The Storybook Quilts Program is being retired. The program began in the spring of 1995 and had a wonderful run of almost 30 years. The guild started with 16 books involving quilt stories and grew over the years to include over 125 titles and 180 quilts and miscellaneous puppets, dolls, and activities for children. Guild members volunteered to make companion quilts for each book.
The Storybook Quilt committee packaged the books and quilts in a pouch and loaned them to seven adult groups and fifteen schools in the first four months. They were used most heavily in the schools in the Metro Detroit area, but have traveled to Jackson, Traverse City, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Canada and New York. Presentations have been done by guild members at curriculum conferences and various adult organizations. Libraries were frequent borrowers where they were displayed.
Thank you to the members of the QGMD, both past and present, who have generously donated their time, talent and creativity to develop the storybook quilts. Also, thank you to the Storybook Quilt committee, both past and present, who organized, maintained, and circulated all four of the Storybook Quilt Collections.
Storybook Quilt Committee - Past and Present
- Mary Lawson
- Rosemary Lubzik
- Pat Quenneville
- Sue Richter
- Karen Stocksett
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Story Book Quilt Collections
The QGMD has developed four collections of children’s books with stories about quilts. Each book has one or more companion quilts. This is the largest known such collection in the world and the idea has been adopted by quilt guilds in Michigan and other states, as well as in other countries.
The guild lends the collections to schools, libraries, museums and adult groups for educational purposes. Collections may be displayed in secure display cases, used by an adult with children, hung as an exhibit or used by a speaker for a program. Each collection comes with suggestions for quilt-related activities with children.
The books and quilts have been divided into four collections. They have all been successfully used with children and adults on all levels but the suggested reading/interest level of each collection is as follows:
Collection A - Preschool through 3rd grade
Collection B - 3rd grade through middle school (This collection contains stories of the underground railroad)
Collection C - A mixture of levels
Collection D - Pioneer Storybook Quilts by Mary Hickey contains stories at the level of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books.
Each collection consists of 30+ books and accompanying quilts with the exception of Collection D that has 6 stories and 14 quilts. Each book and its quilts is packaged separately so that, if used in schools, it is possible for many individuals to share the use of a collection.
The following photo is of the Mary Hickey Storybook Collection at the Warren Community Center on Arden, West of Mound Road. The quilts in the display case are all from Collection D of the Storybook Quilts. (They were on display in Oct/Nov 2011)
The Storybook Quilts were on display at the Warren Civic Center Library in April 2011.
