Inspiring Quilters

Touching Quilts - a feel for reading

The Sense of Touch Enhances Teaching How to Read

 

In the 35 years Woodstock, GA resident Janie Stokes spent in the classroom, she noticed her students grasped more information when her lessons included quilts she had made. When Janie retired, she began collecting quilt related storybooks. She decided to make a quilt to match each one. When she reached 140 books in 2009, she challenged her quilting guild, The Chattahoochee Evening Stars, to create a quilt for each one.

 

At the "37 quilts mark", Janie's quilting guild won grant money to build a website for Storybook Quilts. This organization now lends out quilts and matching storybooks to schools and libraries. The teachers then decide how they want to use both the storybook and the corresponding quilt.

 

All the books used in the program have something to do with quilting. While most book/quilts are appropriate for elementary school children, a novel series called The Quilter's Trilogy was written for older students. The goal is to encourage children to read more using the tactile features of the 36-by-42-inch quilts. Hopefully, touching the quilts and sharing the stories will create a desire in students to read more books.

 

The quilting guild eventually would like to have Storybook Quilts circulating throughout Georgia. Storybook Quilts will be featured in 2012 on Nancy Zeiman's show Sewing with Nancy. This show is produced by Wisconsin Public Television and will be distributed by other PBS stations that purchase the program.

Janie Stokes passed away in April, 2012 at her Woodstock home. Janie's dream to increase the love of reading in all children everywhere is becoming a reality through Storybook Quilts.

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10 Year Old Quilter an Inspiration

new young "assistant" at the Quilted Owl

Chloe Papai, aged 9 years and her family were on vacation in Wyoming when she happened upon a new hobby. It was a rainy day, and Chloe had a cold, so her family was driving around looking for something to do.

When they walked into a quilt shop, Chloe was captivated. It was the first time that Chloe had seen a quilt and she was immediately motivated. She wanted to make a quilt at that exact moment.

At the quilt shop, Chloe chose to make a simple 9 patch block in black and red. Along with a beginners book on how to make a quilt, Chloe was on her way. Back home in Louisiana, for a surprise, her dad took her to a local quilt shop, The Quilted Owl, There she found inspiration, advice and a cozy atmosphere to begin her journey as a 9 year old quitter.

"Chloe came in with her squares and said, 'What do I do with this now?'" Lucia Nuss says. Nuss, who works in the shop, and Angie Jeanfreau, store owner, were surprised to meet a 9-year-old so fascinated by quilting. Chloe was eager to learn and they were happy to teach her. She hand-stitched the nine squares together, and they showed her how to add the borders and make the top into a twin-sized quilt for her bed. She quilted it on her teeny, tiny little machine.

Chloe now considers herself part of the staff. She even has an apron with her name on it. She helps out on Thursday afternoons, sewing and occasionally assisting other customers.

After Chloe finished her quilt, she quilted a pillow for her grandmother. "We do sewing, embroidery and knitting projects together," Chloe says. "She has taught me a lot of needlework." Now Chloe is working on a more difficult project: a queen-sized quilt for her parents. She let them pick out the colors, and she came up with the pattern. It has 30 blocks, and each block has 17 pieces for her to sew together. It's very elaborate - Chloe has gone way beyond her first quilt. Upcoming projects Chloe has planned are a quilted cover for her Kindle and a toiletry bag for a school trip to France. Chloe even uses her sewing skills to make a little money. "I sew on missing buttons for my brothers, and I get 50 cents a button," she says.

She is interested in becoming a fashion designer and recently made a dress for one of her friends. When her friend wore it to school, it was a big hit. According to Chloe, "all of the girls were asking me for dresses, and I said, this could be a business." Chloe is an award-winning gymnast, an enthusiastic reader and a straight-A student. But her favorite thing right now is sitting in the back of The Quilted Owl working on a quilt. "This is my relaxing, peaceful getaway," she says. Although it wasn't judged, Chloe's first quilt was among 360 quilts on display at a quilt show at Oak Harbor in Slidell, LA.

