Ready to share!

Hi!  I'm Erin Hutchinson.  I am the mother of two elementary aged boys, a wife, a college admissions counselor, a Cub Scout Den Leader, a karate student and instructor, and A QUILTER!

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Blevins, taken at my booth at the 2012 Mountain Days Festival in Buena Vista, VA

I am SO EXCITED to be sharing my love of quilts and quilting with the students at Central Elementary!  I have started this blog chronicle our adventures, to stay connected with parents, and to allow the students a way to show off what they are doing.  I encourage you to follow along as we learn and create and have FUN!

My goals for this 8-week workshop are many.  First, I want the students to use their hands and their imaginations to CREATE!  By workshop's end, they will:

* Create at least one quilted item to take home for their own use or to give as a gift.  Projects for this 8-week session include a quilted pillow and/or a quilted composition book cover.  The techniques we will use include big-stitch quilting, embroidery, and fusible appliqué with a blanket stitch.

In keeping with the season, I made a Halloween Pillow as my class sample.

The students can design anything they want for their pillow.

Everyone uses composition books at school these days.  The students can make personalized, quilted covers.  My son has his eye on this class sample!

The older students will have the option to incorporate some piecing into their composition book cover.



The sky is the limit as the students design their own covers.

When a composition book is used up, it is easy to remove the cover and reuse it on a new composition book.

* Contribute to a group quilt that will be entered into the quilt show at the 2013 Rockbridge County Fair.  The techniques we will use include coloring on fabric, flower pounding, birthing a quilt and/or tying a quilt.

My Bear Scouts created this quilt two years ago and won second place in the quilt show at the 2010 Rockbridge County Fair.



The boys colored on fabric to create the images for the quilt blocks.

* Assist in the creation of a donation quilt, made from up-cycled clothing, to donate to the Rockbridge Pieceworkers Quilt Guild's Comfort Quilt project.  We will make this quilt using the Frayed Edge or Rag Quilt method of construction, and will deconstruct used clothing for quilting material.

The front of the quilt will be made from old denim, like this quilt that I made for my son's bed.

The back of the quilt will be made from old cotton men's button-up shirts.  This is the back of the quilt shown above.

In addition to creating quilts and quilted items, the students will learn about the history of quilting and its significance as a community builder through selected children's literature that includes quilting themes.  And at the end of the program, if all goes according to plan, the students will meet some local quilters and see some of their works of art.

In READY to Quilt!, we will take the students' creativity, mix it with fabric, literature, math, history, recycling/up-cycling and teamwork, and end up with functional works of art.  Please leave a comment with any questions, and I'll be sure to respond as soon as I am able.