Just like the Snapshots Quilt A Long, I had decided that I was going to enjoy the “Go Four It” bandwagon by living vicariously through all the great blogger posts.  Have you seen my earlier posts with the Cake and Sewing Machine blocks from Snapshots?  ha ha

But, an unexpected life event happened and I had a great reason to make a special quilt for someone at my kids school.  The school has had the same principal since they opened their doors 18 years ago.  It was just announced a few weeks ago, however, that she was having to take a medical leave for surgery and would return to the Office of Education on campus (University of Houston), but they would be seeking an immediate replacement for her in the position she has held all these years.  Dr. Black is a wonderful woman and cares deeply for all of her students (ranging in grades from K to 5).  She is loved by all and will be greatly missed.

We are lucky to be in a small school, with one class per grade.  I thought a signature quilt would be perfect, if I could pull it off before the end of the school year.  I heard that they planned to give Dr. Black a celebration type event in May.  My idea is to get every student, faculty and maintenance staff to sign a block.  The question was then – what block and what pattern??

I didn’t find a lot that suited me on Pinterest, but then I kept looking back at the APQ “Go Four It” quilt along.  One of the three choices of layouts offered in the April edition of American Patchwork & Quilting was a pattern by April Rosenthal called “Buried Treasure”.  You can see a great example of it also by Ms Thelma Cupcake in her post here.

This offered a great size block to do signatures (4 inch finished with corners)!

I also picked up a great tip from Nicole at Sisters Choice blog that gave me the idea to iron down the blocks to freezer paper before handing them out for signatures.  This would give a good foundation to write upon where the fabric wouldn’t shift under the pens.  Most of the signers are young kids between 5 and 12.

The colors of the school follow the University of Houston – which are red, white and dark navy blue.

Go Cougars!!

Perfect for my stash of Crazy for Red and Midwinter Red precuts, along with a scattering of some Lexington blues.  All the collections by Minick & Simpson.

My concern was what solid neutral color should I use to coordinate with Minick & Simpson?  I had a charm pack of unknown color (it was old enough not to include the SKU # on the back of it).  Just to be safe, I ordered several charm packs of different Bella Solid neutrals.  I ended up with SNOW as my choice.  (Does anyone need to buy Porcelain, Natural, Neutral, or Fig Tree Cream?)

So, I hesitate to talk about making this quilt, because of such a close deadline.  I hope to pull it off.  I won’t even take the signature blocks to the school for signatures until I have all of the four patches done as well.  That way I know I have a great shot at getting it pieced together in time.

I have 65 of the signature blocks half done this weekend.  I have a lot of the four patch units half done.  I’ll have to see how much progress I can make in the next week because Spring Break is in two weeks and I could really use that time to try and do the assembly.

Hope you have a good week lined up ahead of you.  Enjoy and see you again soon!  Thanks for stopping by!

Jennifer