Subject Areas |
Art and Culture
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Folklore |
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Visual Arts |
History and Social Studies
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U.S. History - African-American |
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U.S. History - The West |
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Time Required |
| Time required will vary depending on how much
time is spent designing quilt squares.
Lesson 1: one or two class periods
Lesson 2: two class periods
Lesson 3: two class periods with one homework assignment |
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Skills |
| recognition of colors, shapes,
and patterns
primary document analysis
graphic
design
collaboration
presentation skills |
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Additional Data |
| Date Created: 05/21/02 |
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Date Posted |
| 2/18/2002 |
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Family and Friendship in Quilts
In addition to their function as bedding, quilts
also served as records of family or community history, observations of surrounding
landscape, and documentation of life cycle events such as births and marriages.
--From "Quilting Groups: Creating Through Camaradarie" in Collaborations:
Drawn Together
Introduction
Throughout history, women and sometimes men have
used the art of quilting for many diverse purposes: to keep warm, to decorate
their homes, to express their political views, to remember a loved one. Made by
hand -- often collaboratively -- using familiar materials such as scraps of clothing,
quilts are personal and communal, aesthetic and functional. The lessons in this
unit are designed to help your students recognize how people of different cultures
and time periods have used cloth-based art forms to pass down their traditions
and history. Quilting continues to be largely
a home-based form of art engaged in primarily by women. Heighten your students'
awareness of how quilts have reflected and continue to reflect the lives of the
people who create them, and of how quilts record the cultural history of a particular
place and time. This theme of Friendship Quilts and Family Record Quilts contains
two separate lessons that can stand alone or be taught in conjunction with one
another. For a related K-2 lesson on story quilts, see the EDSITEment lesson plan
Stories
in Quilts. If your students explore the
past through their own family history and ancestors, this unit could be used as
a tool to focus on those aspects of your curriculum. You can also introduce your
class to the idea of "theme" and help students recognize how quilts represent
such themes as family love, passing down of memories from one generation to the
next, and sharing among friends.
< Learning Objectives
After completing the lessons in this unit, students
will be able to: - Explain what a quilt is
and describe some of the historic purposes and uses of quilts, such as friendship
and family record quilts.
- Identify elements
in quilts, such as colors, shapes, patterns, and symbols.
- Discuss
customs represented by the design and creation of quilts
- Understand
how quilts can be objects of both everyday use and artistic expression
- Use
quilts to discuss similarities and differences between comtemporary and earlier
generations and between different cultures
- Understand
how quilts are used to preserve family and community traditions.
Guiding Questions:
What is a quilt, a friendship quilt, a family record
quilt? What elements make up a quilt? How are family and community traditions
represented in quilts? How are art and history connected through quilts? What
are some of the purposes and uses that quilts have served in different places
and cultures in the past? What function do quilts have today?
Preparing to Teach this Lesson - Review each lesson
and select archival materials you'd like to use in class. Bookmark these materials,
along with useful websites, if possible; download and print out selected documents
and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing. Prepare any necessary templates
- Spend
some time in advance of this lesson talking about family traditions to familiarize
your students with the term and concept and to allow them to see the range of
diverse personal and cultural traditions their own and other families have developed.
- Establish
an anticipatory set when beginning each lesson on quilts. Read aloud any of the
books recommended below, display an actual quilt, or invite a local quilter to
demonstrate. Encourage students who own quilts to share them with the class. However,
because quilts can be valuable family heirlooms, exercise care in allowing students
to touch and work with quilts brought from home. Sharing quilts offers a good
opportunity for parents to come to class to share family stories and to help monitor
appropriate handling of quilts.
- An
interesting account of a quilting bee and the accompanying festivities, written
by Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman, may be found on the American
Studies @ The University of Virginia website, a link from the EDSITEment resource
Center for the Liberal
Arts. Though of most interest to the teacher, excerpts may be adapted for
use with students. Detailed background information about quilting groups can be
found on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
of the West by going to the "Exhibits" section and clicking on "Collaborations:
Drawn Together," then on the link to "Quilts."
- If
possible, obtain the book The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort
1750-1950, by Roderick Kiracofe, Mary Elizabeth Johnson (contributor), and
Sharon Reisendorph (photographer) (Clarkson Potter, 1993; ISBN 0517575353), which
contains many large photos of quilts of every kind.
Suggested Activities
Lesson
1: An Introduction to Historical Quilts Lesson
2: Sampling a Friendship Quilt Lesson
3: Family Record Quilts - Album Quilts Extending
the Lesson
Lesson 1 An Introduction to Historical Quilts
If
possible, center this lesson around one or more authentic quilts in the classroom,
to give students the opportunity to see how a quilt is constructed (the stitching,
squares, stuffing and so on). How is a quilt different from a blanket? It is like
two blankets sewn together with padding in between. The stitching that keeps the
padding in place creates a pattern that invites further decoration. This decoration
can employ elements such as color, pattern, symbols, and narrative.
