need help please - teaching about pioneer quilting to homeschoolers
 

Hi everyone,

The homeschool group at my church has asked me to be a part of their pioneer day later this month and present quilting. I'm still finalizing the details, but my friend believes about 2 dozen kids will take part.
Preschool - 1
Kindergarten - 4
First - 2
Third - 5
Fourth - 3
Fifth - 2
Sixth - 1
Seventh - 2
Eighth - 1
Ninth - 1
High School (Junior?) - 1

I was thinking about having 4-patches available for the kids to practice piecing as well as a small top in a frame so that they could practice quilting. I'll have quite a few needles prepped with thread and ready to use. I was also going to have color sheets available for the kids to color a quilt.

So can anyone point me to some resources about pioneer quilting? For the fabrics for the 4-patches and the quilt sandwiches, I was going to pick up some shirtings and Civil War prints from my LQS. Do you think those fabrics would be okay? For the color sheets, I was going to have both 4-patch and 9-patch quilts. I was planning on doing at least two versions of the color sheets (one for the preschool - first grades, one for third and up, maybe even a third for the grades 7 and up). I figure that the preschool - first grades need bigger blocks and less complex quilts to color. I thought that I'd also have a fact sheet of common quilt terms and history for the third grade and up kids.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Different fabrics? Different types of blocks? Maybe a different or additional activity?

Also - should I dress up in a pioneer outfit? Would a white blouse and a long gathered cotton skirt work? Maybe with a bonnet and an apron? I'm not sure that I would have time to sew a skirt, apron, or even bonnet, but I may give it a try.

Thanks everyone!

I did quilting with K-5 for a summer at different "camps" at the schools in Charlotte. I'm thinking that in a days time and all those grade levels, you are only going to have a few minutes with each age group. I would go with making paper quilts with your little ones. Construction paper and glue and their good. I used one of those paper cutter machines like the Accuquilt does for cloth. Cut out all kind of different shapes that the kids taped down.

With the 2-3 we did stitching on burlap. Most of them stitched their names

4-6 did little blocks from a panel of blocks

When I taught my friends daughters they were in the 6th & 8th. We started with crazy quilt blocks. Mistakes were easy to cover, lol

Sounds like a fun day. I would dress up!

Dressing up would be nice but probably not a must. since the pioneers made quilts out of old clothing, perhaps you could show how they would use the "best" part of an old shirt or dress to get usable fabric. And mention how they would cut the buttons off and save them for another use. letting the younger ones quilt using sewing cards would be an option while older ones could try their hand at a quilt on a frame.

When my daughter was in about 5th grade, she went to Vacation Bible School with a friend. One of the activities was to lay out a quilt block (the fabrics were precut in squares and triangles and backed with Wonder Under-type material) on a muslin square then the ladies ironed it to secure it THEN overnight zigzagged around each shape so each kid got their finished block back the next day. I blanket stitched hers to a throw pillow that was about the right size (maybe 16 x 16?).....maybe you could try this with some of the littler ones.

There are many children's books that are about quilting. Ask your children's librarian at your public library. They can probably get some from interlibrary loan if they don't have some in their collection. It would be nice to have some books available on the subject.
Our library as well as the Kansas Historical Museum have boxas available for check-out on different subjects. These two things may give you some ideas. The boxes usually have hands-on materials and books about whatever subject they are designed for. For the youngest children, you might use shape blocks and printed quilt patterns on tag board. Probably the youngest children would enjoy and feel more successful placing the shape blocks over the patterns.
You might be able to use colored paper or even scrapbooking papers to make 4 patch blocks for the children who are a little older. I would have a base the full size of four blocks placed on top. If you could laminate them, the children would not pull the holes out as easily. The top blocks could be solid &/or printed. Punch holes with a scrapbooking hole punch maybe 1/8" - 1/4" in diameter. Give them yarn needles already threaded with yarn to sew with. Your might make several groups with a teacher/helper for each group to help.
For older children, you could go to using fabric perhaps along the same theme with perhaps more/bigger top blocks. Using your Accuquilt to make shapes from fabric to be added to the top of the blocks would be nice also.
I know you probably have hundreds of ideas. Culling the ideas and focasing on a simple multi-tier lesson is usually the main problem. I know your class will be wonderful and the children will have a great time.

not sure about the little ones, but for the older ones how about asking each of them to bring in one item of clothing they no longer need/want as this is how Pioneer's made quilts. You can show them cutting and each student would share some of his/her pieces with all the other students.

It sounds like you have an awesome layout already! whatever you decide to do, I am sure it will be wonderful!