Art+Craft:Young Hands Quilting Community

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. 

Our last two weeks have seen the students learning about the tools of quilt making and cutting fabric for our Raffle Quilt. Each of the six classes who are making the raffle quilt have learned about the tools used for quilting and needlework. Filling out worksheets to learn the names and uses of the tools helps develop their vocabulary for a new skill before the tools are used. The students are then asked to gather in pairs and use a rotary cutter to cut 3 x 16 inch strips.  We need 60 strips of each of the three fabric colours to create 120 blocks. One more class is left to cut fabric and then we move on to sewing. 

During the Introduction to Quilts month each class was asked to vote for their favourite colour scheme and quilt pattern. Our pattern choices were: Rail Fence, Irish Chain and Broken Dishes. Our colour scheme choices were: Monochromatic blues (3), Red & White or White, Yellow and Purple (Complementary colours). After counting 328 votes, the winning combination is: Rail Fence with a monochromatic blue colour scheme. The votes were close but Rail Fence pulled ahead on the last day. Next week we begin cutting up fabric! And Quilt Club will start on Thursday. The next phase begins.

The month of October is an introduction to quilts and the scope of the Art+Craft: Young Hands Quilting Community Project for the students of Forest Grove Elementary. Each class's session begins with a slide presentation where we contrast art and craft objects, understand the steps and materials needed to make a quilt, and learn how cotton fabric is made. After looking at samples of bed and art quilts, we discuss the importance of thinking about colour in relation to design.  Students then choose a template from three different quilt patterns to colour in as they choose. During this phase of the session students experiment with colour and pattern. It is fascinating to see what colours they choose to use and why. After the colouring session is over students vote for the pattern and colour scheme they prefer.  At the end of October the winning pattern and colour scheme will be revealed.

Forest Grove Elementary is located in an idyllic patch of woodland on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, British Columbia Canada.  During the 2017 - 2018 school year students will explore the capacity of a quilt to be both art and craft. Both an art and bed quilt will be made by students led by Forest Grove community member and mixed media quilt artist Jennie Johnston and many enthusiastic volunteers. Students from Kindergarten to Grade 7 will learn that making by hand is a valuable skill that is overlooked in our culture at large. They will understand that the cloth that is a part of their daily lives, such as clothing and bed covers, is grown, woven, sewn, and shipped to them before it is purchased to be used. They will see the skills required to make a bed quilt, the techniques used, and the labour involved in such an endeavour.  They will also take pride in the result of their labour and promote it to the community at large. With proceeds from the bed quil...