Siblings Together - Get Involved!

Last weekend, as I read through blog posts I noticed that Mary had commandeered the Lily's Quilts blog to share her plans for Siblings Together quilts for this summer.  Please go and read all about it here and find out more about the Siblings Together charity and why and how you can help Mary and her quilting buddies Jo and Susy create more fantastic quilts to be loved and treasured by children in the UK care system who are separated from their siblings.

I have contributed to Siblings Together for the past few years through Bee Blessed donated quilts and then by organising my own block drive in late 2013 and making 2 fab quilts for last summer's Siblings Together camps with the blocks that you lovely folks so generously donated.  This year I haven't been able to commit to making whole quilts so I was delighted to read on Saturday that Mary, Jo and Susy are having a block drive.  Blocks I can do!

On Sunday morning, I dove into my stash to pull fabrics in the required colours - blue, grey, green and black suitable for teenage boy quilts - and cut and stitched four of those wee blocks in hardly any time at all!

The blocks are made from charm square nine patches, quartered diagonally, mixed up and stitched back together.  You can find all of the block details, fabric requirements and tutorial links on Mary's post.  Mary, Jo and Susy are hoping to make as many quilts as they can for the summer camps and that's why they need our help.  Please consider making them a few blocks and sending them on.  Mary is also hoping that some folks might be able to offer wadding, backing fabric or a little fabric for binding the quilts.  I know from my own block drive for last year's quilts that it can take quite a lot to layer, back and bind the quilts and the generosity of others really helped get those quilts finished.

So please, please consider what you might do to help Mary and her team get a big pile of amazing quilts ready for teenage boys this summer.

Could you whip up a few blocks and post them?
Do you have some spare yardage that would be suitable for binding or backing?
Do you have access to wadding supplies that you could share?

I had to think out of the box a little when I couldn't find a piece of fabric big enough for a quilt binding so I checked with Mary if binding strips would be helpful for making up scrappy bindings.  Cutting a few 2.5" strips from the fabrics I'd used in the blocks just took a few minutes and will save the ladies time and effort when they are working so hard.  So, are you in?  Will you help make a difference just by sharing an hour of your time doing something you love?  Go on, you know you want to.  Just leave Mary a message on her post with your offer of help and then go and get busy.  I promise you'll feel good for helping out!!

Finally, just a thanks to Mary, Jo and Susy for all the hard work they'll be doing and for providing a way that I can contribute to such a worthy cause.