Quilting is a traditional craft for sewers of many cultures and nationalities.
The construction of a well-made quilt is a time consuming, meticulous endeavour from start to finish beginning with the original concept, choice of pattern and material, yardage-calculations, design-layout, cutting, piecing, sewing, pressing (repeat, repeat)…
So, kudos to Dog Creek Elementary Junior Secondary School teacher, Louise Harry for acting on the vision she had during the Christmas holidays (2016) in which she saw every child in the school creating their own star-quilt-blanket.
Louise knew in her heart that in the process of making the blanket, many invaluable lessons would be learned.
After Christmas break Louise approached school principal, Jane Hancock with her plan and before long the project was underway.
Historically, star quilts have significant cultural and ceremonial meaning.
Originating with reservation-Pawnee, when the men were no longer permitted to hunt buffalo for bed covers and robes, the women then learned to quilt with missionaries and other women living in outpost communities.
The Ojibway also sewed star quilts, but it was the Lakota who truly adopted the (morning) star (the Great Spirits Breath) as their own.
Originally used as bed-coverings the star blankets began to appear in important places; door coverings for shelters or dwellings at ceremonial events. They were worn by healers in yuwipi (curing) ceremonies and most importantly, star quilts have long played a critical role in giveaways, from birth to death (life cycles of the Sioux).
As the star blanket tradition has spread, the cultural meanings for all First Nations peoples has remained markedly similar. Louise has made 76 star blankets to date, all given away in special circumstances; births, deaths, illness.
Her very first star quilt was a gift to her sister, when Mary went to the mountain for her four-day spiritual fast.
The students are keeping to tradition. They will all be gifting their creation to someone special; a parent, grandparent, favourite aunt or uncle. A few students did not want to name the recipient.
The star-blanket quilt project began with all of the students choosing some variation of a large single star pattern which is made up of a multitude of small diamond-shape pieces set on a plain or patterned background.
The quilt sizes ranged from lap quilts to double bed size; the sewers ranged in ages from seven to 16 and in grades 2 to 10.
Remarkably, Louise has managed to encourage, nurture and cajole the whole group through to completion with help from her sister, Louise Harry, principal Jane Hancock, secretary, Sandra Archie and others who all made a star quilt.
There were some extremely enthusiastic student quilters. The youngest Grade 2 student Seianna Harry was one of the first to complete the project and she loved the process and is very proud of her blanket.
There were a couple of less than enthusiastic participants.
Each and every student agreed that it was a very difficult project, but not one of them quit.
They learned to help one another when they had difficulty with a step in the process, shared the sewing equipment, made space for one another and appreciated each other’s choices.
Keon Harry had the misfortune of sewing his quilt back to his quilt front the wrong way. He forgot the reminder, face-to-face, but after some good-natured razzing from the older girls, everyone sat down with him to pick out the errant stitches.
Louise quietly coached them all; encouraging extra effort, teaching cultural meaning and traditional ways, listening patiently, sharing her knowledge of the practical skills of sewing (measuring, precise cutting, stitching and more), all of which led to completion of a beautiful, professional finished project.
All of the Dog Creek School students, Louise Harry, Jane Hancock and others from the school and the community will be proudly displaying all of their star-blanket-quilts in Boitanio Park on Aboriginal Day today Wednesday, June 21.
There will be about 20 quilts in the show. They are stunning and well worth going to view!
