Quilts

Before I start to tell you about the quilts we saw today; I have this little reminder, it's International De-lurking Week. So: Sheryl put together another cute graphic - Delurk - in cyberspace no one can hear you read! And in order to give you something to comment on, take a look at these quilts!


Crafts and homeschool meet again as we drive down the road to Montgomery County Community College's new Art Center in Pottstown (16 High St.). My friend and I dropped the boys off at a friend's and picked up her daughter. It was a girls only outing. Not to be sexist, but we thought the girls would get more out of it if the boys weren't constantly pestering to leave. First off the space was beautiful. The building is a converted factory and it has been renovated into a nice gallery. The quilts were selected from the Loose Threads Quilt Guild in Spring City,PA. I used to be a member of this guild and was excited to see the work of so many hands that I used to know. The first picture is a watercolor quilt by Eileen Frankil. These types of quilts use very small squares of (usually) floral fabric and create a design or picture by playing with the placement of lighter or darker squares.

This Ginkgo quilt was a monochromatic challenge quilt. So, there was a our first homeschool vocabulary word of the day - monochromatic. The idea of the challenge quilt was also new. My six year old also got some reinforcement in the identification of trees by their distinctive leaf shapes.

There was so much to see, some traditional patterns like Grandmother's flower garden (during which we discussed the names of polygons) and we especially liked this picture quilt. The quiltmaker covered the whole quilt with a tulle fabric that had little sparkly things in it. It made the picture have a sense of snow about it. Gorgeous little details - like the careful choice of fabrics for the grasses and the tree (not in my picture) and the silver thread used to embroider the blades on the ice skates - added much to our admiration and amazement. The girls kept commenting on how long it must have taken to make these.


The girls spent some time after we had looked at all the quilts up close sketching details they found interesting.

So there you have it, math terms, a little history in the origins of patterns, art and even a little nature. This wasn't intense instruction but I find that images are powerful communicators and that a trip like this will reap fruit in the days and weeks to come. If you are local and want to go, hurry, this exhibit is only up til the 29th of January. Open during regular business hours. If you aren't local and want to see some more pictures check my craft blog - I'll be putting them up soon.