Quilts and a study of quilting can be a nice tie-in to colonial studies, Thanksgiving, early American settlers and more. The possibilities for Math, Science and Social Studies connections are numerous. And there's a great collection of children's literature on the subject, including Eight Hands Round by Ann Paul, The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco, The Log Cabin Quilt by Ellen Howard and With Needle and Thread: A Book About Quilts by Raymond Bial. I hope you'll find something you can incorporate into your Fall studies!

Thanks to Jerry B for his recommendations. As always, everyone is welcome to send in their favorite sites on a topic for consideration in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

• America Quilts - http://www.pbs.org/americaquilts/
  This PBS companion site offers a look at quilters, their craft, and many original designs that the quilters featured in this presentation link to their own life stories. The Quilts in the Classroom section offers ideas for the study and use of quilts to share student learning, and the Quilt Quiz offers an interactive ten question multiple choice quiz with immediate feedback and content based on the website.
• An Archive of American Patchwork Quilt Designs - http://womensearlyart.net/quilts/
  Here's an alphabetized collection of quilt patterns from Acorns and Arrowhead to the Y-bridge and Z's Askew. You can use the FreeFind site search to look for specific patterns by name, and there's also a listing of patterns under the theme of motion that can be especially intriguing for children studying optical illusion or movement in art. This is a great place to start immersing children in the craft of quilt design.
• Exploring Quilt History - http://www.historyofquilts.com/
  This is a more comprehensive treatment of quilts and the different roles they have played throughout history. Moving beyond the simple study of patterns and techniques, this site invites students to delve deeper into the significance of quilting as an important thread in the fabric of our society. Anne Johnson offers such fascinating features as Abolition Quilts and the Underground Railroad and Patriotic, Political and Commemorative Quilts. Lots more links too.
• History Wired - http://historywired.si.edu/index.html
  OK - it wouldn't seem like an IT newsletter without something that pushes the envelope a little for any given topic. This site from the Smithsonian offers an abstract patchwork quilt of historical items spanning from the time of Columbus 'til today. Just click on any rectangle to zoom in and learn more about an object housed at the Smithsonian, covering topics from the arts, through medicine, military and technology. It's not symmetrical and it's not traditional, but it will entice your students to learn more about our heritage!
• Kodak PhotoQuilt of Olympic Moments - http://olympics.kodak.com/cgi-bin/asCgi.pl?app=photoquilt&laf=olympics2000
  So you've got your kids sold on the whole quilting theme but you're not sure how to make the transition from traditional quilting to quilting using digital media? You have to see this site! Some 140 digital images "quilted" together on this page - fully clickable - so that students may celebrate the significant moments of past Olympic glories as they prepare for the upcoming games. Imagine the classroom applications for your own digital quilts!
• Math Quilts - http://members.aol.com/mathquilt/
  Scroll on past the quotes and birthdays of quilters and zoom in on the Math Quilt Gallery and your students will be in for quite a treat, as they examine geometry, perspective, topology, irrational numbers, feathered stars, fractals and tessellations and tiling (including the work of Escher). Each example is a colorful study in a Math principle. Students can even submit their own photographed designs to this site. Slow loading but potentially worth the wait.
• Quilt Design Ideas Using Math - http://www.ptialaska.net/%7Ercoghill/design.html
  Julie Coghill presents these simple applications of Math ideas into designing quilt squares. In some cases she refers to advanced principles such as the Pythagorean theorem. But in most examples she keeps things very simple and direct. In fact, many of these truisms are as much good graphic design principles as they are Math applications: "Asymmetry excites more than symmetry" and "Odd is more interesting than even ."
• Quilts and Quiltmaking in America 1978-1996 - http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/qlthtml/qlthome.html
  The Library of Congress offers this look at quilting in America in the last quarter of the twentieth century, spanning from our bicentennial through the Clinton administration. In Speaking of Quilts: Voices from the Late Twentieth Century, Laurel Horton draws interesting conclusions about our culture and how it is reflected in our quilts. Likewise, the Blue Ridge Quilts and the Lands' End All-American Quilts offer wonderful images for quilt study. For more elementary quilting ideas from the Library of Congress see Stitch a Quilt at http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jp/quilt.
• Quilts, Counterpanes & Throws - http://americanhistory.si.edu/quilts/index.htm
  Another Smithsonian offering, this time in the more traditional approach of a historical survey of quilting, including pictorial and patriotic quilts, embroidery and appliqué, crib covers, silk quilts and even Amish quilts. Each quilt square is presented as a thumbnail which can be selected to zoom in on a larger view of the pattern. While this is not an exhaustive collection, the patterns shared here are representative of important themes in American folk art.
• Traditional Pieced Quilt Block Collection - http://home.mindspring.com/~mymble/quilt/
  Here's an online collection of quilt squares put together by a Library Science major, so the categories and tie-ins are thoughtful and somehow familiar to educators. Not only can you look up quilt designs alphabetically, you can peruse themes such as action, nature, people and places. There are also nice studies of quilt units and blocks, as well as layout suggestions for two particular quilt designs and a collection of templates you can print out in .Pdf format.
• Virtual Underground Railroad Quilt - http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/greenway/leahy/ugrr/index.htm
  here is an imaginative use of the quilting concept to showcase student learning about the underground railroad...and they didn't even need to use needle and thread! Mr. Leahy's fourth graders from Beaverton, Oregon assembled this virtual quilt using clickable thumbnails that allow students to take a closer look at each panel and learn all kinds of useful historical information on this high-interest topic. Note: you may not be able to get in using the link I've provided - I had to go to http://www.beavton.k12.or.us/ and do a site search for "quilt" ion order to get this great page to come up.
• World-Wide Quilting Page - http://ttsw.com/MainQuiltingPage.html
  Plain in design (and therefore fast loading in your browser, this site touts itself as the "world's oldest and largest quilting site." It offers a real wealth of materials, from a glossary and a beginner's guide to quilting through hints, tips, techniques and online archives. The coloring pages can be especially helpful, printing out sophisticated designs that students can use to experiment with color.

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