Free Family Sunday: Needle Felt Your Story

Join artist and educator Katherine Dilworth for a hands-on needle felting workshop as part of the ongoing Pandemic Quilt Project. Tell your story and explore quilt blocks created by public school students.

In this Free Family Sunday pop-up event inspired by the exhibition A Movement in Every Direction: Legacies of the Great Migration, kids of all ages will learn the process and techniques of needle felting. Families will then create a quilt square depicting their familial history and their own family journey.

Space is limited! Registration is not required. We will admit families on a first-come, first-served basis.

Schedule

Workshop #1

12:15 p.m. – Classroom check-in

12:30 – 2 p.m. – Needle felting workshop

 

Workshop #2

2:45 p.m. – Classroom check-in

3 – 4:30 p.m. – Needle felting workshop

About Felt Quilt Blocks

In the spring of 2021, Dilworth worked with two elementary schools – Bannockburn Elementary in Montgomery County and Bryant Woods Elementary in Howard County – to create quilt squares as a way of reflecting on the students’ lives during the pandemic. They started with a simple prompt: Someday, when you are older, you will tell people you were in elementary school during a global pandemic, and they will ask, “what was it like?”

Students began their creative process through a written response to the prompt and then worked on translating their thoughts into a visual metaphor that captured their ideas. Dilworth taught them needle felting—a technique in which an artist can use wool fibers and special needles to create images—and each student created an individual square. Students, and the extended school community, worked together to assemble the squares into large quilts that will remain in the schools after their display here at the Baltimore Museum of Art.

Katherine Dilworth

Katherine Dilworth is an artist whose work combines fiber arts and photography. Her landscapes marry photographic images with the textures and techniques of textiles. Her work has been shown in galleries throughout the U.S. and Europe as well as included in books on fiber art and photography. For the last 10 years, she has worked as a visiting artist in schools through the nonprofit Arts for Learning Maryland, sharing fiber art techniques with students and teachers in arts integrated lessons.