Social Bite Village Quilt Drive Report 2022

The latest batch of 13 quilts just left me and is heading for the Social Bite Village so I thought it was a good time for a review post and a chance to share these beautiful donated quilts in more detail.

I have been collecting up quilts since the last batch left here in May (read about these in this report 2021 post) but I took 7 quilts as an interim amount in December as they were quilt low at the village. For those of you not familiar with this quilt drive and my involvement in it do please read this blog post here.

The batch from December included 2 quilts that I’ll be sharing below plus the first Orphan Block quilt from the Golden Bobbins group that I wrote about in this post earlier this year. In this post you will also see 3 other orphan block quilts that make up this latest batch.

Out of the 20 quilts delivered since last May 5 of them have been passed on to me by the local Linus Quilt group. Sometimes they are given quilts that are much too big for the sick children that they provide quilts for and so they kindly passed suitable Social Bite Village quilts on to me.

The latest 13 quilts are being delivered to the village by Josh Littlejohn himself. Josh is the co-founder of Social Bite and the brains behind the whole Homeless Village venture (amongst other amazing things). He was visiting my husband Jonathan yesterday to discuss designs for the new villages planned for Glasgow and now also Dundee. In the report post last year I mentioned Glasgow and London but London has proved harder to instigate and an opportunity has since come up for Dundee. Josh kindly took all the quilts with him which has saved me a journey this week.

I’m going to start with this latest Orphan Block Quilt I made.

In the post from January I discussed how well I was doing making loads of charity quilts out of my orphan blocks and class samples, some of which had been made with my Sunday Sewing Golden Bobbins group.  I was having such fun quilting these on my Handi Quilter Moxie and was planning many more.  Well I made just one more!! As usual my optimism collided with reality and I had to put these aside for other stuff like embroidery ahead of the Stitch Festival.

But I am really pleased with this dark quilt and especially the FMQ pattern I did on the Moxie. This square interlocking rainbow pattern was a favourite from my domestic FMQ days and one had I used successfully on my prize winning Dandelion Clock quilt. But I’d never tried it on the Moxie before. It worked really well as long arm machines love to do straight lines. I’ll be using it again as soon as I can make more quilt tops!

Let’s move on to the donated quilts with the two that were delivered in December. This beautiful and very modern star quilt was made by Mary Donaldson of Dumfries, one of my regular contributors.

Mary also has a Handi Quilter long arm from Pinhole Quilting and the owners, Liz and Pete, actually collected this one on a trip to Scotland last year and brought it over to me.

The next quilt is another from the Quirky Quilters of East Kilbride who have donated more quilts than anyone else to the Village. Thank you so much Quirkies! And this smart blue and cream quilt is not the only one in this post…

The last quilt be added to this batch (and photographed just yesterday morning) is another Quirky Quilter beauty made with houses and trees. I love how cheerful this is!

This one was also another hand delivery, brought by Irene who is a member of both Quirky Quilters and the Golden Bobbins (amongst other groups!) and gave this one to me at the meeting on Sunday.

Two quilts arrived a few weeks back from Paula Collings one of my students from the myBearpaw studio days and another very generous serial donator to the village.

The choice of this vintage style fabric with images of trains, planes and automobiles is perfect for the centre squares of this quilt. I also love the inclusion of the brightly coloured HST strips, a great way to use up scraps!

Paula’s second quilt is this stunning version of Lucy Engels ‘Go Quilt’ pattern. Wow I am knocked out by this one Paula! Such great colours, they remind me of a kilim rug.

 

Next up is an incredibly kind donation of THREE quilts from Jenny Crossley, and they are all absolute beauties!

First up is this large HST quilt with pretty floral border. Some lovely fabrics in the mix here!

Then there is this gorgeous and striking quilt with interlocking crosses. I can’t for the life of me remember what this pattern is called… Dutchman’s Puzzle??

Lastly this stunning quilt made with so many fabulous fabrics and in such a great colour palette. I love this one Jenny!

Even the back is amazing (below left)!

Thank you so much for giving so many quilts Jenny!

The next quilt is from my fellow Edinburgh MQG member and recent prize winner at the Scottish Quilt Competition, Barbara Gillespie, with this simple yet clever and striking quilt made of this really interesting fabric. It’s also beautifully quilted on Barbara’s long arm.

The last quilt in this year’s batch is a bit special as it’s made using a pattern from my book, New Patchwork and Quilting Basics.  Anne Wroath made this lovely and extended version of the Semaphore Cot Quilt in such a pretty and calming colour palette.

Thank you Anne and a HUGE thank you to everyone who made and donated a quilt to this fantastic and worthwhile cause!

I know from my visits to the village how much the quilts are loved and valued. All the residents and volunteers are amazed by the quilts and get so excited when I bring a new batch. The residents are so happy to have one of their own that they can take with them when they move to a permanent home. The quilts help make these temporary Tiny Houses a cosy home. I hope and believe that they also communicate to the residents that somebody cares about and values them, and believes in their ability to forge a new and better life.

I am always looking for donations for the village as I need around 20 quilts a year, and soon I will be helping to facilitate new quilt drives for the new villages, so do please get in touch if you think you can help by sending me an email or commenting below. Please read the first post here for details of sizes etc.