Community Quilt

community: women 18+ | Chez Doris: women's shelter (Montreal) | January to march 2009

Laurence Dionne

Project Plan

Community Quilt

Population: the women at Chez Doris. Aged 15 and over, with various physical disabilities such as arthritis, difficulty walking, little hand-eye coordination, hand paralysis, etc. Some also have psychological disabilities such as anger management issues, addictions to drugs or gambling, personality disorders (schizophrenia among others), kleptomania, etc.

Special Needs: The teaching is done on an individual basis to be able to tend to the different needs of every woman. Those with physical difficulties need help- but only the minimum- for them to feel they are doing most of the work (it’s more rewarding). For those with mental disabilities, patience and calm are key to communicating. If an incident occurs, stay patient and clam, and if there is a threat to other women, be assertive- if necessary, go get assistance.

Length: 4 hours (2 sessions- to be able to have enough squares to finish the quilt entirely) This lesson will be taught at the very end of the semester.

Learning Objectives:

• The women will learn to embroider (using basic stitches)
• They will gain pride and confidence in completing the artwork and seeing it displayed for all to use in the library.

Materials:

• squares of fabric
• sewing machines
• one big rectangle of fabric (for the back)
• and the same size cotton batting
• needles and thread
• fabric pencils to sketch their designs on the fabric square
• fabric paint (or acrylic works just fine) to paint their designs on the fabric square. NOTE: you may need an iron and ironing board to seal the fabric paint after it is dry
• paintbrushes to paint
•  plates (can be Styrofoam) to mix the paint with
• inspirational material: Sherri Young Dunbar (n.d.) Fiber Artist. Retrieved February 11, 2009, from http://www.dunbarquiltart.com/gallery.html and Burbidge, P. (2000). Quilt Studio: Innovative techniques for confident and creative quilt making and design. The Quilt Digest Press: Illinois, USA

Art Form: sewing

Technique: embroidery

Vocabulary:  embroidery, line stitch, filling stitch, cross stitch

Motivation: time: At the beginning, I give a basic (approx. 10 min.) motivation, and then I repeat it to the women as they come in. It’s an ongoing motivation that takes an individualized approach.

Procedure:

• Beforehand, set up a pile of fabric squares at each end of the table and in the middle, as well as the thread. Keep the needles in the center of the table and visible at all times. Monitor all the needles throughout the activity just in case. Lay a few fabric pencils here and there and keep the fabric paint, paintbrushes, and plates in the center of the table. You’ll distribute them after the motivation. Lay out the quilt pictures and books (the inspirational material) on the table but don’t talk about it in the motivation because the idea is to make a personal picture so it might influence the ladies too much. If they have an idea, they don’t need the books, but if they don’t have inspiration, they’ll just have the instinct to flip through the books and images. You may, however, refer to the books when trying to explain something while helping a lady.

• “To thank Chez Doris for giving us a space to make art, we’re going to make a quilt that we’re going to leave on the couch in the library for others to use. We see a lot of women coming to sleep on that couch after a difficult night, and they don’t always have blankets to keep them warm, so we’ll make one for them. Imagine this was you, would you like a blanket to wrap yourself in? How would it make you feel?”

• “Try to find a way to visually represent either how you feel when you’re here at Chez Doris, or how you want to say “thanks”. Pick colors that represent the way you feel.”
• “In the middle of the quilt, we (as in, the teachers) are going to put the words “Thank you, Chez Doris” and in French as well.”
• “We’ll connect all your pieces to that middle one to make a big quilt, sewing them together with one of the machines.”

Art Making: time: 1 hour and 45 minutes. Ongoing motivation as the women come in, and ongoing response as the women progress in their work.

Procedure:

• Important: seeing as this is a difficult task requiring patience and attention to detail, help the ladies as much as possible without doing everything for them. Try to encourage them to do the most part, but always make sure you’re available to lend a hand. You can try to get the ladies to help each other out as well, reinforcing the feeling of community.
• On the fabric squares, the students must draw the lines they will be embroidering with a pencil first to make it easier for them. After, if they wish, they can paint their pictures.
• Now for the embroidering: you need to get the thread through the needle, tying the two ends of the thread together to make a knot so the thread doesn’t go straight through the fabric. Then, we’re going to make our picture using three stitches: the line stitch, the cross stitch, and the filling stitch. (show how to make all three). Remind the ladies to use one color everywhere they need it before moving on to another.

Response: time: ongoing as the women progress and once they finish as well. All the women work at different rhythms and have different ideas; so once again, an individualistic approach has to be used.

Procedure: Go around helping the women, asking them several questions as:

o What picture did you make?

o Why did you make it?

o Is that why you came to Chez Doris?

o And you like it here?

o What colors did you pick?

o Do they have a special meaning to you?

o Do you think your work is finished?

o Would you like to add more?

o Did you think about everyone else that’s going to use this quilt?

o Do you think they’ll like it?

o Did you learn something?

o Did you have fun?

o What would you change/ prefer for next time?

NOTE: At this point, the women will have spent an entire semester together, and will be more open to talking about personal things.

Clean up: time: 5 minutes before the end.

Procedure: women clean up their spot, and sometimes help for the rest of the materials if they feel like it. If it’s lunch or bingo, they all rush downstairs, and we clean up, which is not a problem because they are very clean women. The clean up is easy and fast, and it allows for more response time and to get to know my coworkers and the women who come to Chez Doris better. It’s also when we brainstorm for the lesson to teach the next week.