ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / November 29, 2000

LAPLACE – Students in Laureen Arcenaux’s home and family class at Glade School are learning new skills and an old craft at the same time.

With the help of local experts, the students are learning how to sew using their hands and sewing machines, then putting their creations together into a beautiful quilt.

“I thought this would bring the class together,” said Arcenaux.

Judging from the way the students are eagerly listening to the advice of the quilting experts from the St. John Quilting Fans, she is correct.On the blackboard hangs a sheet about 5 feet by 5 feet. On the sheet arevarious patches of green and tan material in vertical and horizontal stripes.

Green and tan are the official school colors. Across each square sewn intothe tan area of the patch is the name of the student who made the square.

“Each student creates two squares, “explained Dorinda Evans, the educational director of the Quilting Fans. “They sew one by hand and thensew the other one using the sewing machine.”For the past two weeks Evans and her two associates, Terry Gullichson and Virginia Wale, have been going to the class three times a week and instructing the students on the fine art of quilt making.

The class hopes to finish the project before Christmas vacation, and the quilt will be donated to the school and hung in the principal’s office. Then,next September, the quilt will be entered in the Gulf States Quilting Show at the Ponchartrain Center in Kenner.

For all the students, making a quilt is a first-time event. However, others arealready skilled in sewing.

Students Michael Singleton and Joseph Frazier have been sewing for awhile, and it’s no big deal for them.

“My mother made me learn how to sew,” said Frazier. “I’ve got to repair myown shirts.”For 13-year-old Rhenata Naquin, just learning how to operate the sewing machine is an educational process. Evans lends Naquin her expertise as thegirl moves the material through the machine.

Naquin smiles broadly as Evans snips the thread from her finished patch.

“This really teaches me how to sew,” said a happy Naquin.

Gullichson said learning about quilts also teaches the students other concepts.

“They are also learning about design, layout and colors,” said Gullichson. “Andthese kids have just been terrific.”Evans said the students concentrate so hard on the sewing they seem to forget everything else.

“They are so quiet in here when they are sewing,” said Evans.

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