Last community sewing day for 2019

We usually fit in ten monthly community sewing days, February - November, as we did this year. They allow us to access our community fabric stash for several hours at a time, make decisions as a group about which causes we can support, sort through and prioritise donations, work as a team basting finished tops (none of us is up to crawling around the floor to do it), share out tasks like quilting and binding, encourage each other in the choices we make as we put a quilt together ... and of course we have plenty of time to talk, solve the world's problems, and enjoy each other's company. Over the last ten years it has become an anticipated social and volunteering day that results in the making of about 60 - 70 quilts each year (we don't set a target, we just make what we have time and materials for) that support our local and the wider community as needed. In between our monthly days, we sometimes work on our quilts at home, and sometimes other things have to take priority.

Here are some of the things we worked on during our last sewing day for this year ...

A thrifty mother kept the wild-west cotton fabric left from
her son's long-ago bedroom curtains, and gave it to
one of our members ...

... so we backed it with this fun print from the stash and
made two reversible wholecloth kids' quilts.

We buy batting in large rolls, and economise further by sewing
the offcuts together to make it go as far as it can.

We basted a number of quilts, including this one for Helen ,
with a two-part backing to compliment it's predominantly
red and blue top.

There are three quilts here, cut from two different lengths of 
vintage-style 'cheater' prints, kindly donated, and with borders
added by Dawn.

Laura has kindly quilted them on her long-arm machine ...

... with oak lives and vine ...

... and a very cute apple design on this one.

We backed them with a sale fabric we bought in an end-of-bolt
sale, that suited the vintage look of the tops.

Elaine W worked on her current community project, that
will have this pretty Dresden plate as its centre.

We found a length of a soft blue and cream floral  backing
for a quilt made by Barbara, and basted it ready for quilting.