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Fish quilt, 107" x 60", by Jennifer Paulson and 4th-grade class at Skyline Elementary School.
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Quilts in the Classroom
Skyline Elementary School, Ferndale, Washington
Jennifer Paulson, author of Refrigerator Art Quilts (That Patchwork Place, 1996) was awarded an Artist in Residence grant to work with kindergarten to 6th-grade students, making quilts with each class. Her job was to come up with ideas that would be challenging, fun, and creative for each of the different grade levels.
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Figure 3
Figure 4
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In working with the 4th-graders on their Fish Quilt, Jennifer had each child design their own block using a 5 by 7 grid of 1 1/2 inch squares and two colors of construction paper. Each fish used only the simple shapes of squares and triangles. Jennifer provided some ideas for heads, bodies, and tails (Fig. 2). When the design was complete, each child selected two fabrics from the stash and taped a swatch in each square (Fig. 3). In the second class, each child received squares and triangles cut out of fabric and a flannel board. They transferred their designs from the graph paper to the flannel board. One of the stitched blocks is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 2
Jennifer then made a small mockup of the quilt, using graph paper, so she could balance the colors, sizes, and space between the fish (Fig. 5). She did the piecing and completed the quilt.
Figure 5
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Friends Quilt, 100" x 63", by Jennifer Paulson and kindergarten and 1st-grade class at Skyline Elementary School.
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For the Friends Quilt, Jennifer started with self-portraits by a combined kindergarten and 1st-grade class. She traced the designs and used fusible applique to interpret them in fabric. The children choose the fabric for their dress or shirt. Each shape was fused to the background and machine-satinstitched around the edges. The saying in the center came from the teacher of the class. All of the quilts made by the students are on display in the school.
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