Quilts: A Collection of Poetry About Our Lives

by Jennifer Morgan Beuchat

A simple concept, symbolism, brought about a unique and meaningful learning experience for 5th period reading class at Jeff North Middle Level. It all began with reading a poem about a mother making quilts, each piece of the quilt symbolic of the author's life. It turned into the 8th grade students in 5th period reading class creating a design for a quilt of their own, each piece representing something about their life.

After designing the quilts, with the help of para Mrs. Kim Banks, additional help was given by professional quilters, Opal Jamvold and Amy Gronniger. They helped students cut quilt squares from old clothes, new fabric, anything kids felt was significant, then sewed pieces together for the students and took the materials to their shop in Troy where their quilting machine was put to work finishing the task.

5th period reading middle-level students display the back of their quilts.

The students each wrote a poem about their quilt and what it all meant. The day the finished quilts arrived, each student explained what their quilt meant and read their poem. At the end of the class period, students presented Mrs. Banks, Mrs. Jamvold, and Amy Gronniger each with a book of poetry, Our Quilts: A Collection of Poetry about Our
Lives, that included each of the students' quilt poem.

Special thanks to Kim Banks, Opal Jamvold, Amy Gronniger for all their help. A project of this magnitude would not have been possible without them.

Samples of the Student Poems

MY QUILT
by Derek Belveal
On my quilt you will see the sport's I like to play.
On the corners of my quilt, and in the middle, are the JAYHAWKS, That I love so much.
Red is bright,and reminds me of the Kansas City Chiefs,
Blue is dark and mysterious, that's my favorite color.
Black and bold, I can say no more.
Green is bright and wonderful, it's our wonderful school color, for which I LOVE.
Orange, bright and bold, entangles with the black to say TRICK OR TREAT
Smell my feet.
This is my quilt and only my quilt,
This is what I am made of, Colors that are bright and bold.
That's my life ..... COLORFUL!!!!!!

BUFF
by Tanner Darveaux
The best man I ever knew
was only here for my short 12 years of life.
As I go through the bags of my dad's, I find things I forgot about.
You see we both love football,
he was for the Cornhuskers, and I was for the Jayhawks.
He taught me how to snap a football,
bait my own hook, and
shot a gun.
He was a teacher in many ways.
Not only with fun things, but also about girls .....
You can never figure them out!!!!!!!
The green shirt was for his love to get dressed up and go out
I liked it that he thought he was a cowboy in the west
then there was the handkerchief best noise blower I ever used
it was used for hunting and wiping oil off hands
then there was the willie handkerchief
it was his love for music;
we shared that

MY POEM FOR MY QUILT
by Joseph Erhart
John Deere's going down the dirt roads to work up fields.
Rock chalk jayhawks are the 2008 NCAA national champions.
Blue like the sky in a hot summer day.
Black like a cold winter night.
yellow like the sun all year round.
Green like spring grass growing thicker and thicker.
NR means no rules for summer fun.
Red leaves fall on Halloween night in the fall.

MY QUILT
by Brenden Camblin
1. The camo is what dad wears to hide when he rides and not be seen in battle.
2. The blue is the sky that we look at.
3. Space in the night.
4. The brown is the ground which we stand on.
5. It keeps us on earth.
6. The white squares represent my football days.
7. I was a nose guard and they were the enemy.
8. My job is to throw the lineman.
9. Attack the quarterback.
10. Don't let them score.
11. The checkered is what my Grandpa wears.
12. When he works.
13. The basketball shirt resembles my favorite team.
14. Team JCN.
15. Green is for JCN.

SQUARES
by Kelsey Hubbard
Camo they might wear acrossed the seas or here fighting and serving the world away,
getting a turn to look and see what it feels like to be able to train and stand up for the USA.
Tractors are going down the highways finding fields to get ready for planting,
so combines can harvest in the fall.
Hunting in the wilderness, getting fresh air, I love the outdoors.
Blue as sky and water which I love to look at.
Grumpy as ever when NOT feeling well!
Sponges for being spongy clean,
as Sponge Bob got cleaned when he had the suds.
White for the person I am on the inside.
Black for the people who have died, that I know.
Pink for the girl that's in me!
I'm who I am and nothing will change what I have become from my childhood.

