My creativity has been put on a back shelf in some ways but it pays to be creative when children are involved. In the last couple of weeks I have taken care of my two year old grandson for four days and spent six days substitute teaching in second grade and a special class for fourth and fifth graders. I had a great experience with the fourth and fifth graders that I would like to share.
On the second day, I took 3 of my quilts and a book called Reuben and the Quilt to read to the students. One of the quilts I took was a big, store-bought quilt that I often put on the floor at home for my grandson to play on. I spread it out on the floor and told the students ( 7 boys) that they could sit on it while they listened to the story. Two of the boys asked if they should take their shoes off but I told them that the quilt was a special one for my grandchildren to play and listen to stories on but they didn't need to take their shoes off because my grandchildren didn't. (I think this made the students feel special.)
The boys were quite interested in the two small quilts that I made. One was made by machine and quilted by machine and the other was machine pieced and hand quilted. They liked touching the quilts and looking at the stitches. They actually layed down on the quilt to listen to the story. It was fun to look at these rough and tumble boys as they listened to the story. The story is about an Amish family and the students enjoyed talking about the differences between their lifestyle and that of the Amish family.In the story, a quilt is described to be like an ice cream sandwich - the fabric makes the top and bottom and the batting is like the ice cream inside. The experience was a rewarding way to end my stay with the students.
I have been working on a new quilt. It has baskets on it. I got the inspiration from a book that I just bought that has many basket patterns in it. I have it just about pieced. It will be about 78x78 when I am finished.
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