At last year’s International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, attendees were able to see one extra special exhibit of quilts. It showcased the work of students from Onalaska Middle School in Washington State, the result of a unique and innovative elective class that offers quilting as a course of study.

It is spearheaded and taught by Melissa Dunworth, an ELA [English Language Arts] and CTE [Career and Technical Education] instructor at the school. She is also an avid quilter herself.

And best of all, a group of those students were able to attend Long Beach with Dunworth and Principal (now District Superintendent) Kristin Soderback. Dunworth will never forget seeing the looks on her students’ faces when they first encountered their quilts, professionally hung alongside some of the best work of today’s Quilting Superstars. Or the interactions they had with Festivalgoers from all over the country.

“Some of those interactions brought me to tears. They were talking about my babies! It was phenomenal. And anytime those kids heard those adults or interacted with them, the looks on their faces were like ‘I did that!’” Dunworth says today.

“It was opening a portal for them. Some of them had never left the state. Some had never left the county! So, to get to Long Beach and see what they saw and have people complimenting them was incredible.”

At this year’s Long Beach Festival, a new exhibit featuring the work of current Quilting students will be on display. This same exhibit will also be shown at the Houston show—which Dunworth and some of her students will also be attending.

The Onalaksa Middle School Quilting class started as an elective in the 2018-19 school year. As Dunworth and Soderback explain, in Washington State, there are educational initiatives to make greater opportunities for students in career and technical education and also prepare the pre-teens and teens for technical fields when they graduate.

When Dunworth was hired as an ELA teacher, she was already a skilled quilter and saw an opportunity to offer Quilting to 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. However, securing the funding from the State of Washington for it proved to be a bigger challenge.

“I was told that quilting was not STEM or CTE [related]. But I wrote a 50-page paper proving that it was,” Dunworth—who is currently working on her Doctorate in Digital Education Leadership and Computational Thinking—says. “I don’t know if that’s a reason it eventually got approved for funding the second year, but you are definitely [practicing] all of those math concepts in quilting.” 

Once funding was secured, work had to begin on retrofitting a classroom to have all those sewing machines using all that electricity. “We have nine poles that come down from the ceiling with four plugs in each one to run machines and irons,” Dunworth and Soderback say.

“We also purchased ergonomic tables and chairs. In the summer of 2020, we had cabinets removed from the back of the classroom to accommodate the 10-foot APQS longarm quilting machine that we purchased for the students to learn on.”

After learning about basics of quilt design and instruction, students are able to pick out blocks found in the Encyclopedia of Quilt Blocks or The Book of Quilt Blocks. Those were then programmed into an Electric Quilt Company EQ8 machine, the designs printed out, and the students got busy picking out fabric, a pattern, and cutting, and stitching. 

Along the way, some “angels” have donated machines and supplies to Dunworth’s classes. That includes Jack Boersma of Boersma’s Sewing Center, who also donated money to cover some of their costs of attending the Long Beach Festival. AccuQuilt has also given her a full Go! Qube Set and 20 small cutters for use.

“I’m very impressed with the quality of the work they are putting out,” Soderback—who has taken up the craft herself—says. “And I’m still struggling with the basics!” 

“Some students pick it out super-fast, and I often reach out to the original pattern artist for permission,” Dunworth adds. “It’s showcasing both the designer’s work and our students’ work.”

Today, each class of 13 students is completely full. They call the spots “highly coveted.” Word of mouth is making the elective even more popular.

And as the program has grown, sponsors, industry training, and other opportunities have become available because the Onalaska class is so unique. Some former students who have graduated on to high school have even returned to help with classes, and Soderback dreams of starting a Quilting extension class to the high school.

“We don’t have anyone qualified to do that, and I’m not willing to let Melissa go from here!” she laughs. “But I’d like to have that extension, even if it’s just one class.”

“These kids work hard, they really do. They’re invested and excited to be going to Houston,” Dunworth sums up. “It means the world to them. And it means the world to me too.”