When a Pillow is More than a Pillow

Middle School students in Jesse Pasca’s Fiber Arts class recently combined hand and machine sewing to make their own appliqued pillows. This continues a fiber arts tradition that was started in the early 1990s by Faculty Emerita and textile artist Daphne Taylor.

Through several lessons, students learn valuable technical skills like pinning, cutting and sewing and more importantly, the rewards of completing something from start to finish. Daphne explains, “Making the pillow has always been about ownership. In the studio or in a science lab you can tell when a student takes ownership and how this feeling extends to all areas of learning.”