Curriculum Connections

Language Arts/English
Elementary and Middle School – Poetry of Design
As a class, brainstorm words that can be used to describe the textures, colors, shapes, and patterns in Abrams’s quilt. Using the long list of words, have students create poems that capture the feeling of the quilt.

Social Studies
Middle and High School – The Freedom Quilting Bee and the Civil Rights Movement
Abrams helped to manage the Freedom Quilting Bee, a sewing cooperative established in 1966, which employed women in the Gee’s Bend and Rehoboth areas. They produced quilts and other sewn pieces that were sold in department stores. Have students research the history of the Freedom Quilting Bee and its relationship to the Civil Rights Movement (see Nancy Callahan’s book on the subject, listed in Additional Resources for Study.

Math/Art
Elementary School – How Many Ways?
Ask students to put three rows of three dots on a piece of paper. Have them connect the dots with straight lines in any way they like (just as long as the large square is enclosed). Compare and contrast the solutions, then ask students to work on several more designs. How many ways are there to divide up the square using the dots? What happens if you add more dots to each row?

Elementary School – 100 Dots
Give students sheets of paper with 10 rows of 10 dots (100 dots total). Have students connect the dots with straight lines to make a symmetrical design (they don’t have to use every dot). Invite students to color in the entire design. Compare and contrast the resulting compositions.

Elementary School – Variations on Quilt Patterns
Have students look at some of the different quilt patterns (see Basic Building Blocks of Quilts). Then ask students to choose one that they’d like to reinterpret and have them design a quilt with nine blocks (three rows of three blocks), with each block featuring a variation of the quilt pattern they chose. Discuss how students altered the original pattern in their designs.