Welcome to the brand new blog for the Siblings Together Quilt Group! Myself, Maria, Sewlovetosew and Nicky, mrsssewandsow decided it would be great to have somewhere as a base for the group: somewhere we can help keep the quilting community's motivation going to make quilts for the children helped by the Siblings Together charity.
We would love the blog to be a place for all you quilters to inspire others by sharing photos and stories about the quilts you've made for the charity. Here is a place we can ask each other for help when needed, whether that be for blocks for a group quilt, donations of supplies or perhaps a call for people in a locality to get together to make some quilts.
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| Some of the lovely Siblings Together quilts. |
Many of you may already be involved with making Siblings Together quilts and will know about the charity, but for those who are new to the world of Siblings Together quilts here's a quick explanation of what it's all about.
Siblings Together is a charity founded by Delma Hughes, which works to bring together siblings, separated by the care system in the UK.
The Siblings Together charity website explains that there were about 65,000 children in care in England in 2010 and over 40,000 of these children will have been separated from a brother or sister. This separation is often in addition to the breakdown in relationships with parents, which often happens with children in care. For more information please visit the Siblings Together website, which can be found using this link.
Delma and her team arrange summer camps where the children can get together to spend valuable, fun time with their siblings. In Delma's words:
"Our
camps are incredible; they are often the first time in years many have
shared more than an hour's contact together. It is often quite
emotional for them, they know what they have lost and our camps make
sure they can enjoy a wonderful shared experience together without
social workers, residential staff or foster carers' intrusions. They
can be a 'family' even for a short time. This can often be life
changing for them."
So, where do our quilts come in? It all started in 2012 when Lynne from Lily's quilts discovered, at a chance meeting, that Delma was trying to find
out whether it would be possible to get people to make a quilt for each one of
these children on the summer camps to keep, their very own
home-made quilt. Lynne decided to try and rally together a few quilters to make some quilts, by posting on her blog, and starting a Flickr group. Not surprisingly the quilting community responded wholeheartedly to her call and the children attending the camps were presented with their very own quilt. Not only those attending the camps in 2012 but in 2013, in 2014 and in 2015 too.
Please do take the time to visit the "About Siblings Together Quilt Group" page at the top of the blog where Lynne and Delma both speak immensely movingly, back in 2012, about the charity and the quilts.
Please keep re-visiting the blog as we will be adding more information about how you can help, and what other people have been doing.
We hope you are with us in supporting this worthy cause and help us in our aim to provide 100 Quilts for 2015/16! If you are, then please leave a friendly comment to let us know - your encouragement means a lot!
Great idea to have a home for the marvellous work you ladies do rallying the troops for such a great cause. Life isn't allowing me to stitch just now so I can't help out practically for a while but I see you have a blocks page and I would be very happy if you wanted to post any of the block tutorials I've done on my blog (mostly for Bee Blessed) there. Nicky will know where to find them. Good job ladies!
ReplyDeleteI'll be happily supporting as and when I can :) x
ReplyDeleteWonderful idea. I have made one quilt for this and given blocks to the amazing Nicky Eglington to whip up into a quilt.
ReplyDeleteThis is a wonderful cause and although I've only been helping to make quilts for a relatively short time (in bee 2 since February) it has been great fun. I look forward to being kept in touch via this blog and see this year's beautiful crop of quilts....
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to publicise the amazing charity and the gorgeous quilts that have been made. I have so enjoyed being part of this - only in a small way - but will continue to contribute. Well done to all the quilters ... whatever you can do to support this is hugely appreciated.
ReplyDeleteWell done Nicky & Maria for getting this blog going, it really makes sense :) Looking forward to making more ST quilts and helping wherever I can! XX
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to have a base to visit.
ReplyDeleteDirect copy from my Facebook page where I shared this info:
ReplyDelete'This is a truly incredible group working alongside us to enrich the lives of young people in care, helping them to experience and enjoy the feeling of being cared for on so many levels. Thank you all so very much. Delma'
Great idea to have a base to visit.
ReplyDeleteSuch a great idea having a blog to chat and share ideas on! Well done ladies, Jxo
ReplyDeleteIt's a brilliant idea to have a blog where everything can be gathered and people can make offers of help, etc. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to leave a quick comment to say a big thank you to all who take the time to make these amazing quilts! I've volunteered at three of the residential camps which Siblings Together run, and as I'm sure Delma has said before - the quilts mean so much to the children. Every single time they are given, the children wrap themselves tightly around them and are so touched that someone hand-made it especially for them. One little girl was amazed when that someone all the way from Scotland thought about her and made a beautiful quilt that she was inseparable from. They are stunning, and seeing how much it means to them first hand is a blessing! Thank you :)
ReplyDeleteGreat idea to set this up! You've reminded me that I have a quilt at home I made for siblings together that I need to send. I would be interested in more info about quilt labels and what we should put on them!
ReplyDeleteFab idea!
ReplyDeleteMy quilting group is thinking of supporting this. As we are based in Scotland we would like to make for children in Scotland. Is there a branch in Scotland??
ReplyDelete