Teaching Quilting in Schools

Weaving the history of quiltmaking with American history can be a fun project for a teacher.  If you don’t do quilting yourself, see if a local quilter will visit and share with your students.

I first quilted with a sixth grade class when my daughter was in high school…quite a few years ago, considering that her daughter now is a high school freshman.  However, this project showed me what fun it was to work with young quilters.  It happened to be spring break at my daughter’s school, so she could join me to share with the youngsters and help with the class.

Several years later, Beth and I taught a quilting workshop spread out over several visits to another school.  The theme of the quilt the coordinator asked us to oversee was based on the history of the town.  She wanted us to use pictures of the town interspersed with quilting techniques.  This was a challenging, but enjoyable project.  Beth did the designing and the youngsters contributed with the sewing and decorating.

Brainstorm about how you can use quilting  to expand your students’ knowledge of their history.