Making a quilt for the Queen's Guiding Award
Melanie Parkin, aged 22, started Brownies when she was seven years old. She works with Rainbows when she's not studying for her teaching degree at York St John University. She started working to earn her Queen's Guide Award in 2011. For the award she needed to learn a new skill, devoting at least 60 hours over a year. She decided to learn to sew since it's such a useful skill and she would have something usable at the end.
For inspiration she read craft blogs and bought material from the Leeds market. Melanie made several smaller projects such as bunting and an advent calendar before taking on the project of a patchwork quilt. The biggest challenge in making the quilt was that she ended up using three different sewing machines! She used embroidery on two panels and used ribbon and buttons for embellishment. She still plans to quilt it using a 'tied quilting' method.
Her advice for anyone starting their first quilt is to start small! Her quilt became a bit larger than she'd originally anticipated, but she says all her projects usually turn out big. The next part of her award will be going on an expedition at Easter time. Then she'll be awarded the Queen's Guide Award sometime next year. Well done Melanie!
Are you part of a uniform group? Are you interested in using your sewing skills to earn badges? Check out our Uniform Groups section for ideas!
