Schoolhouse Quilt Block

This block is the third block in my Starwood Quilt, made as a block of the month with my quilting group over a 17-month period.  We chose blocks to commemorate our home and community, creating a unique sampler quilt.  The group used this House quilt pattern to represent a Schoolhouse.  We found the pattern free on-line at:  http://quilting.about.com/od/blockofthemonth/ss/house_quilt.htm

I am a schoolteacher, and most of my quilting group are also teachers or have worked in our local schools. We taught together, and our children went to school together.  One member was my boys' art teacher throughout elementary school, and one taught two of my boys in kindergarten.  Another one is a postmaster and began a post office in our school, so children could develop their writing skills by writing letters back and forth to each other.  Such fun!  I taught with another one and now see her as she walks her kindergarten grandchild to my school. 

For years, we have referred to ourselves casually as "the teachers' quilting group" until we finally chose the name The Persian Pickle Club this year - "Pickles," for short.  If you have not read the book by the same name, I highly recommend it.  It's a story by Sandra Dallas about a quilting group in Kansas during the Depression.  

I'm now a reading teacher, and my small classroom is decorated with quilts.  One quilt hanging on the wall has a block to represent each of the fifty state flowers.  I have a chart next to it so children can locate and know each state's flower.  I talk with students about all the different ways I use math in making a quilt - from accurate measurement to geometry. 

In this quilt, I alternate a block set straight with one on point.  Some can be set either way, but this block obviously has to be set straight.

You might enjoy reading the previous blog post, also about my Starwood Quilt:
http://www.starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2012/11/friendship-star-variation-quilt-block.html