Eight Hands Round: A Patchwork Alphabet by Ann Whitford Paul illustrated by Jeanette Winter

Patchwork was important because no one could afford to waste good fabrics. 

Patchwork is pieces of fabric cut into different shapes and sewn together into patterns.

Many patchwork patterns have names linked with early American pioneers. In this book B is for Buggy Wheel but I also found a pattern named Bear Paw. E is for Eight Hands round - this is a dance. When the ladies finished their sewing their husbands joined them for supper. "After eating, someone picked up a fiddle, a caller hollered 'Grab your partner', and for couples formed a square" and the dance began. Here is the Eight Hands Round pattern:

H is for Honeycomb; O is for Old Tippecanoe; and R is for Rocky Road to Kansas.

Honeycomb

Old Tippecanoe

Rocky Road to Kansas

School library journal burb: This book contains information about pioneer life through speculation about the origins of 26 quilt patterns, one for each letter of the alphabet. At the top of each page is an object or situation that may have provided inspiration for the quilt design of that name. In the center of each page, the text elaborates on the importance of the item in early American life. The bottom illustration features a close-up view of a single section as well as a drawing of the entire quilt. The variety of colors and designs makes the quilts themselves the real stars of the book and will certainly inspire some readers to accept the author's suggestion to search for more patchwork schemes. Not only will the book serve as a resource for studies of pioneer life, but it will also be useful in encouraging students to develop their own creations in cloth or on paper.

Here is the Kirkus review: For each letter, a patchwork design shown in detail and as repeated in a quilt, plus an illustration and brief explanation of an early American activity or subject that gave the design its name: "Anvil," "Log cabin," "Rocky road to Kansas," etc. A novel way to introduce patchwork's economic, social, and artistic role while relating it to history. Winter's colorful, stylized illustrations are appropriately decorative.

When I first looked at this book (I borrowed it from a library) I was sure the names of the patchwork designs were just 'invented' to fit the alphabet structure of this story but it turns out I was wrong. If your child likes reading stories of pioneer life in the US such as the Little House series or Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park or One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome which is a book I read very recently, you could look for Eight Hands Round as way to further explore pioneer life. 

I had this book in my former school library. I do like the idea linking nonfiction books 

with a fiction series. I talked about that idea here. 

Other patchwork and quilting stories you could share with your class or young reading companions:

The Quilt Maker's Gift