Thursday, 10 March 2016

Quilt Story - Siblings making a quilt!!!

Hannah and Tanya involved their kids in making a quilt for Siblings Together! What a great way to help youngsters understand the problems of others and how they can help.  Here is their story of a very special quilt!  Over to you Tanya:



Siblings Together is a charity I am quite passionate about, for two reasons.  Firstly, I have 2 children, and I see on a daily basis the benefits to them of living together and sharing the childhood experiences they share (both the good and not so good).   Secondly, I work with children in foster and adoptive families, and I am involved in trying to keep siblings together, and trying to maintain links between those who are not able to live together as children. Each of those children leaves a little imprint on my heart along the way.

So, this year I am trying to contribute towards five quilts for the charity.

The first one is particularly special because Hannah and I joined forces with our 4 children and the kids got involved to make this quilt.  (Please would the quilt Police turn away now, this is never going to win any awards for neatness of piecing, colour combinations, quilting quality or whatever other categories are assessed at quilt shows).  However, the love and enthusiasm and care that those children put into this will, I hope, more than make up for this when it is given at camp.

The two oldest children (aged 8) are members of our local young quilters guild, so they can use a sewing machine and have skills of choosing fabrics and putting them together, chain piecing, pinning, unpicking (they did a lot of that), and laying out blocks etc. 



The younger children were a good support crew and one sat on my knee for a long while we sewed the quilt top together.  We had a busy afternoon all of us together making this quilt top, and then feeling quite exhausted both families shared a lovely meal together.




Showing the quilt top – and underneath the backing (the children loved the elephant fabric)

The quilting was also a shared experience – but slightly more stressful for me!!  Having a keen 8 year old does not improve my fmq skills…..







Hannah bound the quilt…..
This will be sent on it’s way today – along with lots and lots of love…. x


In fact this quilt has already arrived at the charity HQ!  






4 comments:

  1. No quilt police here! Well done all of you, it's fabulous :)

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  2. Wonderful post! Great quilt you all made there; it will be loved. I'll be working on one of mine today :)

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  3. Many hands make light work... or so the saying goes... but I bet it was all good fun anyway....

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  4. I just love this post. It's full of so much goodness. The person who will receive this quilt won't be concerned at all about your fmq 'weaknesses' - that's just something us as the makers worry about. I do hope there's a way of the person who receives this to find out how it was created but I suspect not. Well done each and every one of you. You did a fab job 'together'!

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