A quilt made by Armstrong Elementary first graders and their mothers adorned with the students’ self portraits was recognized with an Honorable Mention ribbon in the State Fair of Texas’ Creative Arts contest this year. Although the accolade came 25 years after the quilt was made, it was still as sweet as any funnel cake.
Students in Mrs. Seymour’s first-grade class in the 2000-2001 school year made the quilt for a PTA auction project. As part of the project, the students drew a portrait of themselves that was transferred onto muslin quilt squares. The students’ mothers then hand-embroidered the faces, arms, and legs in the drawings.
Juli Dewar appliquéd each child’s clothing to match their original drawing, chose coordinating fabrics for each block, pieced the quilt, and did the machine quilting. Her husband bid on the quilt at the PTA auction and it’s been in their possession ever since.
Dewar had long hoped to enter it in the Creative Arts Competition and did so this year at the encouragement of a friend. To her surprise, it received an honorable mention in its category.
“It’s kind of fun to participate in something like this,” she said. “The group has won because it was an endeavor and I didn’t do it all for sure.”
Since it’s been on display in the Creative Arts Building, she said she’s “gotten texts from people I don’t even know” about the quilt.
On Oct. 6, she invited the mothers and children who helped make the quilt to get together to come see it. Among the students, Juli’s son, Johnny Dewar, and classmate Riker Huddleston were on hand. Among the parents were Shelly Tillery and Barenda Hino.
While the quilt is the first entry for Dewar, Hino said she taught her daughter, Dorothy, to needlepoint when she was 5 and she’s had success with needlepoint entries.
The quilt will be on view at the State Fair of Texas, which runs until Oct. 18.
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