A few years ago, I designed literature, art, music, and dance workshop called The Quilt Project. Initially I worked with small groups of children who lived in subsidized housing. I later adapted it for a whole school involving all students grades K-8. I used more than 30 quilt stories and books from all over the world. I brought some of my collected quilts with differing patterns.

We started by reading stories and listening to some music from other countries and talking about how patchwork quilts are like people, working together to take small pieces and make something bigger and more beautiful. We choreographed a group dance for the last day of the project. It was so interesting to see how children responded to this. Of course, they all have their own stories to tell. But they just threw themselves into this with full abandon, and that’s what I loved about it.