added up the number of each letter I would need and added it to the spreadsheet, making sure to note which letters needed to be painted on which color backing. Remember that the back of the quilt is a blank Scrabble board!  This was more challenging than expected, since apparently I have addition issues...



I used fabric paint and a letter stencil I found at JoAnn's to paint on the letters.


I couldn't find just the right Scrabble font, so I had to free hand some of the areas that were left open on the stencil, but I was pleased with the final product.


After letting the paint dry for two days, I began the process of painting on the letter values.  The stencil kit I'd purchased had the 2, 3 and 4, but no 1, so my husband cut one out for me!  Again using the spreadsheet as a guide, I added the number values to each letter.








Next, I placed the quilt squares in the correct order and did a rough lay out of the quilt.


I stacked each row into a pile and labeled the row number, so I could figure out which was which when I was ready to sew the rows together.


At this point I realized that by cutting the squares down, I had eliminated the ability to have a 3/4 inch seam.  Oops.  I ended up making 1/2 inch-ish seams.  I stitched each square in the row together, making sure to have the letters on the correct side!  Then I pinned the rows together to make sure that my seams for each tile were lined up, then I sewed the rows together.



As the quilt got larger, it was more and more challenging to get the bulk through the machine. 


When everything was stitched together, I began to cut the seams, making a fringe about 1/4 inch deep.  The fringing was a messy job.  Little pieces of thread and flannel were everywhere by the time I was done.  Since my grandma has dementia, I wanted to put a quilt label on so she would know who made the quilt and why.  I looked at the ones that were available at the store, but wasn't impressed.  I decided I'd try to make a simple one using some scrap material I had on hand and a fabric marker.  I used heat and bond to adhere the patch onto the quilt.



Once that was done, I ran the quilt through the wash to get rid of some of the threads and to give the quilt a basic "rag" look.  My mom and I then used a lint remover to take the lint and threads off of the squares before I wrapped up the quilt. 

Here's the finished product...



and back...


Unfortunately, we weren't able to make the trip to Michigan for her birthday, but the quilt was delivered by my parents and my aunt.  Here is Grandma with her new quilt.


My parents reported back that she was THRILLED with it and that it was helping her reminisce about her family and her childhood.






MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!  And - score - it fit on her bed almost perfectly!

Just a quick post to help you out if you are looking for a fairly easy end of the year teacher gift.  This year we made goody bouquets.




To make a goody bouquet, you will need:
hot glue gun & glue sticks (quite a few!)
goodies (we used raisins, pretzels, gum, candy, sticky note pads, gift cards)
skewers (I grabbed the longest ones I could find and cut them to different lengths)
a container (we used canning jars that I picked up for $.49/2 at Goodwill)
curling ribbon/tulle
decorative stones or jelly beans

Fill your container with the decorative stones.  Hot glue your goodies to the various skewers, keeping in mind that the largest things should be on the tallest skewers so that they can be seen from the front.  Decorate the container and the skewers with curling ribbon or tulle.  Arrange your skewers in an attractive way so that each item can be at least partially seen from the front. 


These took about an hour to make from start to finish and were a big hit with the teachers! 

Every year for teacher appreciation week, our PTA sends home a letter telling us suggesting what gifts to bring in each day for the teachers.  While I understand the sentiment of wanting to give them gifts every day, it doesn't seem very practical for the teachers to have 30 flowers on Monday, 30 pieces of fruit on Tuesday, etc.  That said, I try to follow the intent of the PTA and send small tokens of appreciation each day.  I just try to think a little more outside of the box.



So today was flower day.  I had this grand idea of making a little seed packet bouquet but time got away from me and last night when I glanced at the letter again, it didn't say Fruit day like I had remembered it would.  Oops.  So, sans seed packets, the girls and I made some tissue paper flowers.


Thankfully, we had several colors of tissue paper on hand and many green pipe cleaners.  I think they turned out okay for the most part.  At least they will last longer than a real flower bouquet!


Tomorrow is fruit day and while I'm not going with the cliched apple for the teacher, they are getting a small bunch of grapes with a note that says, "Thanks a bunch for being my teacher!"

For more teacher appreciation ideas, check out these posts (flowers, sanitizer, scrabble tiles) from the past.

What do you do for teacher appreciation?

I saw these "Sweetheart Roses" in Family Fun magazine a few years ago and clipped the picture for future reference. I came across the photo last week and decided these would be wonderful as appreciation gifts for the people who work at my church. I gathered up the supplies but ran into a problem trying to find pink plastic wrap. After many phone calls, several stops at hobby, grocery and party stores, I ended up getting pink cellophane instead.

Here's how I did it.

I had been waiting since last year to try making these candy cane hearts. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any mini candy canes at the stores this year. So, I adapted and came up with a new plan. Instead of melting two candy canes together, I decided to heat the candy canes and bend them into hearts. This was both a success and a failure.

To make these hearts, you will need candy canes and patience! Some candy canes seem to work better than others... the Spangler brand worked wonderfully while others crumbled.



While your oven is preheat to the lowest temperature, unwrap the candy canes and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 6 minutes and check flexibility. If the candy canes get over heated, the candy canes will flatten but if they are not hot enough, they will not bend. It is much easier to put them in for another few minutes than it is to try to make them round again!


Once they are flexible enough, curve the ends together to form a heart and pull the middle down to form a point.


You can also make them into letters...


After a few batches in the above method, I decided I'd try to heat them in the microwave. That was not a good idea...


It did, however spark a new idea. As with any box of candy canes, I had several broken ones that I couldn't figure out how to form into a heart. I decided to put the pieces into my silicone heart pan and zap them for about 30 seconds in the microwave.

It worked to create peppermint, marbled hearts!


So, experiment away. You never know what will work!

Since I had purchased so many Scrabble sets for the creation of this gift, I had plenty of tiles left over. The girls enjoyed making up games with the tiles for a bit. Then I used a few of them in the I-SPY bags. The girls also made name magnets for some relatives by gluing the tiles together with hot glue (always supervise your children closely when you use hot glue!) and putting adhesive magnet on the back. (update - Chip had to super glue the tiles together and put them on a card stock backing because the hot glue didn't hold)


I also tried my hand at making Scrabble tile necklaces. The first batch didn't turn out too well. Apparently the diamond glaze got shaken up a bit more than I thought on the ride home from the store and many, many bubbles seemed to rise up as the tiles dried. The second batch was significantly better! Paperwise, I used Japanese paper, scrapbooking paper and tissue paper for the decoration on the tiles. I used the paper from the packages the chains came in to create jewel cards. I think they look pretty good!


You can find directions in multiple places on the web. I simply lightly traced the tiles on the back side of the paper, trimmed the paper slightly larger than the tracing and used the diamond glaze to adhere the paper to the tile. After that dried, I trimmed the paper to the exact size of the tile then coated the whole thing with diamond glaze. I used a paint brush handle to spread the glaze around the tile. Once the glaze was dry, Chip epoxied the earring backs and necklace bails to the backs of the tiles. Add a chain and you're done!