Every year, towards the end of the school year, my school takes two days out to do things for the community. It's a chance to show the kids that community counts and that it is easy and very rewarding to do something for someone else. Projects range from teaching some elderly people to text, weeding (in school and our neighbours), cleaning up the beach, making jam for rest home residents, fundraising for the SPCA... and so on...
I offered to run a project making lap quilts for a local rest home. They specialise in dementia care and recently cared for one of the teacher's mother. They seemed like a fitting recipient of some quilts.
I was very fortunate to get a class of all adult students! I had a class of 15 ladies and two teacher helpers, some had some sewing experience but none of whom had ever used a rotary cutter. We had fun!
This is what we produced, one finished quilt, two that only need the binding on them, one to be quilted and bound and the fifth one I may save for next year. They are all based on the 3D bow-tie block. I've used this in a couple of quilts now and is one of my favourite hand-sewing projects.
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| Some happy workers! |
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| Cutting and ironing station |
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| The lady on the right (looking like a model!) was one of my main translators. |
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| This may turn into a cot quilt for Middlemore Hospital or be saved for next year |
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| I took this one home and had fun quilting it. Still to finish and bind. |
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| Detail shot of the quilting |
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| Our first finished quilt |
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| I quilted a simple leaf design on this one. |
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| They tried a different layout for the bowties and made an interesting secondary pattern. |
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| We made a pieced back for this one and a student quilted it. |
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| Straight line quilting done by one of the students. |
All in all, I think it was a very successful project. I'm not sure how it would go with 14 to16 year-olds but I'm willing to try it again next year!
It's amazing the different effects you get from changing the setting (and that fabulous FM quilting makes such a difference too!)
ReplyDeleteGood for you - you got heaps done. I never knew that such a simple block like the bow tie block could be so effective in different settings. You never know, you might have set a future quilter on her path!
ReplyDeleteThanks Suz. I think I'm getting the hang of those feathers.
ReplyDeleteMs Lottie, I've already made one convert. One of the teachers who was helping me started her first quilt on Sunday. She came over to my place to cut out her squares She thinks she's only going to make one quilt! Little does she know... *evil grin*