Kindness Quilt Project

Each Daily Wonder unit comes complete with three weeks of guided daily curriculum and a 4th week called a Flex Week. Parents can rest assured that the curriculum is covered as planned for each unit during the first three weeks. If parents choose to continue the daily routine with Flex Week, they will continue to cover the curriculum and expand on that with design thinking as well.  
​
The Flex Week project for the Grade 2, Month 7, The Wonder of Reading unit is the completion of a Kindness Quilt.  The theme of kindness runs through the stories told during this unit. Stories of kindness are a perfect backdrop for the level of reflection appropriate for the 7 or 8-year-old. It is more developmentally appropriate for a child this age to feel how they feel rather than to think about how they feel. This means it is easier for them to read about kindness and feel how that care feels than for them to bring this into their thinking for analysis. 

What is a Kindness Quilt?

The Kindness Quilt is a celebration of kindness. It is a nine-panel mini quilt about 12” square. You could encourage your child to think of a different person in their life that they would like to share kindness with as they work on each square. When completed, you can use it as a table centrepiece, a doll blanket, a resting place for special things, or a seat cover. Materials are listed below. Skills required are the ability to thread a needle, sew a decent running stitch, tie off, and cut with scissors. In addition, doing a blanket stitch would offer a good option for finishing off.​

Materials Needed

1. Nine squares of cotton fabric measuring 4” x 4”
2. Square cotton fabric measuring 14” x 14” for back side of quilt
3. Embroidery thread cut at 18” pieces, plus more for finishing off
4. Sewing needle with sharp tip and large eye
5. Pins to hold squares together while sewing is in progress
6. Scissors for cutting ends of string.

How To

Here is a YouTube video on hand sewing the squares together.  It will show you how to pin the edges together which can be tricky.  Here is another video on how to make a quilt that will show you the entire process but using a sewing machine.  The second video will show you how to fold over the backing edge to finish the quilt.  We simplified by skipping the binding edge but the hemming and folding still applies.  ​

Project Steps

Day 1:  Gather materials, decide on the layout of quilt squares, pin edges together by laying them face to face, then pinning the edge with one or two pins. Pin in rows of three squares to end up with three pinned and separate rows of squares.
 
Day 2:  Thread your needle with embroidery thread.  Knot the thread at the beginning and end of the sewn section and sew all six lines of joined edges.
 
Day 3:  Finish any sewing of edges.  Pin two rows together by laying them face to face and pinning edges with 3-5 pins.  Begin sewing this long edge.
 
Day 4:  Add the final row to the sewn double row.  Lay face to face with row, pin, sew.  You should have the quilt side complete; hurray!  Lay this on the backing fabric.  Create hem on backing fabric by folding over about ½ cm/quarter inch.  Fold the edge of backing fabric over the edge of the quilt, being sure to maintain the hem fold.  Pin as needed. 
 
Day 5:  Sew backing fabric to the four sides of your quilt side.  Use blanket stitch if desired.  Place a French Knot in the centre of each square on the quilt side to finish off. 

We hope you enjoy this Flex Week project and if you feel like sharing pictures of your kindness quilt, we'd love to see!

---

​Kind Hearts (A poem to match the unit theme of kindness)
By Anonymous
 
To do to others as I should
That they would do to me.
To make me good, and kind, and strong
As children ought to be.
 
Kind hearts they are the garden.
Kind thoughts they are the roots.
Kind words they are the blossom,
Kind deeds they are the fruit.