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Quilts: Life's Memories

4/18/2014

7 Comments

 
Picture
My artifact for today is Quilt. I remember one of our Tejas Storytelling Festival Themes was "Quilts" and we each wore a colorful swatch next to our name tags reminding us that stories are the fabric of our lives. There are wonderful picture books that depict the importance of memories lovingly sewn into each quilt.

Picture
A CRAZY QUILT 
And what is life? A crazy quilt;
Sorrow and joy, and grace and guilt,
With here and there a square of blue
For some old happiness we knew;
And so the hand of time will take
The fragments of our lives and make, 
Out of life's remnants, as they fall, 
A thing of beauty, after all.

By Douglas Malloch


Storytelling Activity:  
1. Students can create creative crazy quilts on square, white paper (8 x 8 or 10 x 10) using any art medium such as markers, crayons, oil pastels.  Each section of their quilt must present pieces of who they are. For example, favorite sport, family, favorite genre of books, favorite subject in school, favorite music, etc. 
2. Bring in real quilts and the quilt maker if possible to tell the story behind the quilt made or share quilt pictures like the ones above.
3. When completed, create a class quilt by placing the squares strategically on colored butcher paper.  
4.  The ideas generated by each student are the fabric of stories to come!
Quilt Map

My grandma stitches swatches
matching patches blue and red.
She's making me a crazy quilt
to snuggle with in bed.

I help her sort the batches
into stacks of every size
I watch her sew. i watch it grow.
I can't believe my eyes.

Up and down her needle flies
turning clothes into a map.
I try to read where I have been
to flannel patterns on her lap.

A shirt I wore until it tore
is now a country, soft and new.
And jeans I ran in yesterday
have turned to seas of faded blue.

My grandma stitches snatches
of my past into a quilted land
so I can sleep with memories…
made by Grandma
all by hand.

By Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
Are there heirloom quilts in your family? Are there stories sewn into each square or swatch?
7 Comments
Romi link
4/18/2014 05:07:03 pm

Hi.
I dabbled in patchwork and quilting years ago, and I'd like to take it up again some day.
We don't have any heirloom quilts in my family. Maybe I could start one from now on.
I like the poem "Quilt Map" quoted here.
Have a great weekend.

Reply
Melanie Goble link
4/19/2014 01:52:22 am

I just started my first quilt on Wednesday. Hopefully, I will have it done by the middle of July! I absolutely love the animal quilt you have posted. I don't know that I will ever have that kind of skill!

Reply
Stephanie link
4/19/2014 02:00:09 am

My sister asked me a couple weeks ago to help her learn to quilt. I'm not sure whether it's a sign of our impending old age, or whether to be overjoyed that she's actually picking up a needle and thread. Never saw this coming. lol Great ideas for the children

Reply
rebecca link
4/19/2014 02:04:07 am

I love quilts adn quilting. Reading this made me want to go right to my sewing machine today. Thanks.

Visiting from A to Z.

Reply
Thelma Zirkelbach link
4/19/2014 03:29:46 am

Loved your suggestions for kids' quilt projects. I'm a speech pathologist and I immediately thought of some ways to use these as language activities, so thanks. Hope you'll visit back. My theme this year is quirky quotes.

Reply
Glenda Funk link
4/19/2014 05:35:40 pm

Your post reminded me of "How to Make an American Quilt," which I read many years ago. Here's one of my favorite lines:
“You have to choose your combinations careful. The right choices will enhance your quilt. The wrong choices will dull the colors and hide their original beauty. There are no rules you can follow. You have to go by instinct and you have to be brave.”

I remember learning about quilts being used along the Underground Railroads to guide slaves to freedom. I love this rhetorical purpose of quilts.It speaks to me about the importance of women's rhetoric.

I'm thinking about how I can adapt the quilt lesson for use in high school classes.

Reply
http://essaycorrector.org/blog/academic-editing-for-successful-students link
8/23/2017 02:43:56 am

I read articles about similar blankets many times and it prompted me to create my blanket of remembrances.

Reply



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