3 Cups of Tea Quilt

I volunteered to make a quilt with the 500+ students at the school where I teach, to celebrate the "United We Read" 2010 reading event.  Every student in our district is reading a version of "Three Cups of Tea", a book about a doctor who has built schools in Afghanistan.  The themes in the story include friendship, generosity, kindness, and tolerance. 

I found this wonderful fabric with teacups with the words "cups of kindness" that will be the border and some bright colors to complement the border.  I cut twenty-four 8 inch blocks of light colored fabric and then appliqued a bright colored teacup on each block.  I didn't want to applique the handle on each teacup because they would have been very small pieces (and this is only the second time I've appliqued!) so I found a stitch on my sewing machine that looks like the handle.  Each classroom will receive a block and every student in the classroom will sign the block. 

Here are some pictures of my work in progress!