Siblings Together: Amelia

At 11 o'clock on Saturday night (30th June) I finished stitching on the binding. That means I can link this up as a finish for the 2nd quarter Finiah-Along, and more importantly I can send off the finished quilt to be given to someone who will love it far more than me.

Though I have totally fallen back in love with it!

A few months ago, Lynne from Lily's Quilts asked for help to donate quilts to a charity called Siblings Together. The charity works to enable siblings separated by the UK care system to spend time together through planned activities and summer camps. Our quilts will be donated to the children who take part in the summer camps. It is something for them, to keep them warm, and comfort them when they feel most alone.

When I first came across this, I didn't feel able to contribute a whole quilt, but within a few days three lovely ladies had set up group quilts. I sent off Granny Squares blocks, log cabin blocks and nine-patch blocks.

Then I remembered this quilt. I started it last November, but abandoned it when Christmas stitching kicked in. And I never went back to it after Christmas. To be honest, it was all getting a bit too pink for me :) Why shouldn't I donate a whole quilt. A little girl out there somewhere would love the pinkness!

So I pulled it out and challenged myself to finish it by joining up with Rhonda's finish-along.

Not everything was rosy! This quilt caused me a lot of headaches: I got a biro stain on the central block - right in the middle of the white. Luckily a wonderful lady on Flickr suggested milk to remove it. It worked! I chose polyester wadding to keep down cost, but also because it would be easy to launder (and foster Mums and Dads do enough already without having to wash and dry large, heavy quilts), and light, if the child who gets the quilt is young. Maybe I didn't use enough basting spray, but straight line quilting just led to puckers. So I unpicked it. Then I decided on a stipple. The backing flipped over and got caught up in the quilting. More unpicking. Then my machine got grumpy. That was when I posted that the quilt was misbehaving. Eventually a new needle sorted out that problem.

But now that it is finished, I really do love this quilt, and I hope that the recipient, whoever they are, feels the love and warmth that I have put into it, especially for them.

I have no experience of the foster system, nor know anyone who has, yet something in the story about Siblings Together got me. These are kids that need a hug, and I am lucky enough to have the skills, and a little spare money and time to send them one.

I hope you have time to pop over to Lynne's and link through to some of the other bloggers who are linking up to share their story, and read some more about the charity. And there are loads of fantastic quilts in the Flickr group too!