Little Quilters Challenge

The National Quilt Museum SChool Block Challenge 2026

As part of the 2025-2026 After-School Workshops, first, second, and third graders were exposed to the African-based Gullah culture and traditions including their song, language, and in particular their quilt making art.  During three different workshops, the children were challenged to learn about the history of the women quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama, as well as about geometric shapes, tessellations, and tiles to be able to make their own quilt block. It should be noted that all parts of this series were based on original research and teaching of Gullah culture, including quilting and basket making, for AATLC’s 2023 STEP UP! summer program.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

To make these workshops even more meaningful, Ms. Linda had already identified a children’s quilting contest where these selected blocks would be entered. The workshops were self-contained, each with its own learning goals and outcomes. Therefore, first-time quilters were welcome whereas many returned to make more than one block. Eventually eleven kids worked in smaller groups on different occasions and created a 16-inch quilt group block for the National Quilt Museum School Block Challenge 2026 in the K-4 category.

Participating in the NQM quilt challenge offered students meaningful recognition for their creativity and emerging skills. It also connected them to the rich cultural heritage of quilt making within the African American community—an art form that many may never have the chance to explore at home or in school. Through this hands on experience, students have engaged with a tradition that blends storytelling, craftsmanship, and history. Throughout this 3-part series, each group of students worked enthusiastically, and everyone showed pride in their successes in creating new designs from precut and vibrant fabric. Upon observation, this sense of accomplishment seemed more intrinsic whereas the more extrinsic motivation came from the NQM Challenge. This work began in the fall of 2025 and in mid-May 2026, after the end of the challenge, each student was awarded a participant ribbon and an official certificate from the National Quilt Museum, celebrating their work and their place in this enduring legacy.

---

PART 1- African-based Gullah Quilt, Song, & Language

The Quilt Series Part 1 began Tuesday, October 7th, with the Althea Augustine Technology Center, Inc. (Althea’s) at St. Monica’s. The children had printed sheets of the lyrics and loudly sang the African-based Gullah song, Kumbaya, along with the video and audio recording coming from the wide-screen computer monitor in the room.

The PowerPoint displayed a historical and visual summary of the African American Gullah women quilters who are descendants of past enslaved persons, and still occupy Gee’s Bend, Alabama. These young graders were engaged and had a variety of questions about these women. The kids were particularly excited and had fun learning and mimicking the audio of the Gullah language greetings that were embedded in the PowerPoint.

The literacy component was the reading of several poems from the book ‘Stitchin’ and Pullin’, by Patricia McKissack, which is about a baby girl growing up around Gullah quilters.

Then there was the activity, thanks to all the preparation from Ms. Linda, who is somewhat of a master quilter herself. She had prepared paper and fabric cutouts of various geometric shapes and demonstrated how to use her handmade templates to make a practice paper quilt block as well as design a fabric one.

• 

• 

• 

---

PART 2- Tessellations

The Quilt Series Part 2 continued on October 16, 2025, with the theme, Gee’s Bend Quilting: Math and Tessellations.

Poem readings continued from the book ‘Stitchin’ and Pullin’. This picture book of poems is written from the perspective of a child growing up as baby under a quilting table of mothers and grandmothers to a seat at the table as a young girl and young lady. The children were then introduced to mathematical patterns formed by repeated shapes called tessellations.

They were presented with examples of tessellations found in tiled floors and walls. They could then recognize patterns forming tessellations in the handmade quilts of Alabama’s Gee’s Bend and those of other Gullah women in other parts of the Low Country in Georgia and South Carolina. The goal was to increase their knowledge of geometric shapes and their appreciation of the knowledge these original enslaved African Americans held about math and geometry while being denied formal education. These traditions were passed on in this manner well after slavery and have survived into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Like Part 1 of this series, the goals of Part 2 were accomplished through a multi-media PowerPoint presentation with embedded photos, bulleted content, videos, and a hands-on activity. One particular video [10 Awesome Half Square Triangle Quilt Layout] demonstrated how to form different tessellations by simply rotating half-square blocks (two equilateral triangles of different colors and/or patterns joined together to form a square). The video was paused after each rotation while the children mimicked the rotation with their own handmade half-square blocks.

These handmade blocks were gifted to the Center especially for this activity and reinforced the previous lessons on primary color. The two triangles are sewn from fabric in different primary colors, while their backings feature the corresponding secondary colors created from those combinations.

The children continued practicing with paper and fabric blocks for the final contest entry. Each student handmade a 4-inch block with a repeat pattern using the mandated challenge fabrics and other complementary fabrics to add to the large 16-inch group block.

• 

• 

• 

---

PART 3- Creativity of artist and quilter, Faith Ringgold

The Quilt Series Part 3, was held on October 21, 2025 and honored the creativity of artist and quilter Faith Ringgold and her story quilts. During the workshop students were introduced to Ringgold through videos, the reading of her book, Tar Beach, and her Tar Beach Quilt, which depicts the same story in the book of the same name. Students made a very large quilt block in which they created their own story in words and drawings and decorated the borders, similar to a Ringgold format.

Additionally, the students made the smaller quilt block for the NQM challenge to be added to the group 16-inch block. This was also done in Ringgold’s traditional form of story or words centered within a decorated border. In this third style, each student included in a centered square, one word that they felt made them special or expressed a personal interest.

---

During the quilt making, adult assistance consisted of the cutting of fabric geometric shapes

with fusible backing for design creativity, ironing the block to a mounting muslin fabric, and decorative stitching around the squares. Students were free to choose a choice of fabrics, including the mandated NQM fabrics, and placement of the shapes for inclusion in their made blocks.

These after-school workshops are part of the SoBA [Song, Book, Art] and STEAMSS [Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math+Social Studies] activities offered by the Althea Augustine Technology Learning Center.

*SoBA—Song, Book, Art

*STEAMSS—Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math + Social Studies