Quiltathon Photographs

I've had time to upload the photos I took at the Quiltathon. As you can see we had a great time. There were a lot of smiling faces. The first few show the morning shift. How can people be this chirpy that early in the day? I don't know but I am very grateful they can, it added a great buzz to the morning session. As you might expect there was a lot of cutting out to be done first thing. Most early birds prefer to piece tops rather than do quilt as you go. Interesting huh. We did have one late shift worker who felt the same but on the whole it worked out earlier people were more into tops.

It was really good to see so many faces from my workshops at the Quiltathon. As ever names evaded me. Although I did manage Dot's name, and was able to introduce her to Tet. The two of them got the small quilting frame going and much to Tet's relief Dot took over running it most of the day. I think she quilted about eight tops in her first ever stand up quilting session. I hope she isn't paying for it too badly now.

During the day we were very lucky with the weather. Although Dot and I out in the marquee perhaps didn't always appreciate it. It got very hot at the quilting frames. It did mean that we could expand into the garden when we had too many for the workshop. By early afternoon we had teams cutting, sewing, pressing and making binding. It's surprising just how much binding you get through. Much of our fabric was sales men's samples. This lets you cut at least 10" square, some 6" squares and the rest often is around 2 1/2" ideal for binding. All of the quilts we have finished have very wild bindings.

As the evening wore on more younger quilters turned up. I guess teenagers are all busy on Saturday afternoons. Still having an influx of young fresh people (and indeed fresh not so young people) was great. By then I think some of us were flagging a bit. I was really impressed with how keen everyone was to step up to whatever challenge we gave them. Jobs were often allocated by what needed doing when they asked, not by skill level or experience. Without exception, people met the challenge and did the jobs that needed to be done. No cutting isn't as easy as it looks, and yes even a quilt as you go single can be a handful under a small machine.

As you might expect after a late fish and chip supper (thanks to chip lady's husband) people started to drift home. Some of the younger helpers had to be dragged out, which is great, I hope they are as keen to come back and sew again. The tone of the conversation changed and the wine appeared. Here you see the graveyard shift. These sterling ladies kept up the work until relief came in the morning. I crashed out at about 6 and woke up feeling very ill about an hour and a half later. Maybe sleep doesn't agree with me. When I came back the work was still going on and our first Sunday morning worker had appeared. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures Sunday. First thing I felt too ill, then we were just trying to get as much done as we could before running out of time. As I said there will be a photoshoot later in the year with as many of the finished quilts as we can manage.

If you were there, or know someone who was could you let either me or Jenny know. I would like to compile a list of everyone who gave support in any way. Time, money, fabric, or food. If you helped I want to get you onto the list.

We Survived

Better than that we had fun. Lots of it. Even the pouring rain couldn't dampen our spirits. It looks like the final tally is 46 quilts. I say looks because I know there are still people finishing things off. We still have tops that need quilting and then obviously binding, but I am pretty pleased with that.

My goal (when I finally got around to thinking about it) was 1.5 quilts per hour. So in 30 hours I was after 45 quilts. Bingo, right on target. I couldn't tell you why that seemed a good number. One per hour just didn't seem enough, but well two per hour was a bit much. Bear in mind the smallest quilts were bigger than 36" square and the largest are good size singles. I think at least 10 of our quilts a re big singles.

We spent a lot of time considering where our quilts might end up. We were particularly keen to produce some for teenage boys, and believe me that is hard. Still every quilt has a label saying where and when it was made with the Patchwork Corner URL. maybe one day we will hear from one of 'our boys'. While they may never know it, we will always think of the owners of our quilts as part of our family. maybe one day Project Linus will be able to tell the people that receive quilts that they are getting this whole extended family too.

I'll try and upload some more pictures later. The ones of the finished quilts will have to wait for some good weather as we will have to take it outside. We are thinking of leaving it till the middle of August to give people time to finish all the quilts and in some cases make a few more. Thank you for all your help this year, and watch out for next years project. If you know of a charity that might like our help let me know and we will see what we can do. We have fabric left over that has to be used to help people so it could be your charity that benefits.

Charity Raffle

I've finally had time to look through my pictures and select some to show you. This is a quilt that has been made to raise funds for a children's playground in Essex. Perhaps not the most glamorous of causes, but still important, and I love the fact that the community is working together to improve things for all the members. The quilt is a group quilt made by people who live in the area. very few are experienced patchworkers, but they have done an amazing job on this quilt.

The quilt is liberty prints and natural calico/muslin. It's isn't what I would consider to be my colours, but I fell in love with it instantly, and I really enjoyed quilting it. The large areas of plain fabric let me play with feathers, which I now love. The feathers carry on through the larger sashing.

The customer asked for fairly open quilting so the finished quilt is quite soft and drapy. I think I achieved that. I left the narrowest sashes unquilted to help with this. The patterned fabrics are all quilted with the same variegated thread, I was stunned that one thread could match so well with so many fabrics. It certainly helped speed up the process, just as well as this was a quilt on a tight schedule.

If you would like a chance to win this quilt use the contact link to send me an email. I will then give you details of how to get tickets. I completely forgot to ask when the draw will be, but I will find out and add an update. Don't forget you can click on any of the pictures for a larger version. If you do you will see that the quilt has flashes of many colours in it. The idea is that it will fit with as many interiors as possible, personally I think it should be very successful, in that goal.