If you are a fan of traditional appliqué, Jan Carlson’s wall hanging, “The Fabric Made Me Do It”, patterned in America Quilts Together Magazine, is just for you.
Quilt designer Jan Carlson’s fascination with Baltimore Album quilts led to her “summer job” of teaching kids to make quilts at the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Museum in Washington D.C.
Quilt Camp kids display their creations
On a shoestring budget the first ever DAR Quilt Camp for Kids was created in 1997. The kids (ranging in age from 8 to 15) came to the museum for one week from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm each day, spending an hour learning behind-the-scenes things about the museum and the rest of the time with Jan making a quilt. All fifteen campers (including one boy who was the first student to finish!) managed to make a small wall hanging complete with borders, binding, at least some quilting. Jan remarks, “I learned a lot that year about teaching kids to quilt, not the least of which was that I needed a helper who knew how to quilt!”
Young Quilt Camp participant
Some of Jan’s advice to her young quilting campers: “I carefully instill in my budding quilters all the important quilt “laws” that took we experienced quilters years to master, such as the importance of eating chocolate (especially before and after squaring up your completed appliqué blocks.) If you are not happy with something, rip it out now. It will always bug you if you don’t. Unless, of course it is Thursday and we are running out of time! Then the applicable law is, “if it looks good from a galloping horse” it is fine.”
More fun groups and beautiful quilts are found in America Quilts Together.
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OK, so I bought a copy of the magazine. LOVE this pattern and the story behind it. Thanks for sharing. Too bad I don’t live in Virginia anymore — I’d volunteer to be a helper!
It would be fun to see more quilt camps pop up around the country, wouldn’t it?