I think the mug rugs are a good idea with a "matching" cup and a tea bag or hot chocolate mix included. Same too for the candle mat with a scented candle would be nice. The Quilting Celebrations magazine by Fons and Porter has patterns for gift card holders (mitten and stocking) if one wanted to give something like a Starbucks card.

I would go for either a tote bag to carry all her books in, or how about a quilted cover for a IPAD or E-Reader. There are some great patterns (free) out there. That is coming from a retired teacher.

Sounds like a great idea - but when I tried to go there, all I got was "Page Not Found"

Teachers - what do you like to get for gifts? or find useful?

What do you tend to get "lots" of ?

I think mug rugs like someone said would be the best, It would be hard to do bags without knowing their taste.

Last year I made Christmas table runners for all my grandsons teachers and his special needs bus driver. They were all so pleased and loved them. This year I am going to use a pattern I found for a simple fabric quilted napkin basket. It ties on 4 corners and is really simple to make. I believe I saw the pattern here on the board. I also plan to make a matching oven mitt and all will be in Christmas fabrics. Going to the dollar store and purchase some cute paper holiday napkins and maybe some nice wooden spoons, and there you go! Simple, inexpensive and creative. I think they will love it!!

As a former teacher, these are my thoughts.. Nothing smelly. Lots of teachers are allergic. Totes with lots of pockets. Make them strong and big, because they will get lots of use. Mug organizers, a cover for over the computer when not in use, notecards, ipad cover, potato bags for when they nuke their lunches, cup cozies to help keep their coffee warm, little sacs of snacks, i.e. gorp, for late afternoons at school, or just a nice note telling them how much they are appreciated. For elementary school teachers, a bag of "goodies", i.e. scraps of fabric, buttons, sequins, trims, any unused craft items to be used in the classroom to create mother's day cards, things they can create if they have a friend in a senior citizen home, etc. etc. would be well used!

We grew up in a very poor small town. What my mom did was get all the parents together, and had a lunchtime when they had all the kids draw around their hands with fabric crayons, each on a separate piece of white muslin, and had them write their names underneath, also in fabric crayon. (We were in maybe sr. Kindergarten, so about 4 or 5 years old? Crayons were the natural choice :) Then she set the crayon, added sashing, and quilted it. The sashing and batting came out of her own sash, and this way none of the other parents had to pay for a gift. The teacher LOVED it - REALLY loved it. For a decade afterwards (until she died), when I saw her on the street she'd make sure to come up to me and talk about it. That being said, I don't know that that sort of thing would fly in an area that's less close-knit, or if the parents want to each do something.

I like to take holiday theamed panels and make them into wallhangings. There are a nice variety of fabric panels out there.

Being with elementary kids - especially when we went on field trips - what I found most helpful was a simple back pack (made out of school themed fabric) filled with various sizes of bandaids, some gauze, (all in zip lock baggies) safety scissors, small hand sanitizer, tissues, a couple of safety pins, masking tape, small pad and a capped pen. If kids needed medicine while we were gone and the school nurse wasn't going, with permission slips from parents and Dr. I could put it in the bag as well. This was also good to carry the emergency information cards on the kids, (and make sure that one was in there for myself as well), along with any emergency #'s that might be needed.