RBHS junior Andrew Richardson recently completed this quilt as party of his Family and Consumer Science class.

By Brandi Miller for the FCT

Red Bay High School Family and Consumer Science teacher Sherry Hutcheson tries to make sure her students leave her class knowing skills that will serve them in life. Besides the basic cooking and sewing that she always covers, Hutcheson tries to leave her students with a sense of accomplishment at completing something that not every student can do.  She helps them see the satisfaction of completing a difficult task and the sense of pride of being able to know they built something from nothing.

RBHS junior Andrew Richardson was recently the latest of Hutcheson’s students to be able to get this feeling.  Richardson completed a quilt, and that is something not many people know how to do anymore.

“It was hard but fun,” said Richardson. “It takes a lot of patience to do something like this, but I am proud of the finished product. I am glad I was able to do it.”

Hutcheson said making a quilt was the assignment for basic skills.

“Andrew was the first one to start his quilt and has worked very hard every day to finish it,” said Hutcheson. “I let the students pick out what they want to do, and then we figure out their pattern for what they want to do and go from there.”

Hutcheson said students are working on quilts with a design, like Andrew’s, all the way to old-fashioned scrap quilts.

“The students are working hard, and I am very proud of them,” said Hutcheson.

Besides teaching them the mechanics of making quilts, Hutcheson tries to relay the significance of the history of quilts. She said her uncle who served in World War II made a quilt by sewing one inch squares together by hand.

While many of the students have a hard time trying to imagine quilting by hand, Hutcheson reminds them that it is possible and the way most people made quilts many years ago.

As long as Hutcheson keeps teaching it, and students like Richardson work hard to achieve it, homemade quilts will continue to be a great work of art.