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4900 quilt raffle tickets and counting

Mike Dobko, 85 years young, has sold 4900 quilt raffle tickets for Alberta charity

Black Gold Quilt Patch quilters in Leduc, Alberta Canada have raised $2,020 for the Black Gold Health Foundation's family care suite project. "This is a great journey that we're on," said Lorraine Popik, executive director of the BGHF. "We now have $137,000 towards our budget for the family care suites. We'll add the quilt raffle proceeds and carry on forward." BGHG's goal is to raise $200,000 to build suites for people whose family members need to stay with them while they receive medical care.

During their annual quilt show held at Leduc Composite High School in October, 2011, the Black Gold Quilt Patch quilters received requests from visitors to take donations. They decided to put out a jar for people to donate and managed to collect $412.00 for the food bank. Gert Reynar, manager of the Leduc Food Bank, was on hand to receive the cheque.

In addition, this year the quilters have created more than 200 other quilts that have been sent to a handful of charities including women's shelters and the Stollery Children's Hospital. Last year 260 quilts were donated.

Mike Dobko, who just turned 85 in May, sold 30 books of 20 tickets for the foundation during the 2011 raffle. According to Popik, "Mike is Leduc's ticket man. It's gotten to where everywhere he goes, anyone who sees his face, they right away ask him, 'What are you selling now, Mike?'"

His giving didn't end there. Mike surprised everyone with a gift of $500 to the BGHF. Popik was visibly moved by the gesture and happily accepted the donation. "For him to do this, my heart is rapidly beating. It is so touching."

Dobko said he does the selling to keep himself busy. Donations to the Black Gold Quilt Patch can be made by contacting Diana Cole at 780-739-7619.

from the Leduc Representative, Alberta, Canada, Nov. 14, 2011

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Children's Reflections on 9/11

Acknowledging Tragey - Aspiration for a Peaceful Future

The Metropolitan Museum of Art doesn't usually exhibit children's drawings. But when deciding what to show for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the museum chose a piece created from the reflections of New York City kids.

"The squares and words and the images of the kids acknowledge the tragedy and the trauma that they experienced on 9/11 but they are also full of hope and honest and aspiration for a peaceful feature," said Met Access Coordinator Rebecca McGinnis. "Expressing how they felt about what was happening through art was a way of dealing with it and working through it."

The squares form a three-paneled quilt designed by famed artist Faith Ringgold. She pioneered the story-quilt concept, which combines painting, words, and fabric into a narrative. However, she says with the 9/11 quilt, the children deserve the artistic credit. "The story is theirs. The images are theirs. I simply put it together so that it became three quilts".

The quilt was commissioned by InterRelations Collaborative, a non-profit group that worked with children after the attacks to express their feelings through art. The theme is peace.

The young New Yorkers, ages 8 to 19, were not just horrified by the attacks but still hopeful for the future. "Children were thrown into a situation where they could really understand the difference in war and peace. And that is something that really surprised me, that children would have such strong feelings about peace," Ringgold said.

And creating a quilt as a way of remembering, especially for children, sends its own message. "It's a soft medium, you know you can wrap yourself in a quilt, so it's sort of reassuring," McGinnis said.

The children who made the drawings are now adults. But their reflections and hopes from 10 years ago remain preserved.

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Heartstrings Quilters Donate Thousands of Quilts

On Line String Quilters and their many Beneficiaries

Heartstrings is an online group of quilters who have joined together to make and donate String Quilts to local charitable organizations. The quilters are mainly Americans, though some live in Australia and throughout the world, linked by their live of quilt making and the joy they feel in creating something for those in need.

One of the most appealing aspects of their blog of information pages are the specific lists of individuals, groups and institutions that have received string quilts. This group of quilters want visitors to their blog to know the extent of their outreach to communities across the nation.

