As you may have guessed by now, I have a treasure trove of images from the Tokyo Quilt Festival, and I am enjoying picking out images to match my Creative Nudge topic of the week!
This feisty 167 x 161 cm quilt full of Dinosaurs and Elephants, was the 3rd place winner in the Junior category, by Kaito and Reon Iizuka. (I was just tickled to see one of my Southwest fabric designs in the 2nd place Junior winner!)
Elephants made with Dots and Plaids tooting flowers out of their trunks? A dinosaur with a 3-D ruffled spinal ridge, with a gold lame face and a big smile? Hey why not? Her blue egg just hatched!
As we all know, we are born creative, but growing up often squeezes all the juice out of us. Kids are just oozing wild No-Rules Creativity that explodes out in messy and brilliant expressions of playfulness …but as we get older that joyful explosion is often met with "tsk tsk…"
I would really love to see more quilt exhibits with a Junior category, like the one in Tokyo. The kids section is just as big, and just as beloved as the other parts of the show! These kids are not just copying patchwork quilts – they are making one-of-a-kind WORKS OF ART.
Today I visited with an administrator at a local middle school, and we tossed around a few ideas about starting a sewing club at the school, or at a local center for low-income and minority families. As we read in the news every day about schools budgets being cut, you and I know that is going to include art classes and other creative activities.
Home Economics and sewing classes are long gone from the vast majority of school systems, so it is up to all of us to find ways to pass on our knowledge and love of sewing and quilting to the next generation. Whether it is stepping up to offer classes at your local fabric or quilt shop, mentoring your neighbors' kids, volunteering some time with a 4-H club or Girl Scout sewing badge meeting, donating an older basic machine still in good working condition, or just giving fabric to excited youngsters, it is really up to all of us to bring kids and young adults into our Wonderful World of Color and Fabrics!
So I would like to CHALLENGE my readers to make a commitment to sharing their passion for sewing with some young people this year! Come on! You know you want to!
Please post your ideas here for all of us to share!
If you are already working on a project like this, we'd really LOVE to hear your experience on what works, and what doesn't.
I totally agree with sharing sewing to keep it going.
How do you start and find inter4ested children? Go to the schools and offer your services?
Anyone out there in Orlando interested in such launching let me know.
I have paired up with local quilters to teach young children the exciting and expressive art of quilting! I am an intermediate quilter, at best, but I think this helps me to teach it better. I remember how confusing some things are, and how important others are to remember. What have we learned thus far? Two classes were kindergarten through 8th grade. We learned that pairing older children with a younger child helped us out, but the following classes have been for grade 4 and up. We also made it a requirement to know how to thread your own machine and to be familiar with it. We learned that boys are the best quilters we have had thus far! We have learned that taping off 1/4″ seam on their machine is helpful (and not following what their machine says is 1/4″ – NOT!). We have also found projects that build on one another, teaching one or two skills at a time for each project. It gives them immediate gratification of a project to take home while at the same time teaching them a skill they need to know to make their first quilt. Presently we teach at our homeschooling co-op and have only girls. We have scheduled a trip to a local quilter in order to help them conceptualize the professionally finished product. She has gorgeous quilts hanging on her walls of her studio, so we are hoping these children and their parents will be inspired to keep on quilting. She is going to talk to the girls and parents about ministry opportunities in making quilts, and offer a “lock in” where she and the girls will spend a day in her studio working on a charity quilt together. Also, moms have requested a class, so we are putting together an 8-week beginners class for moms! Hope this helps with some ideas and hints.