Once a year my kids middle school does a project day centered about a book that all students read over the summer. This years summer reading was "Betty before X" by Ilyasah Shabazz. The book is a biography about her mother before she married Malcolm X. Betty Shabazz loved to sew which is why the school wanted to provide a sewing workshop for the kids.
The challenge was that I had 30 min per group in wich I had to teach 16 kids to sew and let them all sew something that can be made into a final result. So I cut what felt like hundreds of 5 square pieces so that I could teach the kids quickly how to make a 4 patch block. The kids could choose colors as they wished, the only condition was to have one of the 4 pieces in one of the school colors yellow, grey or black.
The kids all did a great job and it was fun to see how they got into it. They knew they had to do it over if it was not a proper 1/4 inch seam because it would not fit together at the end. After three groups of kids we had a pretty substantial design wall with lots of great 4 square blocks.
I took the patches home, sewed them together and quilted it. Even though I consciously chose colors for the patches that you would think do not go together, they all look absolutely perfect at the end. This was a great reminder for the kids that not everything needs to "fit" perfectly at the beginning to come out exactly right...
The quilt is hanging in front of the Middle School Office now.
