Ideas for Children's Religious Quilts

• A religious quilt for kids will keep them warm and convey important messages. Jupiterimages/BananaStock/Getty Images

  For hundreds of years, quilts have served multiple functions: They provide warmth, express opinions, memorialize the departed. Quilts can tell stories or convey messages or warnings. They are often highly personal, made of scraps of important material and made collectively. When it comes to religious quilts for children, there is a multitude of possibilities that you can employ for the themes of such quilts.

World Religion Quilt

• Consider creating a quilt that educates children about all the major and minor religions of the world, with each square depicting some of the major themes of that religion. For example, for a portion on Catholicism, have a patch showing the birth of Jesus in the manger. For the patch of the quilt on Taoism, a yin and yang sign could easily represent one of the major beliefs of the religion. Similarly, the patch representing Judaism could show the story of David and Goliath or simply display a menorah or a Star of David. The goal of the quilt is to inspire conversation about belief systems around the world.

Prayer Quilt

• A prayer quilt can help educate a child about the importance and benefit of praying, not to mention encourage and assist them in doing so. For example, you could embroider one large prayer onto the surface of the quilt or have each patch be a separate prayer; the child could gradually work up to learning and understanding each prayer displayed on his quilt. Or you could make the quilt a sampler of prayers from various world religions to expose the child to the modes of prayer and meditation around the world.

Heavenly Beings

• While Catholicism and Christianity famously have angels as their icons for the good protectors and messengers for mankind, other religions have similar spiritual beings that fulfill comparable roles. For example, Islam believes in malaikah, Hindus and Buddhists believe in devas and Mormons believe in ministering spirits. A quilt that dedicates itself to the spiritual guide of a particular religion would be suitable for a child. Each patch could represent a story or image of the spiritual guide or show a representation of that being from various religions. This is not only educational but a source of comfort for the child.