Weavery Wall Hanging Project

Our craft workshop group has been working on a beautiful wall hanging. Our support worker, Tarandeep, was inspired by our residents’ woven textile work and set up a group project to create a wall hanging using patchwork techniques to showcase the level of skill and talent they all possess.
 
The wall hanging comprises 50 small squares of fabric, using different woven fabrics woven on looms at Camphill over the years. The squares follow two distinct patterns. One is made up of triangles, and the other is made of squares and petals (25 of each). These squares then alternate to create a repeated pattern. With the help of some of the craft support workers, we cut and prepared all the squares and cut all the shapes out, ready for the residents to sew.  
  
Three residents helped to sew the panels and took their time to carefully sew each square. One of our residents, Alison, had never used a sewing machine before, so they needed time to practice before participating in the project. However, she really took to sewing and could grasp the concept quickly and independently, sewing the squares independently, with little to no help. Our other two residents, Peter and Tamsin, had previous experience using the sewing machine and were confident enough to sew the squares with little supervision.  
 
Overall, the project was a great success, and the wall hanging is beautiful. It was a wonderful experience to see how well the residents took to it and how other residents became excited to see the outcome of the hanging, as they were proud to see their woven pieces being used. The wall hanging was unveiled at our Bradbury House unveiling and will hang in our Weavery Workshop to show everyone what a fantastic workshop Camphill has! 

Several residents showed interest in learning sewing machine techniques as the project evolved. We are pleased to announce that we have successfully received a grant from The Jim Marshall Charitable Trust to purchase four more sewing machines to set up a new sewing machine workshop as part of our Art and Craft Workshop.