The Sewing Club

Sue's beautiful plaid skirt fabric.

My demo pyjama bottoms.

Refreshing an old blanket with new blanket stitching.

We started the Sewing Club in November.  It's a chance to get together, share project ideas, have a glass of wine and generally enjoy each other's company.
Tomorrow night Elaine is going to give a demo on appliqué.
We try to meet fortnightly at my house where I have the sewing machine, iron and ironing board set up and a big table cleared for cutting out.
Here are some of the things we have been doing.

Refurbishing another blanket with leopard print fleece trim after removing
the tired, satin ribbon.

Cutting out Rita's lovely pyjama bottom fabric.

Trying out vintage fabrics to mend Lisa's 1970's quilt.

The Sewing Club: Lisa's Quilt

Lisa's quilt from the 1970's. It is very worn in the centre.

This quilt was made by a friend of Lisa's mother in the 70's and Lisa had it on her bed when she was 7.  It now resides on her son's bed. The fabric is very 1970's and it is a real patchwork, made of bits and pieces that the quilt maker had at hand.

Lisa brought it along to Sewing Club to mend it as it is very worn in the middle.  I found some genuine Laura Ashley squares (given to me by a friend)  to replace the really worn patches. 

This can be made using the paper piecing method.

To make templates, I unpicked a very worn patch from the centre and made two new templates, one the size of the finished patch and another with one cm seam allowances.  I cut both of these out of card so Lisa can trace around them when she cuts out her patches.  The larger one will be used for the quilt fabric and the smaller one for paper.  The paper goes in the centre of the patch and the seam allowances are pressed under.  I cut out four white patches of fabric and four white templates from paper, then pressed them.  Lisa will be able to stitch them together by hand and then remove the paper. (See photos below.)

Another view of the quilt.

The worn centre.

Learning how to make a templat