Review of Creative Quilting With Kids

by Margaret Miller, Quilter and Author

What a refreshing view of the craft of quiltmaking Maggie Ball offers us in her latest book: seeing it through the eyes and hands of children! Here at last is a guidebook for showing children the joy of using their hands to create something, not merely to frantically punch plastic buttons in endless mindless video games.

Maggie shows how enthusiastically young people respond to the wonder of color and design in the form of fabric; to satisfaction from accomplishing a task as a team, and to the contentment from such techniques as stitching and painting . . . Children delight in creating something out of humble materials; needle and thread, paper and fabric, paint and findings.

This very complete guide book is excellent for anyone who works with large or small groups of children: grandparents, step-parents, home schooling parents, directors of Boys and Girls Clubs, leaders of Boy and Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls, 4-H groups. Church youth program leaders will find countless possibilities for camp activities and long- or short-term charity projects. Teachers will find numerous ways to use quiltmaking to expand their curriculum and to teach other lessons; history, geography, mathematics, folklore, folk art, color and design . . .

Maggie takes what could be an overwhelming project and makes it eminently “doable” by helping you plan thoroughly—including getting community based support (financial, supply donations, as well as extra hands in the classroom). She shows you how to start small with simple projects and few materials, and get more complex as enthusiasm (and community support!) increases ...

Even if you are not a quiltmaker, you can proceed to quiltmaking projects with young people, using Maggie’s wonderful guides to what is needed: templates, yardages, scheduling of time necessary for each project. There are a plethora of techniques to choose from— with warnings about each, based on Maggie’s classroom experiences. Projects presented are not only large and small, but are of paper as well as fabric, with techniques that range from simple to sophisticated (printing with real fish, indeed!).

She also provides pointers on how to teach the basic skills of the craft not only to the children, but to the volunteer helpers . . .Good basic information is presented on how to teach hand sewing, machine sewing, quilt tying, and finishing. There are even guidelines on how to teach use of such current quiltmaking tools as a rotary cutter, now essential to every quiltmaker.

Maggie doesn’t neglect the subtleties; how to get and keep children’s attention at different ages; how important the praise of an adult for the work of a child is; and how special it is for a child to have a keepsake snapshot of him or herself with the finished project. More importantly, Maggie has warnings that will help you avoid pitfalls—like letting the children take home unfinished work, which may never be seen again . . .

The proof of the pudding is the expressions on the faces of the children in the many photographs throughout the book—seeing these projects in action will make you look forward to finding a group of children to try them yourself !!!

Margaret J. Miller, Woodinville, Washington

The contents of this website are copyrighted (2009).  No material may be reproduced without the permission of Maggie Ball.