Quilts Give Kids a Feel for Reading

In the 35 years resident Janie Stokes spent in the classroom, she noticed her students grasped more information when her lessons included quilts she had made.

When Stokes retired, she began collecting storybooks and decided to make a quilt to match each one. In 2009, she challenged each member of her quilting guild to create a quilt for a book from her 140-book collection.

After making 37 quilts, guild members won grant money to build a website and kick off Storybook Quilts—an organization that lends out quilts and matching storybooks to schools, libraries and some quilting stores.

“We don’t personally go all the time to read to the kids,” said Doris Evans, the Storybook Quilts coordinator. “If we’re the ones all the time reading, it’s a full-time job. We lend the books and the quilts and let the teacher decide how they want to approach it.”

The quilts have been used at and elementaries as well as . Evans said she hopes to weave a wider school presence for the quilts.

“We’re just starting,” she said. “It’s happening. People are borrowing the quilts.”

The books used in the program have something to do with quilting. While most are geared toward elementary school students, a novel series called The Quilter’s Trilogy was written for older students.

“There’s something for everybody,” Evans said.

The goal is to encourage children to read more using the tactile features of the 36-by-42-inch quilts.

“That’s one of the many intents, to encourage kids to read and have the desire to read,” Evans said. “We let them touch, and we let them cuddle with them. It’s something they can touch while the story is being read to them. I think it’s fascinating to them. Then they try to compare the quilts to the illustrations they see.”

The quilting guild eventually would like to have Storybook Quilts circulating throughout Georgia.

“That’s why we need to increase the collection,” Evans said. Stokes “has 140 books, so why not do 140 (quilts)?”

Storybook Quilts will be featured this year on Nancy Zeiman’s show Sewing with Nancy, which is produced by Wisconsin Public Television and will be distributed by other PBS stations who purchase the program. The show was filmed Thursday; the air date has not been announced.

“We’re very overwhelmed,” Evans said. “We are thrilled. We are thrilled because this is Janie’s dream. It’s just wonderful to see it become a reality.”