Art+Craft:Young Hands Quilting Community

As part of this project a video documenting the process was created.   Each stage of this process was documented on this blog as well. Scroll through the posts to learn more about each step. Contact the artist through her website at www.jenniejohnston.com

This project has been successful due to the hands of many people and the coming together of many voices and perspectives into a cohesive whole. Below are the artworks created during this project from October 2017 to May 2018.

Our two sessions of selling raffle tickets at Cameron Community Centre allowed us to share this project with our community at large. We received many compliments about the quilt and passersby relayed stories about quilting, school fundraising and crafting to us. Our Quilt Assembly on May 24 gathered all the students together to see the results of their hard work and pull the winning ticket.  In the end, from the over 700 tickets sold a Forest Grove Elementary family won Blue Waves. The Art Quilts were displayed and will be placed in their permanent home in the coming months, outside the school library.

For our final Primary student sessions we read the delightful quilt story The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco . The lineage and thrift of quilts is wonderfully demonstrated in this story. I also encouraged the students to relate the story of the Keeping Quilt to the story of our quilt Blue Waves. After our story and discussion each student created a collage quilt by gluing fabric squares, triangles and rectangles to paper. There were some beautiful designs created, and collage is a great way to introduce younger students to working with fabric layouts and design without the worry of scissors, needles and sewing.

The final teaching sessions with the Grade 3 to 7 students involve trying out hand quilting. This skill is one that takes many hours, weeks, months and years to master. While we had the raffle quilt quilted by a professional, the art quilts are being quilted by the students and myself. Above is our classroom setting for quilting. I put out quilting books, examples of stitching and then pass out small quilt sandwiches (two pieces of fabric with quilting batting between them) The students then get to practice quilting. Students worked hard to get the rhythm. Once they felt more confident they began working on sections of the art quilts. We will continue working on these panels until their big reveal at the Quilt Project Assembly on May 24, 2018.

Our Raffle quilt tickets are now on sale!  All the Students of Forest Grove Elementary voted on the pattern design and colour scheme.  The students in Grade 4-7 cut and sewed the fabric together, and Monica at Quilted Treasures in Coquitlam quilted this queen size quilt. Meet Blue Waves... Tickets have been distributed to students and are on sale now. If you would like to see the quilt in person it will be on display Saturday April 21 from 12-3 pm at Cameron Community Centre  9523 Cameron St, Burnaby, BC Outside of the Library.   We will also have tickets on sale, and be sharing the story of our project.  Get your tickets while supplies last, the draw will take place on Thursday May 24.

Our second Primary week was about the students from Kindergarten to Grade 4 seeing the art quilts laid out in their pre-quilting state. The autumn quilt was basted with thread to demonstrate how the three layers will be connected until the quilting process is complete. This was the first time that the younger students were able to see all of the 90 squares for each season pieced together. To learn and have tactile interaction with the different stages of making a quilt the students then had the chance to quilt on the sewing machine. Each student quilted a 4 x 4 inch square to take home. When we return to classes next week the Intermediate students will begin quilting the art quilts by machine and by hand. Our raffle tickets go on sale April 6th! Check back soon for the reveal of the finished Raffle Quilt and for more information about where to see the quilts and buy tickets.

We have been busy sewing again.  Our seasonal panels tops are under construction. After the design process numbers were taped on the back of the squares, students began sewing them together. Each row had 9 squares. It is lovely to see how the squares contrast or blend as they are sewn together. From the Summer Panel. A Winter panel row completed. Here is how the rows come together after they are sewn. This is the Autumn quilt. More soon as we proceed into our second Primary student week next week.

Design week was an inspiring one where four out of the sixteen classes working on the Art Quilt worked out the final layouts of the 4 x 4 inch squares in each season. I was impressed by the thoughtfulness and lively discussions that accompanied these sessions. The students had lots of opinions and had to make their case on several occasions for why they thought a specific design choice should or should not be made. Blocks were taped to the wall in the 9 squares per row, 10 row pattern Students then re-arranged the squares to make a pleasing design This was challenging as many of the squares have similar designs.  Should they be grouped together  in a pattern or distributed randomly?  What is most pleasing to the eye? These classes also brainstormed the titles of the panels. We used process of elimination through voting to get our final result. Once the design was finalised each block was numbered from 1 through 90 on the back sid...

This week was our first Primary week of the project. Since the older students are doing most of the sewing I have spent more time with them thus far. Primary week means that I can share our progress with the students in Kindergarten to Grade 3 and let them have some hands on time with the sewing machine as well. Our first step was to look at the finished Raffle quilt top and admire all of the hard word of the Intermediate students. (Grades 4-7) Each student then chose two 2.5 inch squares to sew together and the sewing began Each student took home their work for a keepsake

We are hard at work after our Winter Holiday break. The first three weeks of January are all about learning to use the sewing machines, constructing 120 rail fence quilt blocks and sewing those blocks into our quilt top. These blocks are for our queen size quilt which will be raffled off to raise money for the school. Some tape helps the students to keep their sewing lines straight. Three strips become two blocks which we then trim into 7.5 inch squares The iron station is very popular with the students. As we were discussing pattern choices and block layouts we moved the squares around to see all the possibilities. Along with piecing the blocks we have also begun sewing the blocks together into our quilt top.  In the end we will have 12 rows with 10 blocks in each row. We expect the raffle quilt to be finished with the piecing portion by the end of this month.

While the cutting of fabric was underway with Forest Grove's six oldest classes, we have also been working on our 4 x 4 inch art squares. Each season has four classes making art about it. The four classes range from Kindergarten to Grade 6 and/or 7 in each grouping.  This allows for each season's panel to share a spectrum of techniques and abilities. Autumn  Winter   Spring Summer Art squares will be finished by the end of term in December.  Techniques have ranged from painting with stencils and stamps to free hand painting to embroidery. We are getting closer each day to our goal of 360 squares in each panel.