Prairie Activity: Prairie Quilt

Objective : students will, after viewing the content of Museumlink Prairie and Quilt modules, and

training with digital cameras and software, create quilt blocks with the topic of

prairie fauna and flora

prairie land forms

traditional quilt patterns

decorative and fine art objects of prairie life

geometric designs or image transformation

incidents of life on the prairie in the 19th century

Grade Levels: K-8 sophistication of techniques and discussion adapt to all levels

Time required: two or more class periods

Motivation : lead a class discussion on the Prairie Web site (settlement of the prairie, plant and animal

life, technology transforming the prairie) and the quilts (structure and patterns) as subject matter for a

class prairie quilt that will be a montage of images about the prairie. Each students will pick favorite

subjects to take pictures of or find images for their quilt block.

Materials :

digital cameras (especially useful if class has a field trip to a local prairie)

computer

Adobe Photshop software

color printer

https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/prairie/index.html Prairie Web site

https://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/art/htmls/ks_piece.html Keeping Us in Stitches quilting

Web site (also its links to quilt block patterns onlnine)

optionaltransfer paper (for ink jet or laser printer)

muslin or other fabric

Procedure :

Students will

choose objects related to prairie life to photograph (leaves from trees, flowers, quilts, tools) or

select online images of such objects and save them in a computer file.

download the images into Photoshop

manipulate the images (crop, resize)

montage or collage several images on a new Photoshop file by copying and pasting.

save the new image

print it out (on paper or transfer paper)

arrange all blocks on a display board as a large quilt top (or iron transfer paper blocks onto cloth

blocks, and display or sew them together)

Prairie Activity- -page 1