Hawaiian Quilting

This is the week at school when I introduce quilting and my yearly quilt project to my class of second graders.  Our reading story this week is Luka's Quilt.  Luka's Quilt is about a little girl and her tutu (grandmother in Hawaiian ).  This is a cute story which includes much information about traditional Hawaiian  quilting and the quilting process.  There is also some conflict resolution thrown in for good measure.

If you are not familiar with Hawaiian quilting -- it is worth checking out.  I can best describe it by asking you to recall cutting out paper snowflakes as a child.  You fold a piece of paper, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip and unfold.  Your pattern is repeated on each section of the paper in a delicate design.  You then glued it on a piece of blue paper.  In this style of Hawaiian Quiltiing, you take a piece of fabric (traditionally a solid color), fold it, snip, snip, snip, snip, snip, and unfold.  This beautiful, one color design is then appliqued on to a second solid colored piece.  The beautiful, two color quilt is then quilted. 

There are books and patterns available on Amazon.com for this style of quilting.

While working on our story, we had a quilt show and tell day. The students were asked to bring a quilt to school and tell the class who made it for them and why.  During this process we learned the difference between quilts and other blankets (ie afghans, fleece throws and spreads).

The children earn tickets from now on for the quilt drawing at the end of the year.

I love being able to work quilting into my school curriculum.  The children enjoy it too and their enthusiasm is contagious!

Happy Quilting,
Laurel