A few months back, a good friend approached me with an idea for her 50th birthday celebrations – a ‘Sew-In’ at The Mill.
Her wish was to gather around her closest friends and equip them to each make a personalised quilt block for a birthday memory quilt. Isn’t that a lovely idea!
So at the weekend, 18 of us had a wonderful breakfast in The Little Mill Bistro, before heading upstairs to my classroom to get creative!
While not all of the ladies were confident sewers, creativity and ideas weren’t lacking!
My daughter Shannon assisted with a little free motion sketching where needed, and by lunchtime, we had 15 almost completed blocks (not all displayed here).
All that is left to do, is machine sketch some text the ladies have requested, and make the blocks into a quilt for my friend!
It was a really fun morning and all the ladies (& the birthday girl!) left with big smiles and happy memories!
Of course I couldn’t not make my friend of 20 years a quilt myself!!




These fabrics are mostly Honeysweet by Fig Tree Quilts, with a little complimentary Tilda thrown in for good measure!
Working from a layer cake, I wanted to stretch out the yardage as far as it would go, so I kept the cutting to a minimum.
Some Tilda Harvest Bird Tree (Ginger) seemed like the perfect yardage for the back!
I gifted the quilt to my friend at the sew-in yesterday and it was very well received! Yay!
Another successful day!
“The noblest art is that of making others happy!” P T Barnam
Happy sewing!
This is a fabulous birthday idea, and the lucky lady has two special quilts to remember it by. x
What a wonderful idea for a big birthday celebration! The blocks look great and hopefully you’ve inspired a few more future quilters!