Friday, 9 May 2008

Learning at Work Day

Apparently it will be 'Learning at Work Day' on 22nd May, and my workplace has decided to mark it by holding some informal workshops. So far, there is German Conversation, Croquet, Belly Dancing, a rounders match (upstairs v. downstairs - could be very exciting!) and patchwork. I bet you can guess who has been volunteered to do the patchwork!
I'm happy to do it, but since it will be over lunchtime (people can drop in and sew for a while anytime between 12 and 2, depending on their work schedule) worried about what can realistically be achieved?

I decided that since I am a teacher, and all the people at my workplace deal with children, a children's charity quilt might be a good place to start. I wanted something which would be easy to hand sew, and not be hexagons!

My solution is to do some string blocks in pink, so that there will be a uniformity to them. I wanted to do multicoloured blocks, but thought that people new to patchwork might find it easier to stick to one colour at a time.

I have cut some squares of lightweight Vilene and marked the diagonal on them.

Then I cut lots of pink scraps into strips. The idea is that you lay a strip along the diagonal line, and then sew another one on top, flip and continue until you have covered the Vilene.

I have made a few blocks so that people can see what they are aiming for. I did them on the machine, rather than by hand, but it'll be the same.

I'll let you know whether it is a success or not in a couple of weeks.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

That's a very clever idea for something that people of all levels of talent and experience can have input to - after all even the least adept can stitch a running stitch along a drawn line

Sew Create It - Jane said...

Sounds like it will work. Are you bringing a sewing machine just in case someone is ambitious? You know there will be ONE person who will ;o)

Brenda said...

it's a great idea and I want to assure you it works fine, with sewers of all skill level. I did the same string piecing idea with children in grades 4, 5, and 6 and it was great. I machine sewed the patches together, lined the quilt, and then we tied it. You can see it (its called a river quilt, because it represents a river) on my blog at http://scrapsandstrings.blogspot.com