If it proves impractical to bring a quilt into class, use Quilt
Image #21, available online via a link from the EDSITEment resource Center
for the Liberal Arts, or images from one of the recommended books.
Ask the class if anyone has a quilt at home. Encourage some discussion about those
quilts. How are they used? Do any of the students use a quilt as a blanket or
have a quilt hanging on the wall at home? Show students the quilt(s) or quilt
image(s), and have them describe what they see: How many different kinds of cloth
are in the quilt? Do they see some of the same cloth in different places on the
quilt? What colors have been used? Are there objects on the quilt -- people, animals,
flowers, baskets, etc.? How many? Where does the quilt feel thicker and thinner?
Where are stitches located? Without telling students
the names of each quilt, display several different kinds of quilts or quilt images
as described below, available on The
American History Museum of the Smithsonian, a link from the EDSITEment resource
Center for the Liberal
Arts (unless otherwise noted): As
you show each quilt, ask the students to describe what they see. Have them describe
the patterns and objects on each quilt, suggest why each quilt was made, and hypothesize
about what kind of story the artist was telling with the pictures on the quilt.
To give students an overall understanding of quilts and quilt elements, have the
class fill in an "Elements of Quilts" web. Draw a central circle labeled "Quilts"
on the chalkboard, or provide students with the following web template online
or printed out. Have students name the quilt elements they see, and write or have
them write each element in a circle around the central "Quilt" circle. Then,
to emphasize the different types and purposes of quilts that exist, provide students
with the following chart (pdf format) either online or downloaded and printed
out, and have them match the letter of each quilt to its appropriate type, or
set up one large chart for the class and ask for volunteers to write the letter
of the quilt that matches the quilt type: Where are stitches located?
Lesson 2 Sampling
a Friendship Quilt
Background for the Teacher:
According to an essay on the EDSITEment-reviewed website Women
of the West Museum, the blocks on the Friendship Quilt depict images and phrases
that reflect cherished values and beliefs current at the time and place of its
creation. To see the Friendship
Quilt, go to the Women of the West Museum
website, and, from the homepage, go to "Exhibits," then to "Collaborations: Drawn
Together," and click on "Quilts." Each of the blocks in this quilt was created
by one woman. The intended recipient of such "group" quilts was often a bride
or someone moving from the community. What made a quilt an especially appropriate
gift on such occasions? This
friendship quilt image is accompanied by background information about friendship
quilts and quilting bees:
In
the 1800s women commonly formed quilting groups. Their quilts offer clues to the
nature and experiences of western migration and to the ways in which women gathered
for social, artistic, and practical purposes. Quilt
making and the quilts themselves served various purposes. In addition to their
function as bedding, quilts also served as records of family or community history,
observations of surrounding landscape, and documentation of life cycle events
such as births and marriages. Certain quilting
patterns were based on repeated motifs. Some images were symbolic and many were
derived from nature, such as the dove, which represented innocence; the peony,
which stood for healing; and the pine tree, which foretold fidelity and everlasting
life. Although individual women made their fair share of quilts, many were made
at quilting bees, where women shared in the cutting, stitching, quilting, and
local gossip. ("Quilting Groups: Creating Through Camaraderie" in "Collaborations:
Drawn Together".)
Though
there have been male quilters, women were usually the ones who created quilts
and who attended quilting bees. The essay Why
Were Women So Important on the Frontier?, on the EDSITEment-reviewed website
At Home in the
Heartland Online, gives an explanation as to why: "Women were responsible
for raising children and taking care of the home. Typical household chores, such
as doing laundry or preparing a meal, were often as labor intensive as farming.
