Connie Hadba

At the school where I teach we have many foreign teachers. They come for two years and then return to their countries. However, one Canadian couple have been with us for six years and have become very special to many of us. They have decided to retire this year and return to Canada.

I thought it would be nice to do something special for them as a surprise. I chose the maple leaf block and added an autograph patch to it. Then I made 90 of them and went around to all the teachers our Canadian couple have worked with these last six years and asked them to sign a block. There were more than 90 teachers to sign, so I made autograph blocks for the border of the quilt as well. I ended up with 140 signed blocks! I added the school's emblem on the corners in green, the school's colors. By then, the quilt had grown to a queen sized quilt. The quilt label on the back reads, "May our best wishes keep you warm on cold Canadian winter nights."

When we gave the quilt to them, our Canadian couple were completely surprised and delighted with their unique going-away gift.

Connie