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See America, 76" x 86" by Kathy Emmel's 1996-97 5th-grade class at Weber Elementary. Each child painted a place of interest from a state they researched for the center of the Log Cabin blocks.
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Quilts in the Classroom
Weber Elementary, Arvada, Colorado
Teacher Kathy Emmel uses units being taught in science and social studies in her 5th-grade classroom as jumping-off places for the quilts she has made with each class for the past 11 years. She usually chooses the fabric and theme, then seeks ideas for the design from the students. Often the theme requires research from the students. For America's Family Tree, students researched and filled out a genealogical chart of their family ancestry. Then they investigated ethnic or traditional dress worn in their country of origin so they could design a person for the quilt. In addition, they needed to research, draw, and paint on fabric the flag of that country.
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America's Family Tree, 78" x 88", by Kathy Emmel's 1997-98 Weber Elementary 5th-grade class. Students designed the tree in the center, the leaf block, and the flower blocks.
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When she began working with her students, fabric crayons were being widely used, but she wanted to use other methods to design fabric as well. She has used oil-paint sticks, fabric paints, fabric markers, dyes, batik, and permanent pens. Students have used both commercial stencils and ones they designed themselves, and in some years, have used applique to interpret their designs.
She quickly learned that the student's blocks needed to be a uniform size so the quilt would go together easily and hang straight. For this reason, she precuts pieces for them to stitch into blocks. Some classes have hand pieced, others have used the sewing machine. A recent class even designed their own blocks for paper-foundation piecing.
Drawings can be reduced or enlarged using a copier or an overhead projector, or traced using a light table. If a drawing is going to be traced on fabric and painted, as in See America, Kathy irons freezer paper to the back to stabilize it during the process.
According to Kathy, how the quilt blocks are set together really affects the outcome of the quilt. Some of Kathy's solutions for setting a large center block with smaller blocks from the students are shown in Fig. 1, right.
Kathy uses parent volunteers when it is time to sew with the children. A substitute is in her classroom for regular classwork, and children rotate through the room with the sewing machines and materials.
The quilts the students make are exhibited frequently at local quilt shows. Kathy says, "Students' pride in their work is the most rewarding outcome."
In 1998-99, Kathy received several grants to work with computerized embroidery sewing machines, so that students could scan their designs, then embroider them on fabric. (See QNM No. 310 for more on the quilt the students made.)
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