That’s the number of quilts I’ve sewn in the past two weeks. No kidding. Ok a little bit kidding. I haven’t actually sewn all the squares together, but I was responsible for getting the batting and backing attached to all 16 of those little buggers, no matter how badly misshapen they were.
Why would they be misshapen, you ask? Oh, just because I thought it would be a great idea to teach middle schoolers to sew. It was, in fact, a pretty fun idea. We had a grand ol’ time. What I didn’t foresee, however, is that before you teach middle schoolers how to sew and tell them they are going to make quilts because, after all, that only involves sewing squares together with little straight lines, well….you should first teach them how to cut. “Make a template for a square that is four inches by four inches ” I told them. While I did get beautiful squares, I also got two inch trapezoids, eight inch rectangles, and any other shape imaginable in between those two sizes. Remarkable. Chalk it up to creativity.
In the end, however, it turned out to be a pretty great project. The kids donated their quilts to Project Linus, an organization that gives handmade blankets to kids in the hospital. It was neat to see them get so excited about doing something for other kids. The representative from Project Linus that came to receive the quilts was so impressed with them (much to my surprise- and relief!) that she is having an article written about them in a newsletter for NC State (that magnificent university). Now I just need to locate some sort of kindergarten cutting quiz to use before next year’s sewing lessons.