MY QUILT
by Kasey Kindrick
The green is for my mothers eyes, her favorite color, the green outside
Nemo is for the ocean blue, I love it yes, I know its true
It surrounds me all around
In the air and below the ground
Sylvester what a silly cat, stands for my family, a spunky scat,
my family gets right up from down, just like when he never gets the twoun.
The pink with roses is from the past.
The curtains that hang over by the flask.
My grandmother made them, all the stripes. From now to then, From them to this.
The different designs not the calico. Is from when my mother used to sew, she sewn it well it was quite grand. I know not what, not where, not when. But that it was very grand.
The calico look for that meant the type of color facts.
They represent how even though we all are different but don't like to show.
Oh tweety, tweety a yellow bird. He runs from Sylvester but never heard.
She may be quiet when people are around. But when there gone you'll never frown
They all are in the quilt I made the love the peace the time it takes.
For this I put my loving words to Mrs.Banks and Mrs. Morgan who thought of this first,
but thanks to Opal, Amy, and all who helped to make this.
This quilt, this memory, and all its time.

MY SPECIAL QUILT
by Alex Heiman
From stripes to denim
To the best trip ever
things I remember from my special summer
most of them happy some of them sad
then came the day everything went bad
then it all turned around
and everything was okay,
the flag represents a trip to North Carolina
the homecoming of my uncle coming back from Iraq,
the out grown favorite blue jeans
with a 'grandma' sewn patch,
the recovery from a terrible disease gives the red meaning
the red, white and blue stands for my patriotism
and that is my quilt that is all about me

THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY
by Breanna Place
the journey from
a youngster to now
I make a quilt
out of clothes that I wore as
a kid
just to make
it to now
from t-shirts
from pants
from blankets
to a perfect quilt
it has
sad times
it has
bad times
it also has
glad times
it also has
my sentential journey
from then to now

DARRIN'S QUILT POEM
by Darrin Schmidt
Racing is my life
my life is racing
I live in the woods
with all the critters
and I found out how much fun it is using scissors
cutting pieces of cloth full of colors.
There are pictures of farming, parts of my life
with the name of my family
Nothing makes me happier
then the way my life is now.
When every day I get to see a cow.
Instead of seeing towers
for now see lots of flowers.

MY QUILT
by Jacob Leakey
My quilt is about my life.
My favorite team is the,
Cincinnati Bengals.
The Bengals team colors are Black and Orange
The checkered orange pieces are
for the time that I went to
five farm's.
It was so fun
there was a lot of animals on the farm.
The quilt has a certain pattern
that pattern makes L's
Those L's stand for
my last name
Leakey.
That is my quilt.

THE BEAUTIFUL QUILT
by Taylor Jo Nevins
My quilt is my life
A Journey
A Memory
When I look at it I see
A Beautiful quilt
It has Happy memory's
To sad memory's
To very funny memory's
The blue stars
Remind me
Of my sisters beautiful blue eyes
That is
What i see
When i look at
A Beautiful quilt.

MY QUILT
by Mason McMillan
My Quilt represents my life of me.
You might think of green has leaves or grass
but to me it is my school colors.
Mr. Moore might think of the Jayhawks as the beakers
but to me the Jayhawks and anyother Jayhawk fan
thinks the Jayhawks as national Champs.
The yellow squares indicates my moms favorite color
and the color of her kitchen.
The red squares on my Quilt represents the blood of American soldiers
or armies that fought for our country.
The black is for the black suits and dresses that are worn to funeral's.
There are four black square's
indicates of how many funeral's I have been too.
I have been to two of my family's funeral
and the other two were my mom's or dad's friends that died.