Tag Archives: Making a quilt for our camper van

Getting Started…

I have a lot of scraps of material in my sewing room, and I wanted to make a quilt for “Scout” using them. I spent a morning pulling them out and trying to put them into some kind of order. As it turned out, I had a few four inch square blocks left over from other projects so that was a start. I looked at lots of patterns but, in the end, decided that four inch blocks for the whole quilt was the way to go. I was determined not to plan the colours, I would just cut lots of blocks in whatever material I had, but sort them into darks and lights. Actually that was my first problem; some were a mix of dark and light and some were medium. But I wasn’t concerning myself with that. This is not going to be a family heirloom, it is going to be a quilt to take camping!

Four inch squares cut from material I had on hand

I was excited to start creating the quilt even though I had no idea how it would turn out. I wasn’t terribly concerned; I just wanted it to be bright and cheery. I thought of making up four patch blocks but I found it just as good to randomly sew the blocks together in rows then sew the rows together.

Putting the blocks and rows together was fairly quick but I admit I wasn’t being a perfectionist. But I had to break the rule I set myself which was to only use material I already had at home. I couldn’t find anything nice to use as a border so I had to force myself to buy some extra material.

None of the materials I had at home were suitable for the border

Living in Kalbarri, we don’t have much of a choice in fabric shops, so I drove to Spotlight in Geraldton to find something suitable. I chose some nice green material to make two borders and while I was there, I picked up some pale green block out fabric with a daisy pattern that I thought might be nice for curtains.

I found some green materials that I thought would look nice

I couldn’t wait to get home and get started!

I was really pleased with the result. I liked the two borders and I felt that I had definitely made myself a bright and cheery quilt top!

 

The next thing to do was to find something from my material stash to use for the backing. My first idea was to create a backing made of large blocks but I found some fabric that was almost big enough. And it was bright too! As I mentioned, it was almost big enough but not quite. My choice was to add some other material to make it the same size as the quilt top or reduce the size of the outer border. I really like the broad border but I decided to just make it smaller. It was only for the camper.

When I went to my bag of wadding, I realised I only had literally scraps. I picked out the biggest bits and tacked them together. I wasn’t going to drive another two hours to Geraldton for wadding. So the padding is made of several bits of wadding so it is slightly lumpy and uneven but I kind of like that for this project.

I had some fabric set aside for the binding of the quilt but by the time I had finished, I had decided I didn’t want to use it. After trying a few, I decided to make the binding the same as the outer border.  I thought it would work better since I had had to make the border smaller.

 

My quilt is finished and I am pleased with it, even though it is quite roughly made.

 

Scouting Around

At Barn Hill Beach Camp, I got chatting to a lady who parked next to us. She and her dog were camping in a regular car with the back seats down to form their bed. She had used some wet suit material to attach storage to the inside wall of the car, and her roof rack was full. She had been sitting on a camp chair at the back of the car with a folding table and dog bed next to her. When we got talking, I told her I liked her set-up. She told me she had just turned 70 and had decided to head off with her dog and spend her birthday year travelling. Her children are scattered around the country, and they had each decided on a place they had always wanted to visit and would meet her in those various places. I loved that idea! As I turn 70 in eight months, I decided I might do a similar thing. Forget parties and dinners, this is the way to go.

Now that we have the camper van, I will do lots of trips next year, visiting family and friends, or going to places I haven’t been. Hopefully John might join me on some. Maybe friends will come along with their swag or tent.  Meantime, I want to make the camper a bit more homely. Inside it has the double bed, a fridge and a slide-out camping cooker. There are some storage areas under the bed and under the fridge. It is quite dark inside as the walls are carpeted in brown and the curtains are of grey block out material.

The first thing I did was give the camper a name.  I wanted to give it some kind of literary name and came up with a shortlist of three – Holly Golightly, Gulliver Travels and Scout (the character from To Kill a Mockingbird). I decided on the latter as I plan to scout around the country. I ordered a “Scout” sticker online from Etsy for the back door of the van.

I also want to make a patchwork quilt in vivid colours to brighten up the cabin. We bought the van with bedding included but I want to put my own stamp on it. I’d also like to replace the curtains and perhaps make some bunting to hang. Other than that, a few colourful baskets to hold food and kitchen needs, and maybe something to cover the ceiling might work. Let’s see. I’m looking forward to getting creative.