Last year the fabulous quilting community made lots of quilts like these....
....for the charity Siblings Together.
This charity helps to keep children in the UK care system in touch with their brothers and sisters. Many children from the same family are not placed with their siblings. The charity tries to keep the family bonds by reuniting children with their siblings at activity camps in the school holidays.
Our campaign to make #100quiltsforsiblingstogether provides quilts for the children to take home - a fabulous memory of their experience and a quilty hug from the quilting community.
Our campaign to make #100quiltsforsiblingstogether provides quilts for the children to take home - a fabulous memory of their experience and a quilty hug from the quilting community.
This year I'm hoping you will join me again in the quilt block drive to make quilts like this...
...a new pattern I have designed just for this quilt drive.
The quilt is made with two blocks.
This block, is a great beginner's block, using just HSTs in a colour (aqua in this case) and low volume fabric, to create an arrow head.
Make four HSTs measuring 6 1/2" (6" finished) using your preferred method.
For those new to quilting, take a pair of seven inch squares, one coloured and one low volume, and place them right sides together.
Draw a line across the diagonal of the low volume square and stitch a quarter inch away on both sides of that line.
Cut along the line and trim both resulting HSTs to 6 1/2" square (6" square finished). Repeat to yield four in total and stitch together as above. Your block should measure 12 1/2" square (12" square finished).
The second block in this quilt, isn't that much harder especially when you foundation piece it! You can use paper or freezer paper. I find using freezer paper works better for me and just wanted to share something in return for all the kindness you show in making blocks for the charity.
Here is a link to the pattern which you can download. Please check that your printer is set to print at 100% and NOT fit to page - it makes a difference to the size of your template otherwise.
And here is how I use freezer paper to make it:
Print or trace the pattern onto freezer paper and fold along the stitching lines.
Use the kite template to cut four kite shapes.
Cut four rectangles from your coloured fabrics, 7 1/2" X 3 1/2". Pair rectangles, right sides together, and carefully place your ruler diagonally across the rectangle and cut. This yields enough side triangles to complete one block.
You will notice that half the side triangles will fit on the right side of your kite shape and the other half on the left. Sort them so that you attach the correct triangle. It is easy to pick up the wrong one!
Press the kite shape on the freezer paper, making sure the fabric is centred.
Fold back the freezer paper as previously creased. With right sides together, align the first side triangle along the edge of the kite. Stitch along the seam line, as shown in the middle photo above.
Once stitched, fold the fabric onto the freezer paper and press. Repeat on the other side. Trim to 6 1/2" square and remove freezer paper pattern and reuse.
Make three further pieced squared, and stitch together as in photo.
Now you are maybe asking yourselves which colours to use - if you know me you will know my answer is all of them! Let's see how many different colours we can get through....
Thanks in advance.