Social Bite Village Quilt Drive Update 2020

Earlier in the year I had been planning a series of ‘Sew-in Days’ at my shop to start making this year’s quota of quilts for the Social Bite Village Quilt Drive, but of course like so many things these couldn’t go ahead.  This is a charity quilt drive that I started 2 years ago to make quilts for every inhabitant of the Social Bite Village in Edinburgh.

You can read my intro post about this here and you can watch this fantastic video about the village and social bite here.

Basically it’s a village of Tiny Houses for homeless people to live in for a year to eighteen months, where they get support and rehabilitation, and then are moved into permanent housing. My amazing husband, Jonathan, AKA Tiny House Scotland designed the tiny houses. I thought I would get involved by facilitating the making of a quilt for each inhabitant, a quilt that they could take with them when they left and keep forever.

Over the last 2 years we have donated over 40 quilts and they are all very loved and appreciated by the inhabitants (check out the quilt on Mary’s bed in the video!), but I was aware that they do need some more this year, as they do every year.

Luckily I have had some donations including this fantastic  Cat and Dog Quilt made from the ‘ticket’ blocks from the Stitch Gathering 2018. You can read about these here.

Carol Anderson put these together then quilted them beautifully.

Maybe you contributed one of these blocks? I’d love to know! Thanks so much for this gorgeous quilt Carol!

I taught a workshop at a local quilting guild in Edinburgh, the Tryst Quilters, back in January and one of the members Maureen offered me two more quilts including this very striking scrappy quilt which I love!

And this great little red and grey quilt which is being expertly held by my youngest son Jacob. Thanks so much for these two Maureen, they are perfect!

I also managed to finish a quilt to donate. This is the Aurifil Designer of the Month 2018 quilt!

I started this quilt back in early 2018 as I was one of the Aurifil Designers that year and was determined to make all the blocks. I actually got all but one block made! But then stuff happened and the blocks ended up in the UFO pile. Lockdown did give a little extra time for these sort of projects and I finished this mid April.

I had great fun with the qulting changing my patterns every few blocks. Making charity quilts is a good way to practice your FMQ and try out some new design ideas wihtout the stress of finishing an heirloom top.

 

I have saved the best quilt to last. This is an absolute stunner which is also a team effort from two of my favourite people.

It’s a version of my Modern Medallion quilt that was started by Barbara in my evening class. Barbara worked with me in the shop for years before leaving to move North a year or two ago. For some reason that’s beyond me Barbara didn’t like the top so never finished it and instead gave it to Jane, my amazing shop manager and Girl Friday, to finish.

Jane very kindly offered to finish it and donate it to the Social Bite Village. She added the piano key borders and then HAND QUILTED the whole thing! It has taken Jane over a year to finish this but I am sure you can see why when you look at all her beautiful stitching. Thank you so much Jane and Barbara, what a wonderful myBearpaw team effort!!

I’ve been in touch with the Village to see how things are going and arrange to take these 5 quilts, and my contact Kathy tells me that during lockdown no one has been allowed to change their accommodation so actually they have had the same people there with very little movement and so still have quite a few quilts left (phew!). But they are very happy to accept more as the housing list just reopened this week and they hope to have more referrals coming soon.

I have one more quilt to offer to bump up the numbers. I’m going to donate the Dancing Pandas quilt from my New Patchwork and Quilting Basics Book.

And then hopefully in the New Year we can get some more Sew-in Days organised. I also hope to add some more quilts to the pile with a few more WIP finishes.

Meanwhile do you have any quilts you could donate? As the beds are all single, the quilts required don’t need to be too big. 130cm x 180cm is about right though a little more or less in either direction wouldn’t be a huge problem. A gender neutral colour palette is best but try to avoid too much black as quilts need to be used and therefore washed often.  Quilts should also come to me pre-washed. We have special labels that we can sew on at this end or feel free to label yourself.

If you think you can help then comment below and I will reply to you, or email me at [email protected].

Thank you!