My original idea was to have each student and faculty member sign a block and put it together in a scrappy checkerboard-like fashion. But then I realized I could pretty easily do an "trip around the world" pattern to make it look more elegant. I chose gradient shades of yellow and purple (our school colors) and cut them into squares. Then I snuck around and got the signatures of all 222 students, faculty, staff and administration that Mrs. Harris worked with on a daily basis. I gave each person a template to lay over the fabric so the signatures were all placed in the same general area. I pieced the quilt in an evening and morning, and then passed it off to my mother. Mom put the borders on and quilted it in a matter of days. We thought the easiest quilting pattern would be to stitch the diagaonals of each block, but we didn't want to sew through the signatures. So instead we connected the midpoints of the squares, which would highlight the names by stiching above and below each name. The amazing thing is that these lines turned out to be continuous lines that spiraled out from the center!

The goal was to present this quilt to Mrs. Harris at our last chapel of the year so that all of the students would be present when she opened it. Even though everyone knew about the quilt, it remained a surprise to Mrs. Harris. She hung it by her office door for the remainder of the year so the students could find their names and visitors could look at it. It now hangs in her home.