Quilting with Kids

     My 16 first grade students and I recently completed a quilt for a baby just coming off chemotherapy.  The children decided on the colors for the quilt:  rainbow and gold (actually yellow due to the lack of gold quilting fabric at the store).  They were very thoughtful through this whole process.  The selected bright colors because they knew that bright colors can cheer up someone who is sick.  Each student decorated a square.  While each student's design is beautiful, it melted my heart when a little boy drew an angel.  He said he drew it because the baby is an angel.  We used DecoFabric fabric markers.  I followed the directions to a T and hopefully the drawings will withstand many washings.  The kids insisted on participating in sewing the quilt.  It took a while to figure out how they would do this safely.  In the end I decided to quilt everything together.  Afterward the kids used embroidery floss tie a knot in each corner.  While this was purely decorative, the kids were so excited to sew the quilt.

     We invited the baby and her family to class in order to present the quilt.  This was the first time that I had met the baby girl and let me tell you that she is so beautiful!  She is so happy.  It was awesome so see her looking around at all of the students as they gave her the quilt.