Snowflake Quilt Progress Pics

The fifth graders finished the quilt pieces right before break. I spent a wonderful day sewing and quilting all of the pieces together into a beautifully adorned winter-inspired piece of art. The images that follow show the progress. Happy Snow Day!

Week Four (3 weeks of running stitches!)

Week Five: starting to add some embellishments...

Week 7: I began to sew on borders so that I could piece together as soon as they were finished with their designs.

Week 8: I started to piece together the squares...

And the finished product! (with cool glitter fabric on back!)

Story Quilts

First graders spent time talking about the different purposes of quilt-making. After creating a symmetric foundation of fabric, each quilter embellished his/her fabric with ribbons and buttons. During the subsequent classes, students discussed symbolism found in colors and shapes in the quilts. We looked as some examples from the Freedom Quilts of the underground railroad. After the quilt was finished, each student wrote a short story based on the symbols of his/her quilt.

Winter Class Quilt

Our school district is holding a silent auction to raise money for the Relay for Life event to raise money and awareness for Cancer research. The art department has been asked to make artistic contributions with the students to include in the silent auction. The event is Wednesday, December 18th. YIKES!

My fifth grade class that I see twice a week has started making a snowflake themed tapestry/quilt. It is exciting as I am learning a few new things myself! I will keep posting the progress. Last week we went back to our primary days and cut snowflakes from paper to use as stencils. On Tuesday we battled the wind and a hide-and-seek sun to expose our light sensitive fabric. We are using Blueprints on Fabric (http://www.blueprintsonfabric.com/).  I rinsed them out and ta-dah! I can't wait to start embroidering these tomorrow!

Another Quilt Finished!

This past summer I spent a week as the resident artist at Kirkwood Camp in the Poconos. The campers worked on several projects to celebrate the "Joy of Creation". Using nature as our inspiration, each camper worked on a 12 inch square over the course of a couple of days.  Today I finally sewed on the sleeve so that it can be hung properly for all to enjoy. A few pictures follow that document the process and remind us of those warm sunny days!