Marble Falls Quilt Club sharing story quilts with students
DANIEL CLIFTON • PICAYUNE EDITOR
MARBLE FALLS — Reading is fundamental, but quilts add a totally new experience to the process.
Quilting isn’t typically taught along with the basics of reading, but members of the Marble Falls Quilt Club are working on a project to put quilts in the hands of young readers to help them understand and experience stories. The project, called “Learning With Quilts,” brings together the act of reading and the art of quilting.
“The members are making quilts that tell the stories of books so the kids will have a visual aid to help them, but it also is something the kids can feel and touch,” said Nancy Bell, a Marble Falls Quilt Club member heading up the project. She learned of the concept from quilt clubs in San Antonio and Colorado.
Each of the books the members select has a quilt in the storyline or plot. Many of the books feature quilts prominently in the story such as “The Quilt That Wouldn’t Quit” by Cynthia Gibson and Kiamichi Goodbear. The book tells the story of a young girl in Kenya, which is gripped by tribal wars. During the night, the young girl, at great risk to herself, sneaks into a neighboring village and leaves a quilt square.
Each square shares a part of her tribe’s story. She does it in hopes the neighboring tribe would come to understand her tribe and the animosity between the two groups would fade. To see how it turns out, you should check out the book.
The Marble Falls quilters created numerous squares to create a similar quilt that stretches the length of several tables. But it’s only one of up to 36 quilts the club hopes to make.
Other books for which the group is making quilts include “The Kindness Quilt” and “Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt.” But there are many more books with which the club members are working.
Bell said she hopes the kids come to appreciate quilts and quilting as their teachers or librarians share stories that entail the artform. She pointed out that without more people — especially children — learning about quilting, the art might eventually fade away.
“We’ll loan the quilts to the Marble Falls Elementary, and we’ll rotate the quilts out over the semesters,” Bell said. She hopes to spread the program to more elementary schools in the future.
“This is a resource for the teachers,” she added. “It gives them something to let the kids look at and hold as they read the book. It’s another way of reinforcing the reading process and learning about stories.
“There’s a lot you can teach with quilts,” Bell said.
The Marble Falls Quilt Club meets 9:30 a.m. the third Wednesday of the month at First United Methodist Church, 1101 Bluebonnet Drive. Go to www.marblefallsquiltclub.blogspot.com for more information. Everybody is welcome at the meetings, from people just interested in quilting to accomplished quilters.
daniel@thepicayune.com