I’m a recently retired teacher of middle school (ages 12-14; I taught 7th and 8th grade), and for *many* years I did a quilt project. My mode is very different, teaching four to six classes of 20-25 rather than a small group, but here’s what I did:
- Fabric: I cut it up beforehand, and I had a big pile of “big squares” (about 8.5”) and a big pile of “small squares.” (about 5”) The small squares had wonder-under already applied. I let the students choose a big square and a small square.
- Ironing day! We peeled the paper from the wonder under and I guided them (with much supervision) on adhering the small square to the big square with an iron. Magic! The small squares were set on point on top of the big square, giving the illusion of a square in a square block.
- Students put their names on the small squares. Some years I guided them through stitching their name on (writing it in pencil, then stitching over it with thread, simple running embroidery stitch). Some years, I just had them write their name with fabric pens.
- I guided the students through blanket stitching around the edges of their square. This was the most challenging part, but the most satisfying, as once you get moving on this stitch, it looks very impressive for how easy it is!
From that point, I took the squares home. Inevitably, there would be a few students who didn’t finish, and I’d finish them. I would sew the blocks together myself, after squaring them up, and then ideally the finished quilt would be donated to that class’s Project Graduation when they were seniors.
Nothing fancy: I used a polyester batting and quilting this via the birth-a-quilt method, and for quilting, tied it in the corners of the blocks with yarn. A few years when I was *really* on top of things, I brought the quilt up to school at the end of the year and let the students do the tying part.
Some years, things didn’t go as planned, and as it happened, the last few years of doing the project, I didn’t finish their quilts, so I still to this day have squares! I just finished one, as a matter of fact, and will donate it. You can see a picture of it in the UFO Challenge thread here on the board, and it is my avatar at the moment (as of 3-18-2025, until I complete another quilt!)
Happy to answer any questions. My students only did quilt *squares,* not an entire quilt each, but hopefully the story still helps!