The Quiltmaker’s Gift

Name: The Quiltmaker’s Gift
Author: Jeff Brumbeau

A story that explores responsibility and opens a conversation with your child.

★★★★★ Loved by families

Read the Guiding Questions Find this book →

♥ This book teaches: Responsibility. owning your choices and their consequences.

Before, During & After Reading

Guiding Questions for Parents.

Definition: doing what needs to be done with sincerity and without resistance or complaining. In short: Do what needs to be done. Summary: In a kingdom ruled by a greedy king lives an elderly gifted quiltmaker. She crafts beautiful quilts with vibrant colors for the poor and homeless. This story is about what happens when the quiltmaker’s and the king's paths cross. The king hoards his gifts and treasures but finds no happiness from his possessions. When he hears of the quiltmaker, the king demands her to make one for him. She refuses, because her quilts are only for those who have no possessions. The king persists in his efforts to get a quilt but is told each time that he can’t get one until he gives everything he owns away. Out of desperation, the king starts to give things away, and the quiltmaker agrees to make a new square every time someone receives a gift from him. The king finds happiness in gift-giving and when he has nothing left, he is visited by the quiltmaker who has finished his long-awaited quilt. The king’s new lifestyle of generosity has transformed him. He is now “filled with memories of the happiness I’ve given and received.” Lesson Objectives:

The quiltmaker sticks to her principles even when a king demands her to make him a quilt. Students will be more interested in examining their own code of ethics, and make a new determination to be accountable to their beliefs.
Teachers can guide students to discuss happiness and how it is attained. If material possessions don’t bring us happiness, what does?

Guiding Questions:

What was the quiltmaker’s rule about making quilts? Did she stick by that rule even when the king tried to punish her?
Did she take risks when she refused to make a quilt for the king? Give some examples.
Why do you think the king wasn’t happy, even though he had so much wealth?
How did he eventually find happiness?
Do you think the king was able to find happiness just because he gave away all his possessions? Or was it because he felt good about making friends and seeing the smiles on the faces of those who received his gifts? Explain your answer.
To be responsible means to do what needs to be done without complaining or resisting. Was the quiltmaker responsible? Was the king responsible? Explain your answers.
The quiltmaker had a code by which she lived, which was to make quilts only for the poor and homeless. Do you have a code by which you live? What is it? If not, think of some behavior that’s important to you, and share about it here.
Make a list of what makes you happy. Include something about making someone else happy.
Do the thing that makes someone else happy and share about how you felt about doing it and how the other person felt.
Ask a parent or grandparent what they do for someone else that makes them happy.

🌿 Virtue Connection: Responsibility means owning what is yours, including your choices.

About the Story.

This guide is part of the Values & Virtues library, a free collection of 400+ book guides and activities organized around 12 core virtues for children from pre-K to 6th grade. Each guide includes Guiding Questions designed to open a real conversation with your child in 10 minutes or less.

Read-aloud video · Best with headphones

Find this book at your library or bookstore →

Responsibility · Family Discussion Guide

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

by Jeff Brumbeau

Guiding Questions

The quiltmaker sticks to her principles even when a king demands her to make him a quilt. Students will be more interested in examining their own code of ethics, and make a new determination to be accountable to their beliefs.
Teachers can guide students to discuss happiness and how it is attained. If material possessions don’t bring us happiness, what does?

Guiding Questions:

What was the quiltmaker’s rule about making quilts? Did she stick by that rule even when the king tried to punish her?
Did she take risks when she refused to make a quilt for the king? Give some examples.
Why do you think the king wasn’t happy, even though he had so much wealth?
How did he eventually find happiness?
Do you think the king was able to find happiness just because he gave away all his possessions? Or was it because he felt good about making friends and seeing the smiles on the faces of those who received his gifts? Explain your answer.
To be responsible means to do what needs to be done without complaining or resisting. Was the quiltmaker responsible? Was the king responsible? Explain your answers.
The quiltmaker had a code by which she lived, which was to make quilts only for the poor and homeless. Do you have a code by which you live? What is it? If not, think of some behavior that’s important to you, and share about it here.
Make a list of what makes you happy. Include something about making someone else happy.
Do the thing that makes someone else happy and share about how you felt about doing it and how the other person felt.
Ask a parent or grandparent what they do for someone else that makes them happy.

valuesandvirtues.org · Made possible by our supporters

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

Guiding Questions for Parents.

About the Story.

More Responsibility guides.

A Different Pond

A Sack full of feathers

Bravo, Tavo!

But its not my fault!

Explore more guides for 5th & 6th Grade.

The Quiltmaker’s Gift

Guiding Questions