The quilters participate in quilting groups and donate blocks, assemble and quilt tops and support each other with encouragement and inspiration as each member works on their own string quilt projects.

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Traveling Educational Exhibit of the War of 1812-like quilts

War of 1812 Bicentennial Quilt Show Quilt Challenge

Great Lakes Seaway Trail Bicential Quilt Show wants War of 1812-like quilts for its Bicentennial Event quilt challenge competition. This is a once-in-200-years opportunity for families to study some quilt history.

The Seaway Trail Foundation is asking quilters and non-quilters, to make quilts with War of 1812-era colors and patterns for the Great Lakes Seaway Trail 2012 War of 1812 Bicentennial Quilt Show and Challenge event.

Organizers are reaching out to American history enthusiasts and re-enactors, children and people of all ages from the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Native nations, and internationally to enter and attend the commemorative event to be held March 17-18, 2012 at the Great Lakes Seaway Trail Discovery Center in the War of 1812 heritage community of Sackets Harbor, New York.

Guidelines for making "cot to coffin"-size (30 inches x 70 inches) quilt using a variety of fabrics, including cotton, linen, silk, wool and linsey-woolsey, and patterns common to the 1812 period are online at http://www.seawaytrail.com/quilting.html. Entries must be committed to the show by January 15, 2012; quilts must be completed by March 3, 2012.

Encouraging families to work together on a quilt project is part of the educational out-reach of the process.

Quilt historian Barbara Brackman of Lawrence, Kansas suggests that a quilt in medallion or strip format would be a good patchwork design for the historical era. Patterns that were popular during the 1812 time were simple stars and basic nine-patch and four-patch variations. The War cut into fabric imports into America but well-to-do women already had stashes of imported French, English and Indian chintzes and calicoes in a variety of colors, and loved to mix large-. Blues, browns and a touch of pink in small scale prints would reflect the quilt styles of that era.

The Seaway Trail Foundation is sponsoring the event as part of a host of War of 1812 Bicentennial commemorative plans (http://www.seawaytrail.com/Press_Room/2011/3-9warof1812events.html) for tourism, cultural heritage and military history programs in 2011-2014. 

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Alaska Quilters Donate Quilts

Cuddly gifts from a local quilting club are proving a useful police tool.

The Fairbank Alakas's Cabin Fever Quilter's Guild initially gave their police department six matching teddy/quilt sets. There was such a demand that the quilters donated six more. Fairbanks police administrator Yumi McCulloch said she has never seen donated items get snatched up so quickly by officers.The gifts are kid-sized quilts that come with stuffed-animals that wear clothing in matching fabric. These gifts are donated by the guild to Fairbanks Alaska police and other law enforcement agencies with the hope that the quilts and bears may comfort children in traumatic circumstances.

Patrol officer Doug Welborn says it's not unusual for police to carry small toys to make it easier to work with at-risk children: "We typically carry around plastic junior officer badges, beanie babies, cool stickers."

These new quilts and stuffed animals are of much better quality and are helping gain better results. Welborn has already given out some of them, including to a 5-year-old girl who had to be removed from her home because of a dangerous situation.

"These are great for the more extreme situations where a little attention goes a long way in calming the children," says Welborn. "It gives them something to hold onto, something that's theirs."

In addition to domestic violence, Welborn thinks the quilts and bears will be useful for children who have been in automobile accidents or who have had their rooms damaged by burglars."It's good to get children thinking in a positive light after a trauma," he said.

Welborn has a stuffed malamute toy riding in the trunk of his patrol car ready for the next child he encounters in this type of situation.

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Peace Quilt Project

Patience To Raise The Sun: Art Quilts from Haiti & their Power to Change Women's Lives

This book is the catalogue that accompanied the November 2009 exhibition of Haitian quilts at the Bennington Museum in Bennington, Vermont. The 60 pages of photos of the quilts taken by Harvey John Beth are supported by essays by Bennington Museum curator Jamie Franklin. Craft, culture, history, and mission are woven into a story that involves Haitian children, women, volunteers and a quilting collective.

