Salmonberry Elementary students delivered a handmade quilt to the Orcas Island Public Library on Feb. 12 for display in their meeting room.

The students, in grades one through four, designed and sewed the original “Button Blanket,” entitled Kunamokst, inspired by the traditional ceremonial blankets of the First Peoples of the Northwest Coast. The colors and certain forms are based on traditional designs, which the class studied. The title Kunamokst translates to “together” in the Chinook Jargon – the common trading language of the Northwest in the nineteenth century.

Creation of the blanket represents the culmination of a six-month long integrated thematic study that included the natural history of the Salish Sea as well as the First Peoples’ history and culture from this region. The integrated thematic approach brings students into deep subject-centered study, which unifies the various disciplines and otherwise isolated subject areas and skills that the students learn in school.

The blanket itself was the product of a six-week process, guided by Salmonberry’s art teacher, Andrea Cohen. The students selected animals indigenous to the Northwest. They each designed a 12×12 inch square featuring a graphic depiction of their animal. They traced their paper designs onto red felt and then cut out the images and overlaid the red felt onto a black felt background. They each sewed buttons on their squares, with an eye to enhancing the visual impact of the animal figures. Finally, the squares were joined together, and borders were added. In all, 1,881 buttons adorn the quilt, each one sewn on to the surface by the skillful hands of these six- to 10-year-old students.

The quilt, along with a display board illustrating the children’s creative process, is now on display in the Orcas Library’s meeting room.