Women helped with all the farm work from planting crops in the spring and helping
to harvest them in the autumn to caring for the cows, chickens, pigs, horses and
other livestock. In the spring, after the wheat or corn had been planted, a man
might leave for weeks or months to go hunting or travel downriver to trade in
New Orleans, leaving his wife and children to care for the family farm." Activity:
A Sampler -- Working Together on a Quilt
Samplers were so named because
the creator uses quilt squares, or samples, made by others. Show
students the image of the Friendship
Quilt, located on the Women of the West
Museum website. From the homepage, go to "Exhibits," then to "Collaborations:
Drawn Together," and click on "Quilts." Ask what they see on the quilt and solicit
their ideas as to why it might be called a friendship quilt. Fifty-six
women created this quilt, possibly working together in the same room. They wanted
to give their friend a quilt before she moved away. Why would they work together
on one quilt? The images on this Friendship
Quilt show things the women who sewed the quilt wished for one another. What did
these women wish for each other? After viewing
the quilt image and discussing it, give each student a sheet of paper divided
into four squares to use as a quilt square template. Have the students use one
block on their sheet of paper to create a quilt square representing what they
wish for themselves and/or their classmates. To create the atmosphere of a quilting
bee, allow students to chat and circulate a bit as they are working. As a written
component for this lesson, ask students to write or dictate a paragraph explaining
the section of the quilt they have created. When
all the squares are done, have the class sit in a circle. The students were allowed
to chat as they were working. What were they talking about? What do students imagine
was going on in the room as the women were working together on the friendship
quilt? If these were pioneer women who didn't often see each other and had little
means of communicating, what might they have talked about? Have students display
and describe their squares. After sharing their squares, have students copy their
designs into the other three squares on the template. They can cut apart the four
squares and keep one of their own squares. The other three are placed face down
in a pile. Set up the piles for the students to pick from randomly for sampler
making. Pass out another template. Each student
makes a sampler by picking three designs made by other students and pasting them
onto three squares on the template. Students can only trade in a square if they
pick their own. The fourth square is for the student's design. When the samplers
are complete, encourage volunteers to share. What wishes does the sampler show?
What was it like using the work other people did to create a sampler? Was it easier
than making four different designs themselves? Have the students form their four
squares into a quilt by gluing them onto a larger square of paper with space in
between. They can draw a design over the squares to indicate the stitching on
a quilt. To view another quilt created by
multiple quilters, visit Made
by the Ladies Aid Society, Basalt, Colo. 1905 on the EDSITEment-reviewed website
Western History: The Photography Collection.
After viewing, allow students to hypothesize about the quilt's meaning.
Lesson 3 Family
Record Quilts - Album Quilts
Background
for the Teacher: Many outstanding quilts from the mid-19th century marked
a special occasion. Some were composed of squares resembling the pages of a sketchbook,
scrapbook or family album; others were signed like the pages of an autograph album.
This activity could fit well in a unit in which students are studying families
in general and/or looking into the history of their own families.
Activity: Memorializing Your Family in a Quilt
Establish
an anticipatory set for the students by reading The Patchwork Quilt by
Valerie Flournoy. If possible, share with the class a family tree or some other
document with a family history. Discuss with students
the Groom's Album Quilt
made for Benoni Pearce (Pawling, N.Y., dated 1850), available on The
American History Museum of the Smithsonian, a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Center for the
Liberal Arts, and the Black Family Album Quilt (1854) (part of African
American Quilting Traditions, scroll down to "Applique and Record Keeping"),
available at Jamie Leigh on American
Quilts, available through the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Studies at the University of Virginia . What
pictures are on the quilts? If these quilts are about a family, why didn't the
family members and friends use stories or photographs (daguerreotype would have
been the option at the time these quilts were made) to remember things that happened
in the family? Are the reasons different in the two instances? In what ways is
a quilt different and maybe better than a videotape or other ways of telling about
a family? Students can conduct family interviews and then use the information to construct their own album quilt. After
students have conducted family interviews, they can use the information to create
their own album quilt. Each student or small group can be given a piece of poster
board that has been divided into four squares. In each square, draw an event or
object to represent something about her/his family, either illustrating one family
event or topic through several squares or illustrating four different events or
topics. Ask for volunteers to share their completed family quilts and to relate
the events they memorialize. An alternative
would be for each student to complete one square at home about his/her family.
As you apply each square to a bulletin board, students can guess what event is
being remembered. One way to end the lesson
is by comparing the quilts from the class to the 1996
Arizona State Winner: These Do I Love on the EDSITEment resource American
Memory. It's a kind of family record quilt. The following information was
supplied by the quiltmaker:
If
your quilt is based on a traditional pattern or an earlier quilt, what is the
name of the pattern? Where did you learn the pattern? I
didn't use a pattern. This quilt idea came to me in a dream and evolved as it
was being made. I thought that the crazy quilt style would allow me to tell the
story of my father's life and career, and to use mementos to embellish it. The
pattern and the quilt uses a lot of symbolism. The quilt is done primarily in
orange and blue, the colors of the university where he taught for 40 years. Since
he always wore a white shirt and tie to teach, the quilt contains a shirt placket
complete with buttons and a shirt pocket with his name tag attached. The quilt
border is representative of a bookshelf. The border is made of pieces of my father's
old ties, cut into strips, along with the names of the classes he taught cross-stitched
on Aida cloth." Other techniques used include:
embroidery, photo transfer, beadworks, buttons, mementos, and counted cross-stitch.
How did you choose the materials used in your quilt? "My
quilt evolved. The only people aware of my project were my mother and husband.
