My Solution

School is ending next week. (WOW, the year has really gone by fast!) This is Cole's last year in elementary school, so I wanted to give a little something to his teachers...but with finances being what they are, I basically had to come up with something for nothing. My solution - and I think it's a grand idea, if I do say so myself! - is quilted bookmarks. I have plenty of fabric, plenty of batting scraps, and this weekend provided plenty of time. I just layed them out, freemotion quilted them, and then cut them apart. The hardest part was the wee-tiny hole for the ribbons. So I ended up making a boo-coo load of of bookmarks...enough for Cole's teachers - including his PE teacher who is retiring & intends to stay home & quilt to her heart's content, and one of his Sunday School teachers who is retiring from teaching school after 31 years, as well as some for my co-worker's birthdays.




They were easy and fun, but also creative and useful. USEFUL is a key thing, in my opinion when giving teachers gifts. (How many #1 teacher mugs to they really need??????) So I always try to think 'outside the box' and give them something useful. In years past, I've given them packs of lightbulbs, which my boys think is just plain weird, but when I attach the cute little poem Blake wrote about 'Thank you for making me brighter, and A+ = a 100,etc, etc, therefore these 100watt bulbs are for you' it all makes sense. =) BUT then it became unfashionable to use regular 100 watt bulbs...we're suppose to uses those compact florescent thingies - which are not 100 watts. So that messed that up.

Anyway.... Bookmarks were the solution....and might be the answer to Christmas this year, too!