The purpose of the catalogue is to introduce the quilters, tell their stories, describe their lives and routines, and show their brilliant handiwork.
This simple humanitarian project began in a Haitian Catholic school and has evolved into what has become the nonprofit PeaceQuilts Project. Through the efforts of dedicated and informed volunteers, a modest idea has grown to make an impact on culture, and change lives for the better.

>Funds raised from the sale of the quilts are spent on materials and training to support the Haitian women's cooperatives. Quilting is not a native craft in Haiti. Haitian women were introduced to quilting as a marketable enterprise - something they could do to support their families.

The unique Haitian perspective combines traditional Anglo-American, African-American, and African textile with quilting techniques and styles. Haitian men women are infusing their work with the sensibilities of their own culture. As the photographs in the catalogue show, the quilts are colorful, elaborately embroidered, with bold primitive designs.The quilts include figurative interpretations of bible stories, abstract geometrics, and designs from nature and Haitian life.

Ms. Franklin, curator of collections at Bennington, writes: "Haitians surround themselves with art. These typically aren't refined works of art made by trained artists, but rather the product of an honest unaffected outpouring of creativity that abounds amongst the Haitian people."

>The catalogue, published by PeaceQuilts, (Bennington, Vermont, November 2009, $19.95) is a personalized record of both process and results.

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Sharon Schamber, internationally renowned quilt maker

. . . and authority on machine quilting

For the most exquisite machine quilting, design layout, choice of color and entire quilt integrity, no quilter living today can surpass Sharon Schamber.

Sharon lives in Payson, AZ. She has been awarded numerous prestigious quilting awards including multiple times, twice achieving the $10,000 grand prize Best of Show at the International Festival of Quilting held annually in Houston Texas as well as the International Quilt Associations's  $100,000. Quilting Challenge award.

Just look at her artistry in machine quilting, revolutionary applique techniques and originality of theme and perfect quilt sewing and construction: Mystique, Scarlet Serenade, Sedona Rose, Sitting Bull, Spirit of Mother Earth, Flower of Life, and her Houston raffle quilt.

Mystique
Spirit of Mother earth	Scarlett Serenade
Flower of Life	Sitting Bull
Sedona Rose	Houston Raffle Quilt

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Never Never Give Up Quilting

Quotations by Leading Quilters to refuel your inspiration

Helen Kelley, on being inducted into the Quilter's Hall of Fame, July 2008, said, "These are the life lessons you and quilting have taught me: Love your craft. Be proud of tiny stitches. Respect tradition. But learn something new, try something hard, make a new tradition. Then pass it on the next generation.

See things with different eyes. Look for the small treasures. Find the happiness and solace in your work.

Share your passion. Quilt with a friend, or friends, or many friends. Be generous with your time, your advice, your praise, your ideas, your fabric. There is joy in giving something from your heart. It comes back to you many-fold. Don't obsess over the stuff that doesn't matter. Tell your story. Embellish it a little."

Mary Emma Allen, quilt historian and author of children's books, said,

"Quilting is one of those arts which forms a common bond among quilt makers around the world and, once in the blood, is an activity a quilter can never give up."

Jean Ray Laury, master quilter inducted to Quilters Hall of Fame, 1982, said, "Quilt makers today are recapturing the spirit and the essence of early American quilts. Creativity and inventiveness make it possible to modify and rejuvenate the old approaches and techniques. If we can retain the structural integrity of the traditional quilt, (strong, durable and beautiful) and add to it a contemporary approach in color and design, we will achieve a quilt which merges past and present."

Patricia Mainardi, author of Quilts: The Great American Art, 1987, wrote,

"Women have always made art. But for most women, the arts valued highest by male society have been closed to them for just that reason. They have put their creativity instead into the needlework arts, which exist in fantastic variety wherever there are women, and which in fact are a universal female art, transcending race, class and national borders. Needlework is the one art in which women controlled the education of their daughters, the production of the art, and were also the audience and critics... The contrast between the utilitarian necessity of patching and quilting and the beautiful works of art which women made of it and the contrasts between the traditions of patchwork and quilting as brought to America and the quilts made here from colonial times to the present, give ample evidence that quilts are The Great American Art."

