Tuesday 13 April 2010

Patchwork Posse

Last term I noticed that one of my students was playing Tetris in class rather than doing the Humanities work I had set her. This sparked a conversation about the following post on my blog about the Tetris Quilt.


I asked her if she would like to learn how to make something like this and she said yes!

So I got her to play the game (outside of class of course) and take a few screen dumps to work out a design. We worked out how much fabric she would need and then I sent her off to get fabric during the "student non attendance period" (ie. school holidays).

And today at lunchtime we have our first "workshop" at lunchtime with my sewing machine, iron and rotary cutter. Our aim is to make a cushion as a trial, providing I am not too busy, every Wednesday Lunchtime might be the goer for our Patchwork Posse ... cheesy but appropriate if you know the student.

I am going to use the "block" method. Nine squares equals a block and see how it goes. Any advice on teaching patchwork?

PS... and talking about Tetris, check out this low-tech version ... can someone in the UK buy it for me and send it to me?
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

9 comments:

Unknown said...

What's a rotary cutter?

Margaret said...

Rotary cutters and rulers are used in patchwork to essentially make the process more efficient. see the following web site for what they look at
http://www.pelennapatchworks.co.uk/rotary-cutters-blades-and-knives-39-c.asp

Unknown said...

Oh, cool! Much better than using scissors.

Furniture removal said...

Wow! It's beautiful. You did a good job. Congratulations!

Thea said...

I like that you took her naughty class room habit and turned into a crafty positive :)

Unknown said...

Very very cool! I love Tetris. You must be one cool teacher :)

Kate said...

I like, are you going to do the patchwork in blocks or in lines. I have wondered how to go about doing this kind of patchwork.

Kate said...

I reckon a nine patch approach would probably work - and would take a lot of painful planning out it.

[Sewing right angles to corners might be a bit painful for a beginner!]

Another alternative [to avoid cutting and sewing thousand of little blocks]would be to to have a horizontal line by line approach. In this way, you could have some straight lines - however, the maths for figuring out the seam allowances would be a pain.

Leanne Mackenzie said...

I must say, I'm overjoyed ! Good for you teaching her to create outside of the classroom ! Although if you would have emailed me i would have sent you the pattern i used and my calculations on yardage. Yep, that's my husbands legs in the picture, holding up this quilt! I hope your student learns that her hard work will surely pay off...my son loves it.