I love the school project and the real-life project that came from it!

Ah, Investigations! That's what we have at our school, and I love seeing the (paper) quilt squares that go up in the halls this time of year.

We've been doing the quilt blocks at our school as well! And, The Quiltmaker's Gift is a wonderful book about the power of generosity (and quilts!)

How fun!

In our homeschooling work, my 1st and 2nd graders and I read "The Josefina Story Quilt." It's about a family going west and making quilt blocks to tell the story of their trip. (Josefina is the daughter's chicken.)

What a fun school project! You should definitely take a look at The Quiltmaker's Gift and the quilts inspired by it. It's really great!
But keep in mind the risks that come with every quilting book...

WOW!

What a great project for school!

Your boys are so sweet... Will S be asking for a whole quilt of his own soon?

That is just so cool that you can combine their schoolwork with your craftwork - AND have them appreciate it!

Of course, I've witnessed first-hand how cool your kids are. :-) Do let me know when you next make an IKEA run to New Haven again!

I had almost forgotten about The Quilt Story. That was absolutely, hands-down my favorite book when I was growing up. I still have the copy that my parents used to read for me. It's a wonderful story, and I love Tomi dePaolo's illustrations. I'm going to go pull it down and re-read it now - maybe it'll inspire me to work on my quilt projects a little!

Love that your boys are now quilt designers, too!

I love that math investigation! We don't use TURC any more but we still do the quilt work with the kids and they love it!

What great quilts they put together! I love your interpretations of them too. The Quiltmaker's Gift is a great book. I can also recommend The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco - I can't get through it without crying, even though I've read it many times.

That's so neat! I love the blue fabric with the swirls and stars!

Do the boys get to work with the wooden blocks? I remember playing with those and making big designs during inside recess - when it was too icky to go out. Man, how I miss those.

B and S are two very lucky boys (and little sister is certainly lucky as well) to have such a wonderfully crafty mommy!

That's fantastic! What a novel way to learn math.

Love the books to go with it - they are both beautiful stories. I had no idea there was an actual quilting book based on The Quiltmaker's Gift. I am going to look for that.

Have they read Something from Nothing? It is a little backward from quilt making but S's 'blue with a star' fabric reminded me of it. It is a very beautiful story and the illustrations are incredible -- especially the 2nd story within the page margins.

You should definitely pick up the quilting book to the Quiltmaker's Gift. It's beautiful.

I just wanted to let you know how much I'm loving your quilting blogs. Your blog has been one of my favorites for about a year and a half now. My mom does a lot of quilting and I always really liked what she did and I was interested in doing it too but I never could get really into. After seeing all you're quilting I'm so excited to really dive in and finally get into it like I've wanted to. I just bought Better Homes and Garden's Quilt Pink book and I can't wait to get started! Thanks for inspiring me to really learn something I know I'll be thankful for later down the road.

I absolutely LOVE the Quiltmaker's Gift books, as much for the illustrations and stories as for the quilts themselves. There are two books with quilting patterns in them related to this series, and I love both of them, particularly for kids to learn quilting. I highly recommend them! (Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift and, natch, MORE Quilts from The Quiltmaker's Gift. :)) There's also another story book that I really loved called the Quiltmaker's Journey, about how the Quiltmaker became the woman she is in the Quiltmaker's Gift story.

Have fun! I love to see schools using quilting for geometry lessons -- I wish they'd be allowed/have the resources to put the paper blocks into fabric for ALL the students, because it makes the practical aspects of mathematics so much more accessible.

I love how your kids get involved in creating and ordering things. It's nice they appreciate the things you make. I made a wee wig last night thanks to your instructions---very fun! I was wondering if you started with "locks" of hair, say an inch or inch and a half of just 4 and 6 stitch bits and then joined it all on one needle and went up from there if it would look more like real hair and stay on better? I might try it next time. Would be putzy, but cute.

Oh, our first grades must be running in tandem. We also just finished this project...I was the lucky volunteer that got to cut out 500 rhombuses.

Once the kids start with it it is so much fun to watch them pick out patterns everywhere you go.

Soon you are going to be fighting over who gets control of the sewing machine! Nice work.

How great is that!!
I didn't know that they did that in school.
I am just learning how to quilt and it's so much fun, I'm really enjoying it.

Judy

Ýou are such a cool mom ;-)

I used to do quilt design with my first graders----they loved making patterns with the pentominoes.

The Quiltmaker's Gift is a fabulous book!!! I bought this book to read to my grandchildren. What fun! I've made quilts for my two granbabies since they were born and they have gotten so enthuiastic about material,& patterns since they could talk. Now at 9 & 11 my grandchildren have sat down with me to read the book over and over again. Picking the quilts they would like to make. I love the colors, the beautiful art, and the love of quilts it teaches young and old. My 11 years old grandaughter completed a twin size quilt for her great-grandmother's 85th birthday in September. It was beautiful! I was so proud....