DLTK's Crafts for Kids
India Paper Quilt Craft

This is a great cut and paste paper craft project for learning about India.  It includes some symbolic icons, the flag and a map of India.

This turns out to be quite a large project (about 25 inches x 25 inches) and there are lots of templates to print.

Note:  If you'd like a smaller project (both in size and time) do a 4 square quilt instead of a 9 square quilt:  only print templates 1, 2, 4 and 5

Alternatively, you might like to have a group of children each make a quilt piece or two and then assembling everyone's pieces into one quilt.

Materials:

• paper,
• printer,
• something to color with,
• scissors,
• glue
• Optional:  green or orange construction paper

Notes about the images:

Image 1:  The Bengal tiger is the national animal of India.

Image 2:  Rangoli is a popular art form among Indian women -- they are geometric shapes filled with colored rice or sand.

Image 3:  The Indian peafowl (peacock) is the national bird of India.

Image 4:  Indian women often wear traditional dresses called saris, beautiful gold jewelry and a decorative red dot in the center of the forehead called a Bindi.

Image 5:  The flag of India has three stripes:  orange, white and green with a blue 24 spoke wheel in the center.

Image 6:  The lotus is the national flower of India.

Image 7:  The Taj Mahal is widely considered as one of the most beautiful buildings in the world and stands as a symbol of eternal love.  It was built in Agra, India by Mughal emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal.

Image 8:  New Deli is the capital city of India.  India is the seventh largest country in the world by area and the second by population with well over one billion citizens.

Image 9:  "Diyas" are oil lamps made from clay.  They are used during many Indian celebrations including Diwali (new year's).

Instructions:

• Optional:  This is optional, but I really like to include it as part of the craft if I'm making the 9 square quilt.
  • Print the "Top Border Template" in either color or B&W.  This is the bit that says INDIA along the top.
  • Color the template pieces if using B&W
  • Cut out the template pieces
  • Assemble the pieces to make a strip about 20 inches long and 3 inches tall.
• Print templates 1 to 9 to make a 9 square quilt  
   
  OR print templates 1, 2, 4 and 5 if you're making a 4 square quilt.
• Color each template piece if using B&W
  • this can be quite time consuming and can be done over two weeks of learning about the country (a square per day and 1 day for assembly = 10 days)
        OR
  • this can be done as a group project with each child completing a square and then assembling it as a group.
• Cut out the template pieces.
• Apply glue to the gray parts of the template and assemble (you can look at the image at the top of this page to see what piece goes where)  After assembling, there should be no gray left showing.
• Optional:  I was torn whether to add this as the project is already quite time consuming.  It's up to you whether you want to do it!
  • Glue 4 inch wide strips of green or orange construction paper all around the outside of your project to form a border.  Use scissors to cut a slight wave in this border so it looks like a quilt.
     
    OR
  • Print 3 copies of the fringe template for a 9 square quilt or 2 copies for a 4 square quilt.  Cut out the pieces and glue them around the outside of the quilt as a border, overlapping the pieces slightly so there are no gaps.

Templates:

• Close template window when done printing to return to this screen.
• Set page margins to zero if you have trouble fitting the template on one page (FILE, PAGE SETUP or FILE, PRINTER SETUP in most browsers).

Top Border Template       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 1       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 2       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 3       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 4       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 5       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 6       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 7       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 8       color  or   B&W

Quilt Square Template 9       color  or   B&W

Optional Fringe Template       color  or   B&W

   Optional Info About the Images        B&W only

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