Mom was a very important part of my quilt as she was the one who secretly 'borrowed'
the shirts, ties, fabrics and memorabilia for the quilt. Every couple of weeks
I would receive a box in the mail with more 'treasures' for my quilt. Even the
day before the retirement party we were busily sewing on last minute charms. Commemoration
of retirement, achievement, memory/nostalgia…"
Can
the students find the things the artist mentions? An
additional album quilt, Doll
Bed Applique Patchwork Quilt, with description (Image
only), can be viewed via a link from the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory. The AIDS Memorial Quilt is an
example of a contemporary quilt that has elements of both family and friendship
quilts. It was created by a different type of quilting bee, with panels sewn by
people throughout the U.S. that serve as a record and remembrance of loved ones
who have died, in a fashion similar to memorializing family members and events
in the family record quilts. You can use the children's book A Name on the
Quilt: A Story of Remembrance by Jeannine Atkins and Tad Hills (Illustrator)
(Atheneum, 1999, 32 pages, $16.00 Hardcover, ISBN: 0-689-81592-1, Reading level:
Ages 4-8) to introduce the AIDS Memorial Quilt as an example of a quilt that preserves
history and helps us remember someone. The website "The AIDS Memorial Quilt", located through the EDSITEment-reviewed
website Smithsonian Art Museum, offers
information on the history and purpose of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
Extending the Lesson - Invite a quilter to your classroom.
- Invite
family members of students to bring their quilts to class for "show and tell."
Where quilting is still a tradition, students can also conduct interviews about
quilts in their homes.
- Study cross-cultural
connections regarding quilting using quilts from other countries or cultures.
One example is the European- and African-influenced quilts on Southern
Quilting Traditions, a link from the EDSITEment resource Center
for the Liberal Arts.
- Use the
book The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco to introduce an activity in
which students make a 'keeping quilt' and hang it in the school. Read aloud from
The Keeping Quilt, and then ask students to write about a memory. For younger
grades, the children can talk about their memories, and the teacher can write
down a list of memories on the board. After writing/talking about their memories,
the students should each draw a picture related to that memory. The picture is
then traced onto vellum paper and colored with fabric crayons, along with the
child's name. Finally, the drawings are ironed onto a large piece of material
that can be stuffed and backed as a 'keeping quilt' for the school.
In
some communities, quilting clubs can assist with classroom projects. Such a group
may be able to help your students create a real quilt. A discussion of quilt making
in the classroom as well as helpful tips can be found at America
Quilts: Quilts in the Classroom, available through a link from the EDSITEment
resource Africans in America. - Through
the EDSITEment-reviewed website American
Memory, students can view many additional images of contemporary quilts. Each
of the images is accompanied by the artist's explanation of the process involved
in the making of the quilt, as well as the quilt's meaning. This collection also
includes a glossary of quilting terms that could be useful for understanding how
a quilt is assembled.
- 59
Hoover Schools, a special section of the EDSITEment resource Digital
Classroom, features a quilt from the Hoover Presidential Library, depicting
the 59 schools named for Herbert Hoover. Your class might be interested in viewing
these student-made quilts, and might also like to design a quilt square for their
school. Perhaps there are other schools around the nation with the same name as
your school.
Selected EDSITEment Websites
Other Resources The recent film "How to
Make an American Quilt" (1995), based on Whitney Otto's novel of the same name,
has several scenes of women sitting together to stitch a quilt. Students might
gain a visual image of what is involved in quilting by viewing brief clips from
that film. Recommended reading from American
Memory
Brial, Raymond. With Needle
and Thread. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996Coerr,
Eleanor. The Josafina Story Quilt. New York: Harper & Row, 1986. Lyons,
Mary. Stitching Stars: The Story Quilts of Harriet Powers. New York: Aladdin
Paperbacks, 1997. From Women
of the West Museum
Turner,
Ann. Sewing Quilts. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1994. Illus.
by Thomas B. Allen. "Pioneer girl sees pieces of her life sewn into quilts that
she, her mother and sister create." From The
New York Public Library On-Lion for Kids , a link from Internet
Public Library
Flournoy,
Valerie. The Patchwork Quilt. Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. Dial Books,
1985 (ISBN 803700989). "Using scraps cut from the family's old clothing, Tanya
helps her grandmother and mother make a beautiful quilt that tells the story of
her family's life." Other recommendations:
Guback,
Georgia. Luka's Quilt. (Reading level: Ages 4-7)Hines,
Anna Grossnickle. Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts.Johnston,
Tony and Tomie DePaola. The Quilt Story.Jonas,
Ann. The Quilt. (Reading level: Ages 4-8)Paul,
Ann Whitford and Jeanette Winter (Illustrator). Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork
Alphabet. Polacco, Patricia. The Keeping
Quilt. School & Library Binding, 1994. (Reading level: Ages 4-8)Ringgold,
Faith. Tar Beach.
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