Quilt Making: Art project for Students with Multiple Complex Needs

My students with multiple complex needs are not able to sew their own quilt or even to participate in our wire quilt like some of my other art students. But that doesn't mean I couldn't differentiate the lesson to allow them to understand how contributing a square to a larger group project helps create art and community. They could understand pattern through some exercises that involved clapping and word patterns. They made choices of colors, shapes, and placement for their square, and they glued their shapes down. Origami paper was perfect for this assignment because each shape had a front color and a back color to try out in the arrangement. I pre-cut all the shapes and they used glue sticks to attach them. Many of these students are non-verbal so they would point to the color when I'd give them a choice or two, or I would give them two shape choices up front and then individually a second time for each of those choices (Do you want a rectangle? Yes or no? Do you want a triangle? Yes or no?) and then wait for a response such as an nod or an attempt to say "yes."

Using squares of pre-cut fabric that were actually made for quilting is another great way to introduce students to the idea of piecing a quilt together. Students made decisions based on similar colors and themes and were encouraged to space them in a way that created balance. The range of abilities varied, but what mattered most to me is for students to be able to understand a little bit of what goes into quilting in the real world. For this one they used liquid glue on the back before flipping, placing and patting each square. Quilts can be made using an collaborate or individual process, but I hope the next time they climb under a quilt they get a cozy feeling, remembering these projects and knowing their art teacher loves them.

 

Wire Quilts

My students love to hear stories about the lives of the Quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama. Their quilting knowlege was handed down from mothers to daughters since before the civil war. They just wanted to keep their children warm with scraps of worn out clothing, but their aesthetics were similar to those of modernist painting giants. Once someone recognized the aesthetic value, they were exhibiting their work in museums across the country. The majority of the talent in the world goes unnoticed, but it is not the fame that makes something beautiful. It's the work itself, and of course, the love that goes into it.

After talking the purpose and construction of real quilts, each student started making their own quilt squares to contribute to a class quilt, except this one would be made from metal.

How to fill a square? It was a problem to be solved, and the room was full of solutions: wire, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons, tape, upholstery swatches; if we had it, they could use it. Students chatted about their day as they twisted and taped, and strung things together. This isn't the kind of quilt you'd want to curl up in, but I hope the process gave my students a sense of how communities come together in the form of quilting bees.