Quilt Project 'Multiplies' Ways To Learn
By Karen Gould

Third grade students at St. Ignace Elementary School work on finishing touches to their multiplication quilt Friday, March 14. They are assisted by volunteer quilter Laurie DeNeve-Ewing of Sault Ste. Marie, who also is a career services coordinator for Upward Bound at Lake Superior State University. Quilters are (from left, sitting) Alysse Bentley, Mrs. DeNeve-Ewing, Eileen Getzen, Summer Sposito, Brandon Carlton, Lydia Brown, Jordan Osmon, Drew Marshall, Jazmine Orr, Taquara Coolbaugh, James Cardin; (standing) Sam Schlehuber, Fred Wright, Jared Cece, Thomas Conguy, and Scott Miller. Missing from the photograph are Eric Ward, Chase Kerridge, and Garrett Horn.

Learning multiplication tables can be a daunting task for third grade students. Teacher Pat Shiemke at St. Ignace Elementary School hopes to make the lesson easier and fun by having students make a quilt of numbers to represent the multiplication table. Once the sewing is complete, the quilt will hang on the classroom wall as a reference for the young mathematicians.

While busy working at their desks, students wait their turn, Friday, March 14, to be called to the quilt table to help tie pieces of quilt to the batting and backing. They use a quilting needle shaped like a hook to pull orange yarn through the three layers. Akitchen spoon is used to hold the fabric down and to serve as a guide for the quilt makers as they connect the fabric. The finished ties hold the layers of the quilt together.

"This is very cool," said student Lydia Brown. "I really like math."

Comfortable using addition and subtraction, said Ms. Shiemke, third grade students take the next mathematical step and are introduced to multiplying numbers. The process requires memorization. Students who are touch and feel learners will be aided in learning multiplication through the quilting project, she said.

Understanding and learning the multiplication table, said Ms. Shiemke, is the basis for all mathematics the students will use while in school, and in life.

"This is the building block," she said, "to the rest of their math career."

Each quilt square contains one number and the pieces are sewn together in the order of the table, starting with zero in the upper left corner. Numbers one through 10 follow along the top row and down the left side. All other numbers on the quilt are multiplication products. The squares are color coded to make it easier for the young students to follow the numbers.

"When kids enter school, they love math, then something happens along the way," said Ms. Shiemke.

The idea of making the quilt came when Ms. Shiemke, who confesses she does not sew, saw a picture in a magazine of a multiplication table on a quilt, and thought the hands-on project would help her students. She went to a quilting shop and asked the clerk how to go about making the quilt. Laurie DeNeve-Ewing of Sault Ste. Marie, a quilter and a career services coordinator for Upward Bound at Lake Superior State University, overheard the conversation and volunteered her expertise and time. Mrs. DeNeve-Ewing is a member of the Keeping The Piece Quilt Guild.

"Maybe some of the kids will be quilters," she said.

After purchasing fabric and supplies, the two women cut the squares and stenciled a number on each piece. Mrs. DeNeve-Ewing is doing all the machine sewing for the project, including binding the edges.

Since November, the students have been hard at work. They have been charged with filling in the stenciled numbers with a colored fabric marker.

Coloring, said student Thomas Conguy, is the best part of the project.

As they worked, Ms. Shiemke asked students to recite the multiples of the number they colored. She also played a recording of a learning song to help with memorization of the table. The mere mention of the song gets students singing, "one times one is one, and two times two..."

Mrs. DeNeve-Ewing and Ms. Shiemke have used the quilting time to also teach students about the history of the art and the various types of quilts. Near the end of the school year when students are comfortable with multiplication, Ms. Shiemke plans to use the quilt to introduce them to more mathematics concepts, like perfect squares.