Siblings Together Quilting Bee - February block request

Hannah is Queen Bee for February and this is what our Queen wants:

"We're making 4 patch snowball blocks measuring 16.5" unfinished.

Limited colour palette please of reds, blues and greys. Any reds and greys are fine and any blue from pale powder blue through to dark navy but true blue rather than aqua please.

This is Joanne's block from Instagram:

I don't mind what prints particularly but nothing too fugly or novelty please as they are biggish cuts so will be noticable. For my background I will be using Kona Snow but any solid white or off white will do just nicely!

The instructions will make one 16.5" 4 patch snowball block. Last time I added an extra row and column to the quilt so if anyone wants to make any extra lonely 8.5" blocks I'd be very grateful. That is optional though!

Instructions as follows then:

From each of four different prints in a limited colour palette please – reds, blues and greys:
Cut 1 square, 8 1/2” for a total of 4

From 2 strips 3” by WOF of white/ off white neutral (I used Kona snow):
Cut 16 squares, 3”

Making The Snowball Blocks:
Take 1 print 8 1/2” square and one solid 3” square marked with a diagonal line.
Place the solid 3” square RST on the top right corner of the print 8 1/2” square.
Pin in place. Sew along the marked line. Repeat with each of the other 3 print 8 1/2” squares and with the other 3 corners of all 4 print squares.
Trim each corner 1/4” from the sewn line and press seams open or to the darker side.
This will give 4 individual snowball blocks 8 1/2” unfinished.
Lay them out into a block of 4.
Sew the top 2 blocks together and press the seam to the right. Sew the bottom 2 blocks together and press the seam to the left.
Sew the top and bottom rows together, locking the centre seam and press to make a 4–patch snowball block 16 1/2” unfinished.

That's it!

Thanks
Hannah x

Please contact Hannah first before you send your blocks!

Mini bees are go!

I am very happy to announce that we have two mini bees starting to make quilts for Siblings Together.

What is a mini bee, do I hear you say?

It is an online bee that runs for four months and has four members in it.

As with most other quilting bees, one person will be Queen bee (QB) each month, and will choose a block for the group to make.   The QB will link to a tutorial, or write one, to give instruction on constructing the block.  It should be a simple block so it can be made easily and quickly.   Preferably the block should measure about 20" so that nine blocks will make one quilt.   

Each Bee, or member of the group, will make two blocks and the QB will make an extra one.  It is helpful for the group if the QB makes a sample block, to check that the tutorial is easy to follow, and to give an idea of colours and fabrics required.    The QB should clearly state the colour scheme for the quilt.

Bees will then make the block, as requested, and send them to the QB, within the month they are set.   The QB will then complete the quilt and send it to the charity Siblings Together.

In a nutshell, that is a mini bee, but this excludes all the fun, chatter, getting to make new friends online, and making a quilt for someone who really will appreciate it! 

Do you want to join in the fun? 

You don't have to have experience of being in a bee before, and this might just be the perfect opportunity to find out what it is like.  

 Our first mini bee is making these pretty blocks made by February Queen Bee, Tanya

Can't wait to see the finished quilt...!  Can you? 

So let's go and make quilts!

A Siblings Together Quilt Story.

This is the story of a quilt I made for the 2015 Siblings Together camps.

In the first year of quilts for Siblings Together I joined a bee orgainised by Lynne of Lily's quilts. We were immensley lucky to be donated fabrics by Moda with which to make our quilts. For my month of the bee we used S'more Love by Cosmo Cricket and I had a few fat quarters and some scraps left. Last year I decided to make a quilt with these left overs but didn't have enough to complete a whole quilt. Here's where a group of kind, generous ladies came to the rescue. I posted a photo of the fabics on Instagram and asked if anyone had some co-ordinating scraps they could donate. Of course the answer was "yes" and within a few days I received fabrics from Julie, Carol, Catrin, Jo, Mary and Sonia.

Here's the brightly coloured rail fence quilt I came up with.

If you would like to make a quilt to give some warmth and comfort to a child and help us reach our target of 100 quilts for Siblings Together in 2016 please visit the 100 quilts for 2015/16  page above for details.

We would love to hear your Siblings Together Quilts Stories so if you would like to write a post for the blog please leave a comment below or email the address at the top of the side bar and myself or Nicky will be in touch.

Maria.

Would you like to finish a quilt for Siblings Together?

If you read Nicky's last post about the lovely quilts she made from orphan blocks and from a UFO you'll know that fabulous quilts can be made for Siblings Together from these unwanted items.

We are very lucky to have been donated some unfinished quilt tops and fabrics from Chris Francis and we're looking for some kind volunteers to transform them into quilts for Siblings Together.

Quilt Top 1.

Edit to say we now have a kind volunteer to quilt this top.

This fabulous top measures 77.5 x 69 and requires quilting and finishing. Maybe a long arm quilter would like to work their magic on this one or a less experienced quilter could get lots of FMQ practice.

Quilt To

This beautiful quilt top measures 40" square and therefore needs increasing in size to bring it up to the minimum 50" square which we ask for Siblings Together quilts.

It has a 3D effect provided by these little pockets in the triangles.

The quilt top comes with these matching 2.5 inch strips which I guess are from a jelly roll, and two pieces of fabric measuring 43" by 20" so there's plenty of fabric to bring it up to size.

It would be fantastic if you'd like to finish either of these quilts for Siblings Together as it would be such a shame to leave such lovely work languishing in a bag. Just leave a comment and we'll be in touch.

Do you teach patchwork and want to help make quilts forSiblingsTogether?

I have a lovely friend, Sheila Donnachie, I just met for the first time this August though I have been 'talking' to her online for several years.   She runs fabulous quilting classes up in Ayrshire in Scotland and an idle comment last year had her students helping me out making blocks for these quilts last year.

Now over to Sheila to tell you in her own words what she is up to with her students for siblings together this coming year:

Some of you may recall that earlier this year, many of my students contributed blocks to Nicky's Siblings Together drive. Recently, Nicky asked me if I thought we could go one better for next year and perhaps come up with a quilt. So I put on my thinking cap and came up with a plan. I have asked for 20" quilted blocks -  just nine of these will join together into a pretty decent 60" quilt. I have planned four different colour options and have already had lots of blocks pledged (and some already made!!)

 My role will be to join the blocks using QAYG strip techniques and then bind them too.

 Here is the block I have come up with -

and how such a block will look in a quilt -

The ladies in my classes always rise to a worthy challenge and I have no doubts that together, we will pull this off too.

Well done Sheila for taking this on!  There are pledges for three quilts already and Sheila is working towards making a fourth.   Thank you so much my lovely Scottish friends in Ayrshire for such a brilliant effort.

Do you run local patchwork and quilting classes?   Would you be willing to lead your students in making blocks/quilts for Siblings Together?   We have online tutorials we have used and can suggest or you can come up with your own.  We would love to hear from you if you would like to join in - please leave a comment!  

Welcome to the Siblings Together Quilt Group blog!

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.

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!

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