SECRET STORIES - Patchwork Quilt
SEASON 7 | PROJECT 2/46 | 10.28.25
MODULE: Textile & Stortelling | GRADE LEVELS: TK - 6 | DURATION: 1 Hour
ARTIST VIDEO
Video Editing by Jorge Davies, Graphics by Melissa Sabol
PROJECT VIDEO
OVERVIEW
This project invites students to become textile storytellers–just like artist Panda Landa, who transforms recycled fabric into art about feelings, experiences, and identity. Students will explore how colors and shapes can convey their interior emotions and share secret stories. Instead of following a quilt pattern, they’ll respond to fabric using rhythm and intuition. Each artist will choose colors that reflect their feelings, create a color family, build geometric patchwork, and cut shapes that hint at their inner world. As they move the pieces around, they’ll find balance in color and form, diving into a calm and meditative process. Through simple appliqué techniques, students will intuitively shape fabric into symbols of emotion and personal memory. No sewing experience needed–just curiosity and a willingness to explore. Each quilt square will become a map of the self–a small, tactile story made of fabric, color, and feeling.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
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Color – Students learn that color has emotional power. It can mirror how we feel inside, evoke memories, shift moods, and spark imagination.
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Shape – Both geometric and organic shapes become symbols. Students build a visual vocabulary and begin to understand that images—like words—can communicate complex ideas and emotions.
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Improvisation & Play – Working intuitively invites experimentation, trust, and risk-taking. Students learn to respond in the moment, building confidence, and discovering that creativity thrives in openness and that mistakes can lead to new discoveries.
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Meditative Making – The slow, rhythmic process of cutting, arranging, and gluing invites calm focus. In this relaxed, mindful space, students can process emotions, quiet their thoughts, and experience the grounding power of artmaking by staying present.
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Storytelling – Quilting connects students to a deep artistic tradition of using fabric to tell personal and collective stories. Through color, shape, and design, they transform emotion and memory into visual narratives.
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Sustainability – Using upcycled materials teaches resourcefulness and environmental awareness. Students discover firsthand the creative potential in materials that might otherwise be discarded.
MATERIALS
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8" × 8" muslin for base (one per student)
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4" × 4" pre-cut solid fabric (6 per student)
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Scrap fabric
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Scissors
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Glue stick
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4B pencil
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Fabric rotary cutter (for teachers)
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Self-healing cutting mat (for teachers)
FEATURED ARTIST
PANDA LANDA
Panda Landa (they/them) is an artist based in Flamingo Heights, California, who turns fabric into feelings. Their personal experiences and identity are an important part of the art they create. As a queer, disabled, neurodivergent, and mixed-race artist, Panda uses color and shape to tell stories about their own life, stories only they can fully read. These pieces are like secret messages in fabric, sharing feelings in a way that is safe and hidden.
Panda often begins with recycled materials, hand-dyes fabrics, and works intuitively–letting the materials themselves guide the process. As they create, their quilts and fabrics become emotional maps and memory keepers. Their practice celebrates sustainability, accessibility, and the beauty of imperfection, showing that art is about exploring, discovering, and expressing yourself.
ARTISTS TO KNOW
Rosie Lee Tompkins (1936–2006)
was an African American quiltmaker celebrated for her vibrant, improvisational style. Working without patterns, she pieced together bright fabrics and hidden spiritual messages, transforming quilts into deeply personal works of art.
Rosie Lee Tompkins: Untitled, 1968. Quilt, Mixed Fabrics, 57 × 75 in.
Irene Roderick (b. 1950s)
is an Austin-based artist who approaches quilting like painting. She works spontaneously, adding one piece of fabric at a time to create dynamic compositions, showing how improvisation can lead to freedom and discovery in textile art.
Irene Roderick, Celebration. Quilt, Cotton Fabrics.
The Quilters of Gee’s Bend
are a collective of African American women from rural Alabama whose bold, improvisational quilts have become world-renowned. Made from recycled clothing and fabric scraps, their works combine practicality, storytelling, and artistic innovation passed down through generations.
Lucy Mingo of Gee’s Bend (Alabama), Untitled, 1979. Quilt, Mixed Fabrics.
Jenny Holzer (b. 1950)
is an American artist best known for her text-based works that bring bold, thought-provoking language into public spaces. From posters and marble benches to electronic billboards, her art shows how words can carry power, memory, and meaning.
Jenny Holzer, Truisms, 1986. Installation, Dupont Circle, Washington, DC.
VOCABULARY
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Abstract – Art that doesn’t try to look like real life. Instead, it uses color, shape, and form to show feelings or ideas.
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Appliqué – A shape that is placed on top of another piece of fabric.
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Color Family – A group of colors that are all variations of the same main color. For example, the color red might include baby pink, magenta, crimson, and bubblegum pink.
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Geometric – Shapes with clear, straight edges that are often based on math, like squares, rectangles, and triangles.
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Improvisational Quilting – Making quilts without following a pattern, guided by your imagination and instincts.
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Intuition – A feeling or knowing inside yourself that guides your choices without overthinking.
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Organic – Shapes that are flowing, irregular, or inspired by nature, like leaves, waves, or clouds.
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Patchwork – Pieces of fabric fitted together like a puzzle to make a larger design.
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Symbolism – When a shape or color represents an idea, memory, or feeling.
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Textile Arts – Art made with fibers, like quilting, weaving, or embroidery.
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Tonal Range – The range of light, medium, and dark shades of the same color.
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Quilt –A piece of fabric art made by sewing or bonding together many smaller pieces of fabric. Quilts can show patterns, colors, and stories, and each square or piece can have its own meaning.