How to make a History Quilt

1. How to make a History Quilt A step-by-step guide By Eliza McFeely History Department Moorestown Friends School

2. Framework • This is a variation on the jigsaw. It is a way to pull a period like the end of the 19th century or the Cold War together. In both cases, there are many different stories going on at the same time. In textbooks, they usually require half-a-dozen chapters to get at the political, social, economic, regional and global events that together define the period. The quilt is a metaphor for history. It is only when we stitch together all the different parts that we can stand back and look at the whole.

3. Materials • Enough 100% cotton muslin to provide each student with 8½ x 11 piece, plus enough extra to fill out the dimensions of your quilt (and in case the printer eats any pieces) • Enough of a print material to create a frame around each square • A large piece ( possible pieced together) of print cloth for the back; this should be four or five inches larger than the finished size of the front of the quilt. • A piece of cotton batting as big as the front of the quilt. You can use a flat flannel sheet for this. • A large roll of freezer paper (from the grocery store).

4. Equipment • Sewing machine • Iron and ironing board • Lots of straight pins • Thread • Good scissors, as many pairs as you can find • A color ink-jet printer and extra cartridges

5. Directions • 1. Before you take anything to school, wash and dry the muslin and print cloth. You can iron it yourself, or get a couple of kids to do it.

6. Designing Squares • This is done on the computer. The important thing is that every square has to be the same size. I suggest a 7” square with ¼” border all around. The border should stay blank; that is where you will stitch it together. I gave the kids a template to use; they created their designs, then sent it to me to be printed out. Sometimes it helps to convert it to a pdf. If you aren’t sure if it is the right side, print it out on paper first!

7. Content • This is the research component of the quilt. Once you have decided on a theme, the class should come up with a list of topics they think should be included. You want one idea for each student to illustrate. You can also have a title square and a signature square. Use the brainstorming session to talk about how to represent history visually.

8. Creating Squares • Each student is assigned one topic. S/he researches the topic and comes up with images and perhaps brief text to include in the square. • MAKE SURE STUDENTS HAVE CITATIONS FOR ANY IMAGES OR IDEAS THEY TAKE FROM ANOTHER SOURCE! I don’t include them in the quilt, but I collect them and check them.

9. Digesting the material • Once students have come up with a design, it is useful to have them defend their choice. This is a good place to assess the learning they have done. It is also a good place to catch any errors before they are enshrined in your quilt.

10. Preparing the muslin • This is a messy, chaotic step, but it works. You need a few kids to take the washed, ironed muslin. They should • 1. Make a little cut near one edge (about ¼ in from the edge) and rip it all the way down the side. If the material has been cut unevenly (which it will) this will square it off. Do this for each of the edges. • 2. Measure 11” from the edge you just ripped. Make another little cut, and rip downward all the way to the end of the fabric

11. Muslin Con’t • You now have an 11” wide strip of muslin. Measure 8½” down, cut and rip. Your goal is a pile of nice, neat, squared off 8½ x 11” pieces. • Cut equally nice neat 8½ x 11” pieces of freezer paper. • Match up a piece of muslin to the shiny side of a piece of freezer paper. Carefully iron the muslin onto the paper so that it sticks. Do the corners especially carefully.

12. Printing • To print the squares, you need a color ink jet printer. • First, check to make sure the design students have sent you are actually 7” square (with a ¼” seam allowance all around) and that they are complete and correct. • Remove extraneous threads that will only clog up your printer. • Put the sheet of muslin/freezer paper in so that the printer will print on the cloth side. • Print the design on the muslin. • Peel the paper off the back of the material.

13. Framing the Squares • Have some students tear the framing cloth into strips. I recommend at least 2” wide. Then cut or tear those strips into 10” pieces. Have students pin one strip to the top of the square and one to the bottom, centering the square. Sew, using a uniform seam allowance so the squares end up being the same size.

14. Putting it together • Once all the squares are printed and have a top and bottom strip sewed on, press all the seams so the pieces will lie flat.

15. Layout • Lay out all the finished squares on a large table or on the floor and gather the students around them. • Have students talk about how the squares might best be put together into a quilt. This should raise questions of interpretation: how do changes in the arrangement of the squares change the story the quilt tells? • This is my favorite part of the project.

16. Sewing the Columns • Once the class has agreed on the layout of the quilt, pin the squares together column by column. • Lay two adjacent squares face to face, pin the edge, sew the seam, press it. • Repeat this until you have all the squares sewed into columns.

17. Combining Columns • Rip pieces of the framing cloth that are the same width as the top/bottom pieces, only this time, leave them long; in fact, put pieces together until you have strips are the same length as your columns. • Sew a strip between each of the columns so that they all come together into a beautiful quilt top. • Press the edges.

18. Assembling the Quilt • This works best around a big square table or on the floor. • Lay the backing material, right-side down, on the table or floor. • Lay the batting on top of the backing material, centering it as best you can. • Lay the quilt top right-side UP on top. • Smooth everything out and pin the whole thing together – put a pin in most of the squares.

19. Assembling con’t • Trim the batting (NOT the backing) to fit the quilt top. • Using a yard stick or other strait edge (it should be about an inch and a half wide) and a Sharpie, draw a border around the quilt right on the backing. The backing, once it is cut, will be about 1½” bigger all the way around than the quilt and the batting. • Cut along the line you just drew.

20. Assembly part III • Everyone can help with this: Fold the backing edge in half, so the outer edge meets the quilt top. Fold it again, over the top of the quilt top. You should have about a half-inch border all around the quilt. Pin the folded border to the quilt top. Use lots of pins, and face them so that they are easy to pull out as you sew around the quilt. Fold the corners so they look neat, and pin them too.

21. Finishing • Sew all the way around the quilt, staying close to the inside folded edge of the border. Make sure that you are keeping the top, batting and backing together. • If all goes well, you now have a quilt! Trim the threads and parade it around the school so everyone can see what you’ve done.