The Dhahran Women’s Exchange and a Quilting Mission
- Lifestyles
- Special Interest
Author: Britney B.
Released 27 June 2003
Connie Evans's beautiful landscape quilt
Photograph by Britney B.
I’m by no means an expert at quilting. I’ve learnt the basics and attempted a few small projects, and like everyone else who gets the bug I’ve a stash of fabrics and scraps of leftovers. Still, it seems there’s always another quilt objective on the horizon requiring the purchase of even more fabric, but I’d like to tell you about something my friends and I have been up to over the past weeks that doesn’t involve buying yards of new material.
The Florida square from Connie's quilt
Photograph by Britney B.
Some weeks ago one of Dhahran’s most experienced quilters, Connie Evans, kindly gave a few friends and myself an afternoon of paper piecing instruction. Connie has made the most wonderful quilts out of recycled denim chiefly purchased from the Dhahran Women’s Exchange in the form of jeans, dresses and shorts. One is a landscape quilt made up of 42 squares, representing certain States of the USA. Each square is a picture in fabric. There are farms, trains, mountains, lakes, birds, fields, rivers and seas. It is truly a work of art as you can see from the photo of the finished squares that have been pinned to Connie’s workroom wall.
Some of the fabric for recycling and the results.
Photographs by Britney B.
Beverly with the beginnings of her bed quilt.
Photographs by Britney B.
After we’d seen Connie’s quilts we just had to start collecting our own denim. Following the techniques we’d been taught of stitching the denim on to foundation paper to achieve an accurate pattern, we started producing our squares and are very pleased with the results. But you don’t have to use denim or paper piecing to make a quilt from recycled fabric. You can use any pattern, make a crazy quilt or strip quilt, or just cut squares and sew them together.
Women's Exchange
Photograph by Britney B.
Although the Dhahran Women’s Exchange has an abundance of second hand clothing with potential for recycling into quilts, it isn’t just a source for acquiring fabric. The Exchange has a vast range of second hand items for sale, including nearly new items of clothing and some items that have never been worn before. There are also arts and craft materials, toys, books, games, and bric a brac for sale.
Women's Exchange
Photograph by Britney B.
Located in building 1712A, on the corner of 17th Loop and Kings Court, the Women’s Exchange was founded in 1947 as part of the Dhahran Women's Group. Over the years, it has gone from a money making venture to a purely charitable organization, with 100% of its profits going to charity. If you want to consign items to the Exchange for sale you will need to be a member and pay a membership fee of SR50 per year, and buy tags for your items. Consignments are taken in on Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:30 p.m. Donations are accepted any time during the Exchange’s operating hours.
The Dhahran Women’s Exchange is open for sales on Monday evenings from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. for ladies only, and on Tuesdays from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. for general sales. So why not go along and see what you can find.
Happy shopping, and I promise to photograph our finished quilts and show them in a future article!