Hello and Welcome to the page that aims to help you add your voice to the visual collection of quilts and textiles we call Threads of Survival.

Below are simple instructions to help you make your first square ‘patch’

MAKING A SANDWICH

It was not a phrase we knew either! But to make your patch you will need:

• a top layer – cotton or other strong material.
• the filling – wadding that is either polyester or an old blanket square
• a bottom layer – any strong material as it will not be seen

Cotton Shirts or old sheets are a good source of top layer material

Wadding we can supply

Backing we can also supply if you dont have any

Measurements

This is important. You need to leave a border around your image to allow the assemblers to ‘play’ with the final positioning of squares.

The National Quilts we make use squares that measure

cms – 30.5 x 30.5, inches – 12 x 12

But allow another 1.75cms/0.5inch for the seam allowance.

NOTE: Rectangle variations of the square measurement are also fine.

Fixing the Sandwich

Use either pins, safety pins or best a few anchor stitches to clip the three layers together. This means everything will stay in place as you work on the patch. Once your visual idea is complete you can remove these fixings.

Getting it to us

Once you’re happy with it you can pop it in the post to Steve, Chrissie or Christine and when we have enough squares we meet to assemble another national quilt.

You can download this handy Instruction Card (below)