With fabric scraps and a lot of patience from a dedicated volunteer, a school art project and history lesson into lasting memories for fifth graders at Silver Ridge Elementary.
Teachers Tiana Eck and Christina Kuske’s had planned a lesson about Gee’s Bend Quilts in February for their fifth graders. Generations of women in the historically Black community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama have hand-sewn quilts in improvised abstract patterns that one New York Times art critic called “miraculous works of modern art.” Gee’s Bend quilts have been shown in prominent museums across the country.
Eck’s student Layla recognized the quilts in the lesson right away. She is a fifth generation Gee’s Bend quilter and her grandma, Delia Thibodeaux, was raised in Gee’s Bend.
Thibodeaux began carrying on her hometown tradition at age 13, when she made a two-tone, brown corduroy quilt. Like many in Central Kitsap, the Navy brought her here in 1995. But she regularly visits Gee’s Bend and has taken Layla with her.
In February, Layla showed her classmates a book that included a photo of her great grandma with a quilt. Thibodeaux visited the class as they created paper quilt square inspired by Gee’s Bend quilt designs.
And since then, Thibodeaux has turned each student’s design into mostly hand sewed quilt squares.
“I was really excited because I didn’t know she was going to do that,” Layla said when she learned that her grandma planned to sew the quilts. “I was in shock.”
This week, Layla and her grandma presented the quilted squares to students in Eck and Kuske’s classes.
“I was really excited because I didn’t know she was going to do that,” Layla said when she learned that her grandma planned to sew the quilts. “I was in shock.”
This week, Layla and her grandma presented the quilted squares to students in Eck and Kuske’s classes.