Our Very First Charity Quiltathon & Quilt Show

Yesterday, Thursday 30th January we held our very first Charity Quilt Show.

The idea of a Charity Quiltahon started well over 12 months ago and over the last few months has become more than a full time, all consuming affair - lol!

We decided to support five charities  -  a diverse range so as to appeal to as many people as possible - Yorkshire Cancer Research, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, The Dogs Trust, Bridlington RNLI and Project Linus.  For anyone who does not know - Project Linus is a voluntary organisation who provide a quilt/comfort blanket to terminally ill mainly children and those in need.

Quilters donated fabric, orphan blocks, UFO's etc to the cause. Many unquilted tops which have sat in many quilters UFO piles were donated and I started to get a head start by quilting these on my new ABM Innova Longarm quilting machine when we return from training in Utah.

Over 25 ladies took part in the quiltathon earlier this month. The Royal Bridlington provided free refreshments, homemade biscuits, cakes and lunch over the two days to these ladies in return for all their hard work. A heavily discounted accommodation rate was also offered to those wanting to stay over.  Thank you for donating your time and expertise.

This resulted in many more quilt tops to be quilted and many other homemade items for the sale table and tombola.

The last week has been hectic to say the least. I finished off the last of the quilting - I ended up quilting over 45 of the quilts on the longarm and without this superb machine we would certainly not achieve anywhere as much as we have.

I would like to say a personal thank you to Barbara at The Sewing Centre in Bridlington who has popped in every few days since the begining of January to help and she has assisted with the attaching of bindings and sewing down of many of these quilts.

Then came the job of trying to price these gorgeous quilts.  We decided on a two price method and Tim developed a simple spreadsheet to assist.  The first price we estimated was the actual cost of the fabrics, wadding and backing, then the second was the value. We came up with the idea of categorising the quilt into simple, medium and complex and adding time/quilting/extra fabric for seams according to this.  We felt this figure was imperrative for our charities as a non quilter would have no idea as to the 'value' of a quilt and we really wanted them to be put to good use and not under valued.

Next came the job of displaying all the items.  Ummm...... we had 86 quilts, 3 bed runners and matching cushions, around 30 other cushions, 12 draught excluders, aprons, table mats, wall hangings, bags etc etc.

Over the next two days Tim and I installed a washing line affair around our walls and we began pegging out the quilts.

Tuesday and Wednesday were spent in the kitchen creating items for the cake stall.

Thurday arrived all too soon. A superb team of helpers arrived around 9am to finish off the stall set up and help with the staffing. Thank you so much - Jennie Walker, Carole Jones, Barbara Hall, Charlotte Cogbill, Julie Hatton, Mary Woolley, Joan Smith, Syliva Britton & Janet Dove.

The Mayor and Mayoress, Cllr Terry Dixon & Mrs Sheena Dixon attended the event along with many media photographers.

My mum enjoyed staffing the entrance desk and we had over 135 people through the doors. We charged £3 entrance and this included free tea/coffee.

Our staff donated their time free of charge to the event and staffed the kitchen and served drinks and food. Thank you Martin, Rosheila, Suny, Marilyn & Sarah for all your hard work.

Cllr Shelagh Findlay, Deputy Mayor & Cllr Jacqueline Foster drew the many raffle tickets for our many prizes.

We raised £1600 and this was split between Yorkshire Cancer Reseach, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, The Dogs Trust and Bridlington RNLI, so they each will recieve £400 plus some of the unsold quilts to raise more funds.

Project linus will recieve 52 of the quilts.

Please may we also thank the following people who supported the event -

Bridlington Sewing Centre

Scarborough Sewing Centre

Janome

Habico

Boyes

Philip Anthony Photographers, Tickton

Lloyd Dowson

Richardsons Greengrocers

Fairfax Meadow Butchers

The Shed, Beverley

Bridlington Belvedere Golf Club

The Spa, Bridlington

Wold Top Brewery

Yorkshire Coast Radio

Bridlington Free Press

Hull Daily Mail

Many quilters from far & wide

All the twitteres who repeated our tweets

and Everyone who came to the event - 

THANK YOU SO MUCH

On my next blog there are pictures of each of the quilts for the mad quilters out there that didn't manage to attend.

Jennie Rayment visits Bridlington

We have just had the most fantastic three days with the infamous Jennie Rayment - star of Create and Craft TV & Just Hands TV.

Each day 23 ladies enjoyed hilarious tales whilst twiddling, tweeking and manipulating fabric into Jennies wonderful designs.

The first two day we worked on creating wacky waistcoats or a panel.

On the third day we made Twitch, Twiddle & Tweek which is a panel like a flower.

Here are our pieces of work at the end of the day - most just needing a bit more manipulating before borders are added.

Jennie will be on Create and Craft TV this Sunday so look out for the spotty dog which she made here and will be christening Bridlington.

Jennie will be back teaching again here at The Royal Bridlington next January. For more details email fiona@royalhotelbrid.co.uk

The Charity Quiltathon

Around 12 months ago the idea of a Charity Quiltathon were born. We have been holding workshops and retreats here at The Royal Bridlington for several years and now have a large database of quilter and many regulars.  We came up with the idea of supporting more than one charity so that the event would have a very broad appeal.  The charities are - Yorkshire Cancer Research, Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Bridlington RNLI, The Dogs Trust and Project Linus.

Quilters have been donating fabric, blocks, UFOs etc for several months and I have been storing all the carrier bags full of these wonderful goodies all over the place.

Bridlington Sewing Centre donated two whole rolls of wadding.
Scarborough Sewing Centre donated 10 meters of fabric.
Habico donated embroidery thread and haberdashary
Boyes donated a £25 voucher
Janome donated Scissors and Embroidery threads
Phillip Anthony Photographers from Tickton donated £375 vouchers for the raffle.
Lloyd Dowson donated a case of wine.

As the bags loads started to arrive, it soon became evident that we would have plenty to see, so the idea of a Quilt Show was formed.

In preparation for our two day event, I started to sort through these a couple of weeks ago with the help of Barbara Hall from Bridlington Sewing Centre .  We had been given a number of quilt tops which needed backing, wadding, quilting and binding - so as you  have probably read earlier on my blog, I started to get these done on my ABM Innova longarm.
I have pictured some of these on my previous blogs and here are some of the ones I have done in the last few days.

 This pattern is Humming Bird

 For this panel I used morning glory

 For this Jelly Roll Race I chose Lily of the Valley

  This pattern is called Gaiety

This is a project which I started just the day before at a workshop and I converted into a bed runner and cushions.
The quilting pattern I chose is Echo of Light

When I counted up the quilts just before the quiltathon, I had quilted 35 tops! Barbara has also been such a great help too by sewing down some of the bindings.

So on to the first Quiltathon Day

So here is what it looked like before we really got started

and here is the pile of what we got finished prior to the start

So here are some of the ladies who volunteered their time to came along. In return for their hard work, The Royal Bridlington provided refreshments, Homemade biscuits, cakes and lunch. Overnight accommodation for those who required was also very much reduced.

and here are quilters hard at work

time for lunch

and back to work again

Over the two days, 30 ladies donated their time and skills - here a just a few of the finished items

Just a little taster of some of the fabulous items these very clever ladies have made.

There will be many more to come back as I think everyone have taken something home to finish off or start and finish too. I will also be busy with lots more quilt tops to quilt.

Thank you so much to everyone who gave up their time and to all those who donated to the event and the wonderful surprise the quilters sprung on us on Wednesday.

Please come along on the 30th January - there will certainly be lots to see and buy and all for some very worthwhile charities too.

For further information contact 01262 672433  Fiona Garth