Last year, we had a fabric artist come to work with our fourth grade students.
We chose the theme "The Great Black Swamp" because our school sits on what
used to be just that. The students each chose an animal or plant that is
indigenous to this area to create and did research via internet. The process
for making the fabric pieces was simple and ingenious; the students drew their
animals to scale on white paper, then traced them onto the backing side of
FUSIBLE WEBBING (different parts of animals to be made different colors are
traced separately). They made a "bubble cut" around each tracing and we ironed
these to the backsode of the fabric. Then, they cut out the animals following
their lines. All of the colored animal pieces are then ironed together and
ironed on to the background. The finished piece is BEAUTIFUL!! It is a four
paneled "fabric painting". I had posted some pictures of the quilt months ago,
but I have since lost them to cyberspace. I may be able to post them again
this week, if we get back to school (Ice + snow = 2 days off!)
So, I definitely think it is doable with seventh graders and not to
elementary.
Denise Pannell
Defiance, OH
>===== Original Message From Karalee Serra <karalee@simplyserra.com> =====
>Has anyone ever done a quilt project with their students? I was thinking it
>might be fun to have the students come up with a theme, work on a square,
>and design the final layout of the quilt. Maybe give it back to the
>community in some special way. Is this too elementary for 7th graders? Any
>ideas?
>
>Thank you
>Karalee
>http://www.cutxpaste.net >
>
>---
