QUILTING Pupils' project helps homeless children

The tangible product was a lesson in many ways for those who helped make it.
By BARBARA GASH
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
Giving to others is always admirable, but when it happens to be children giving to other children it's especially worthy of attention. This was the case in Columbia, S.C., where a heartwarming story involving kids and sewing recently unfolded.
Some of the mothers at Brockman Elementary School are readers of my sewing column printed in their local newspaper. When it was time to plan a community service project for the first, second and third grades, they thought about sewing.
A learning project
Conferring with teachers Sarah Tison and Monica Geiger, the committee decided on a simple quilt, something the kids, not the parents, could actually do.
"Quilting combines math, eye-hand coordination and the concept of working in teams," explained Janice Johnson, one of the mothers. "And it would produce a tangible product the kids could see and then donate to charity."
Johnson found an easy pattern on the Web site of Michigan's own quilt teacher Kaye Wood (www.kayewo-od.com). It's called a six-hour quilt; it is made in sections by starting in the center and adding on toward the outside.
Families donated the colorful fabrics and the batting.
Over a few months, with volunteer supervision, the children measured, cut and sewed -- by machine!
The results
In this public Montessori school, boys and girls ages 6, 7 and 8 worked together, and the parents (and grandparents) did only the bindings and finishing. The quilts measured 3 feet by 4 feet. In the end, the kids didn't just make one quilt, they made 12, and donated them all on April 20 to a daycare center for homeless kids called Children's Garden.
When I spoke with the Johnson twins, 8-year-old Mary Katherine and Ingrid, they were quite excited about the project. "It was fun sewing the quilts, and we want to do more," they said. "We made the other children happy."
A lot more than sewing was learned here, and possibly others will be inspired by this story.
For more information, call Brockman Elementary at (803) 790-6743. And watch for more about teaching children to sew and quilt.