When I started teaching reading to young children, it was like reverse engineering how to ride a bicycle. Reading is as natural for me as breathing. But many children struggle with learning to read. Projects that weave real life with reading life help children understand the connections between books and the rest of their world. Creating quilts was one of my favorite book-to-life projects.
I always started my quilt projects by reading aloud Tar Beach by Faith Ringgold. This picture book is based on a story quilt completed in 1988 as part of Faith Ringgold's "Woman on a Bridge" series. Whenever I reread it, I am awed at the visual richness of every page. I love the quilt borders that run at the bottom of every page. I am intrigued by the reproduction of the actual quilt in the historic notes at the end of the book and study it in detail. I always use this book with any age child to introduce the idea that a quilt can tell a story.
As an interesting sidenote, I've read this book aloud numerous times but until today, I hadn't taken much notice of the pages where Ringgold writes about her father being denied Union membership. However with the recent events in Wisconsin, those pages now stick in my brain. Reading and life weaving new pathways in the brain.
New to me is The Buffalo Storm by Katherine Applegate and illustrated by Jan Ormerod. A common theme in quilt books for children is the connection a quilt creates between grandparents and/or parents. The quilt in this book is given to the granddaughter as she leaves with her father and mother to migrate to Oregon during the westward expansion of the 1800s. The text has a lovely rhythm and is set apart from the illustrations with a box that is reminiscent of a quilt border. It's a book about finding courage when one moves far from a known home.
The Rag Coat by Lauren Mills and The Patchwork Quilt by Valerie Flournoy with pictures by Jerry Pinkney both deal with the death of a close relative. In The Rag Coat, the child lives in the Appalachians and her father works the coal mines until his death. In The Patchwork Quilt the grandmother passes away after creating a masterpiece quilt for her granddaughter. Both are about quilts being pieced from clothing or blankets that are too worn to be used any more. Each salvaged piece carries its own stories and memories. I immediately see both as a way to start a family history quilt. These are also good books to talk about recycling old fabrics to new uses.
Quilt of Dreams by Mindy Dwyer is interesting as it details quilt patterns like "Birds in the Air" and "Log Cabin" in the endnotes. Each of the quilts in the endnotes are linked with page numbers to illustrations in the text. The writing isn't as powerful as the other picture books I've mentioned, but it could be read aloud with a child to show traditional quilting patterns.
Like jazz music, quilts are an American art form that is often mentioned in African American history. Quilts were used as signaling devices on the Underground Railroad. Faith Ringgold explores this in Aunt Harriet's Underground Railroad in the Sky. Other picture books that include references to quilts on the Underground Railroad are Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson and The Patchwork Path: A Quilt Map to Freedom by Bettye Stroud. There were several more books on Amazon about quilts and the Underground Railroad. These books tell powerful stories about a sad time in American history.
One of my favorite methods to use when I create quilts with children is to do a crayon transfer. I give each child a square of sandpaper to create a crayon picture about a particular theme. I've used various themes such as self-portraits, communication inventions, transportation inventions, Westward Expansion, things found in nature -- just about any theme imaginable lends itself to a group quilt. After the child creates a crayon drawing on sandpaper, an adult does the hot iron transfer to a piece of muslin. Sewing the blocks together with sashes and borders can be done by older children, young adults or by an adult if the children are preschool or early elmentary. Here are instructions for crayon transfer with wax crayons and sandpaper. My search for instructions also turned up instructions for fabric crayons on synthetic fabrics. I was lucky to usually find a parent volunteer to help complete my quilting projects. The finished quilt would hang in the classroom until the end of the year and then be gifted to one of the volunteers. But this is a great project to create a family keepsake with your child.
Have you been inspired by a book to create a project?