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This is a sample Teddy Bear Lap Quilt Block created by students for their teddy bears.
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When I started making teddy bears part of the curriculum in the classroom, I wanted to do a quilting project for the students' teddy bears. It needed to be simple, engaging for the students and relevant to the many mathematics, language, and art expectations that were being studied.
It took me 5 years to get this project off the ground, but with the help of many parents, some of whom did not have students in my classroom, the prinicipal, and my student teacher, we were able to create a class set of teddy bear lap quilt blocks like you see on this page.
And what a scene it was for the 5 or so days that we were involved in this project!
In an effort to make it simple for everyone, I only made it more complicated! I printed out written instructions for the adults, grouped the students with an adult, and gave the students 3 choices of pattern: 9-Patch, Log Cabin and a pattern that used Triangles. Well, THAT will never happen again, because the Log Cabin Lap Quilt Block turned out to be most difficult for everyone to complete. And my instructions didn't help, either!
Regardless, we continued on. We had 27 students, 7 adults, and 5 sewing machines in the classroom, with two tables heaped with fabric donated by a local quilt shop in the hallway.
The quilt blocks, when completed were displayed on the bulletin board outside our classroom and you could hear students making various comments about the quilt blocks.
So, in the end we DID make it through!
However, I needed to find an easier way to do this the next time.
They say, "When in doubt, hire it out!" So, that is exactly what I did. I hired someone who was better at quilting than I was, had a computer program that would help with the quilt pattern creation, AND who was also a teacher. This was perfect, as the instructions needed to be at a level where students in Grades 3-6 would be able to understand and complete.
The 10-page step-by-step instructions are illustrated and color coded. That was another thing that I learned. Some of my parent volunteers were visual learners and had difficulty following my written instructions. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words.
Pictures for quilting are certainly worth more than a 10,000 words!
Check out the box below to enjoy a slide show of the student created lap quilt blocks for their teddy bears.
