A Cake Quilt

It's that time of year again.

I don't mean allergy season - though mine are indeed kicking me in the face (and throat, and chest, etc.)

I don't mean the end of the school year - that's not for another month.  Believe me.

I don't even mean my father's birthday - though I've got my red food coloring ready to go.

No my friends, I'm talking about Quilt Season.

Every year, the school where I work hosts a Spring Fair.  It's quite the event.  Months of planning, plus hundreds of hours of volunteer work on the part of the parents.  They always do a wonderful job.

Each class traditionally makes a quilt to be auctioned off at the Fair.  Last year, my first quilt-making adventure, I was definitely intimidated.  But it turned out very nicely, thanks to a very furry little helper:

After that, I caught the quilting bug.  When my stepsister announced she was expecting, I knew I wanted to make her a quilt to celebrate the occasion.  Weeks of planning and sewing later, and this is what I was able to give them:

Pretty cool, huh?

For this year's class quilt, I decided to make a story quilt based on one of my students' favorite books: Thunder Cake, by Patricia Polacco.  In the book, a little girl is afraid of an approaching thunderstorm.  Her grandmother convinces her to come out from her hiding place under the bed by telling her that they need to hurry and gather the ingredients for a Thunder Cake - if they don't get the ingredients by the time the storm arrives, it won't be a real Thunder Cake!  Long story short, the little girl has to conquer her fears as she gathers the ingredients, and in the end, she realizes how brave she is.

Cute.  Sweet.  And there's cake involved.

In short, the perfect theme.

I enlisted (read: nagged to death) the Sous Chef to do the drawings for me, since my artistic ability is only as long as the thread on my needle.  I did the backstitching for the outlines, but the children did the vast majority of the running stitch.  My very kind room parent volunteered to come in every morning for over a week to oversee the stitching so that I could actually teach during that time.  Here's what the completed quilt looks like:

HOW AWESOME ARE MY FIVE-YEAR-OLDS?!

Answer:  Really.  Really.  Awesome.

And yes, that's cursive.  In stitching.  Courtesy of a five-year-old:

Sorry, I don't mean to brag.

Except I do.

My kids are amazing.