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Connecting art and education through a global collaborative initiative

The Dream Rocket delayed, but not scrubbed

From the Huntsville Times, by Bob Gathany, Feb. 22, 2010 

Artist Jennifer Marsh has announced that The Dream Rocket, an ambitious art project to wrap the Saturn V rocket model with a quilt made of more than 8,000 fabric panels, has been delayed until 2011.

The $800,000 project, which had been scheduled to go up this May, will now coincide with the 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy's "moon speech" in May 2011. That speech, given on on May 25, 1961 outlined America's goals of sending a man to the moon before the end of the 1960s. Marsh said the postponement will allow "people another year to work on the project" and her team more time to "get the word out."

So far, Marsh said she's collected roughly 1,000 panels from individuals and groups from as far away as Poland, Bangladesh and Kenya. Marsh needs another 7,000 panels to wrap the 363-foot tall, 31,000-square-foot Saturn V mock-up outside the U.S Space & Rocket Center. She plans to have participants from all 50 states and 100 countries. Space Center CEO Larry Capps said he's pleased the project isn't being rushed. "We're all about falling back and making sure that it is done right," said Capps. He said the added time will allow Marsh and the Space Center time to work out several issues.

Because such a project has never before been attempted, there are questions about how the panels will be attached to the rocket, how much they will weigh, both dry and wet, and how it will affect Huntsville's most recognizable structure. "There are no do-overs on this," Capps said. "It's got to happen right the first time. It has to be done safely." Capps said the center will not "gamble" with the landmark Saturn V, which is visible for miles.

The project will inspire participants to consider, express and explore their dreams for a better future. Marsh announced The Dream Rocket project at an August 2009 news conference at the Space & Rocket Center. Flanked by Mayor Tommy Battle, Alabama Travel and Tourism director Lee Sentell, University of Alabama in Huntsville president Dr. David Williams and others, Marsh said the project would "get the world dreaming again."

Soon after, Marsh realized just how massive an undertaking it is. "There's no way I could have done it in six months," Marsh said, admitting she's "overwhelmed, but not detracted." She going to do this, she said.

"It's like a baby," Marsh said. "I can't abandoned it." She thinks big.

The Dream Rocket project isn't the first time the Ohio native has wrapped a structure. In 2007 Marsh made national news by wrapping an abandoned gas station with 3,000 hand-stitched panels.

In 2009, she spearheaded the "Interdependence Project," a 17-foot tree with 8,000 handmade leaves. (photo right) That tree became the centerpiece of the 2009 Panoply Arts Festival in Big Spring International Park, and now sits prominently in the EarlyWorks Children's Museum in downtown Huntsville.

The Dream Rocket is, by far, Marsh's biggest project to date. And it's the first time Marsh has charged a fee to participate: $25 for a 12-inch square panel, $100 for a 2-foot square and $400 for a 4-foot square panel. She's also hoping to attract corporate sponsors. Marsh said her expenses include legal fees, the cost of insuring the $10 million Saturn V and the money it will take to attach the huge quilt. Because of its scale, Marsh expects The Dream Rocket to attract national and international attention, which she said will benefit the Space Center, Huntsville and the state of Alabama.

After the 60-day wrapping of the rocket, Marsh plans to take the 8,000 panels on a three-year museum tour. "It's going to be something unique to see," Capps said. "I think it's a heck of a project." Individuals, teachers and groups wanting to participate in The Dream Rocket can visit The Dreamrocket or call Jennifer Marsh at 614-561-9057.

The fee to place a panel ranges from $25 to $400, but donations are also accepted.

Erected: 1999

Height: 363 feet

What it's insured for: Roughly $10 million