One stitch at a time

We had five hours to make a quilt top.  Maybe the odd seam got ripped out and re-sewn but apart from that it all went very smoothly. Some stayed all day and some came for a couple of hours and added blocks to the quickly growing pile.

When I arrived at ten Karen and Eileen were already there with Hilary, pulling out various bolts of fabric to match to the African fabric (shown below under the tan and turquoise bolts) that Eileen kindly donated.  It was a lovely big print which we cut into 8.5" squares for the centre of the block.  Each was different and there was enough left for a border and binding. Hilary kindly donated the fabric to complete the blocks and borders.

Karen sorts the fabric and irons the centre blocks

 While Eileen gets the fabric ready to cut the block borders.

Some were hand sewn and some were done on the machine. Below are Jill and Karen who hand sewed.  

 Dorothy machine pieced individual blocks and then sewed blocks together.

 Two Karens and Jill piecing.

Hilary ironing - check the quilt out in front of Hilary - it's stunning, with hand made lace and tiny piecing.

Even a lady who only came in to get some binding for her quilt sewed some blocks together (thank you Susan and love the quilt)

Rhomboids not squares in lovely soft silvery greys, blues and light chocolates and taupes - so restful.

Eileen had a lovely 'show and tell quilt'.

We drank gallons of tea and coffee made by Karen B, Hilary and Rob and ate cakes:

It was so warm that the icing on the strawberry cakes started to melt. Maybe it was the heat of the iron!

There was a lot of ironing done.

By 3.30 though, we had a quilt top. A huge storm was just about to start and the shop had gone very dark so the vibrancy of the quilt is not evident from this photo.  I will post some more pictures when I have sewn the borders on.

Hilary cut some inner borders and binding from the remainder of the South African fabric and some green for an outer border. The top is everything I'd hoped it would be and more.

Everyone chipped in for the backing which I bought this morning. The remainder of the money will go to the charity. I'll be working on the quilt during the week and will take it to Sandra together with the donations as soon as it's done. I'll post the final pictures of course before it goes. 

It was a great day, thank you Karens, Eileen, Dorothy, Jill, Susan and Hilary for your great generosity. I am always humbled by people's willingness to give. Sandra says there are two sides to each quilt - the one who receives the quilt and the one who stitches it. It was a lovely day - we felt very Amish all working on the quilt - it was a good feeling.  We did agree that we would stick with the quilt making and leave the barn raising to someone else - what a relief!