Social Bite Village Quilt Drive 2024

Time for an update on donated quilts for the Social Bite Village Quilt Drive. This is actually the first one I’ve posted since December 2022! I took a lot of quilts at the end of 2022 as I knew my impending building work and house upheaval would mean I wouldn’t have space to store quilts for a while.

So I asked everyone wanting to donate last year not to send them until the end of 2023. And then it has taken me a few months to get my act together and document, label and deliver the quilts.  Finally I have 10 quilts ready to deliver on Friday!

For those of you new to this quilt drive please check out this post to find out more about it and/or search ‘social bite’ in the search bar for all the other posts featuring donated quilts,

Let’s take a closer look at this beautiful batch. This first one is by Barbara Gillespie, a member of Edinburgh MQG and an ex student of mine from the myBearpaw days.

Barbara is a very talented quilter which shows in this stunning plaid design. Amazing colour choices and beautiful quilting Barbara!

The next two are both from Suzanne Foster and similar but equally lovely quilts.

Both Barbara and Suzanne, and in fact almost all the makers listed here, have given quilts before to this quilt drive which is so generous of them.

I love the scrappy simplicity of these quilts, they have both a vintage and modern vibe and the freshness of the white background means they will fit in anywhere.

Next up is another fabulous scrappy quilt made by my lovely sister Jane. This one is a QAYG quilt with lots of checks and plaids and a classic colour palette of red, white and blue.

Jane also made another scrappy QAYG quilt which I am taking with me on Friday, unfortunately it missed the photo shoot as I still need to add the binding.

We have had so much rain and bad weather recently which has also delayed the delivery of the quilts as I do like to get a photo of each to share here. Finally it was bright enough for some photos and Jonathan very kindly held them up on our new back porch which, though not finished completely (no steps yet!), turns out to be a perfect place for quilt photography!

Next we have 4 quilts all sent by Paula, who has donated many many quilts over the years.

Two of these were made by her, one by a group she is involved in and now she has even got her 10 year old grandchild involved with a fourth quilt!

The stunning star quilt above includes a mariners themed fabric and Paula’s embroidered label refers to this. Paula always embroiders beautiful labels for the back of the quilt with such lovely positive messages like ‘navigate to your dreams’.

I am especially delighted that Paula’s granddaughter Imogen has made her first quilt for our drive.

Paula said, “Imogen chose to make a quilt as part of her Silver Level of the Junior Award Scotland Scheme. She started with a small panel of sea creatures, went to the quilt shop to select fabric for sashing and then worked away at it.” Isn’t that wonderful?! A new recruit to the cult! 😉 Well done Paula and even more well done to Imogen!

Paula’s group is the Morningside and Newington Floral Art Club and Friends (doesn’t that sound fancy?!) and they have also contributed quilts in the past.

This one was launched right at the start of the Covid Lockdown and so took a while before they could assemble the work. The brief was to make 12 1/2″ unfinished blocks on a flower theme which would be sashed with pale green.

It’s a stunning quilt with so many fabulous blocks and techniques!

Huge thanks to all the members of the group involved with this one.

Lastly Paula has donated a quilt made for the Free Bird BOM.

This was the second of the three Thread House BOM clubs we hosted. Paula made this gorgeous edited version of the pattern and I love the dense stipling of the quilting.

Lastly I have this subtle pinwheel quilt from Charlie Rutherford.

It was made by Charlie’s mother who sadly passed recently. I am very touched that Charlie chose to donate this special quilt to the Social Bite drive on behalf of her dear mum.

I am continuing to accept and process quilts for the Social Bite Village and they continue to be cherished and loved by all the residents. If you would like to donate please do read this post for the requirement details and send me an email to [email protected].

Huge thanks to all the kind generous quilters who donated these quilts!