The Eternal Maker Crafts

Wednesday 13 January 2016

When the only thing you can do is quilt

The following guest post is written by Clare Mansell who is a local blogger and modern quilter

Just before Christmas the parents at my local village primary school were told some devastating news. One of the children had been badly burned in a freak accident and was facing a lengthy stay in hospital. His father who had come to his aid was also injured. Immediately the parents and teachers wanted to do something to help and so started fundraising to ease the financial burden of the lengthy drives to and from the specialist unit where he was being treated, but the parents of his classmates wanted to do something personal too.

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When you are struggling to think of a way to help in these kind of situations it always comes back to “what can I do that others can't?”

Having lived in Canada for a couple of years I was very aware of the big charitable drives to make quilts for children and veterans in hospital and I also knew how much comfort they provide to patients facing a long stay in a clinical environment and there is also the added advantage that a quilt was the perfect project for several people to get involved in… even the kids!

The quilt had to be bright and cheerful, a simple design and not too expensive to make so we decided to use mainly Kona solids. The centre of each block was made from a piece of the class’s artwork printed directly (not a transfer) on to sheets of cotton poplin.

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Fortunately my sister and I had loads of Kona scraps to create the two inch borders round the squares and I had recently bought an entire bolt of Kona snow from the Eternal Maker (thanks Anna!) so we had enough of that for the sashing, but I am ALWAYS lacking yardage for the backs of quilts so we threw ourselves at the mercy of Anna & Sarah and asked if they might donate enough fabric for the back.

At this point I should advise you that if you are ever popping into the Eternal Maker to buy fabric for the back of a quilt, get one of the lovely staff members to check your calculations! I was convinced I needed 1.7 metres, but when the calculator was brought out the correct figure was 1.9 metres - Ooops!

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I also have to confess that once I got the yardage home I strayed a teeny bit from my original planned width for the sashing and so (oops again!) the quilt top ended up even bigger than that original 1.9 metres! (second piece of advice, never buy quilt backing until you’ve finished the quilt top!) BUT it did mean that we had an excuse to work in a couple of fantastic patchwork borders on the back which definitely enhanced the whole look of the finished quilt.

I’ll always be grateful to the lovely lady who taught me to quilt 9 years ago for passing on a skill which continues to be so useful.

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You can see more of Clare's quilts on her blog Maybushstudio.com


If you're interested in a guest blog spot on our blog - get in touch!  We're always on the look out for fun tutorials and interesting stories.

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