My Collection

This one was another easy one to achieve, mainly as I've been working on this for so long now - My Collection.

Which, obviously, has to be my cloth badges on my camp blanket. The badges cover several years of collecting - from some dating back to 1977 when I first became a Brownie, to 2023 when I've picked up badges along the way (hello National Trust).

So... the clauses. I have to put together a collection over six months. Well I think the above covers that - and way more than six months too. Since I've been signed off work I've done little bits around the house, and one of those tasks was getting the sewing machine out and getting all the badges since July onto the blanket, and the teen's too. Which is surprisingly tiring - I was managing around six badges sewn on a day before having to have a rest. 

Which covers part two of the clauses too - finding an attractive way to display the collection. Because who can resist a well populated camp blanket? 

Part three is showing the collection off - which I will add as a photo right now. 

The blanket's looking a bit full but not completely full there. Plenty of room for more I reckon. Look, you even get a shot of my feet. Let's do a quick tour of the areas of the photo. 

Top left - 1970s Brownie badges, top right 1980s Guide badges, between both sides the Rebel Badge Club badges and some 2020s Girlguiding badges. 

Mid-left - the evil paw print badges from LaSER, every badge sewing person's least favourite badge to sew (though much easier using a sewing machine, it has to be said). 

Everywhere else - random randoms. Australia, National Trust, places we've visited, work related patches, far too many Baby Shark ones, Australian swaps and lots more. I could do a close up of some of these areas but I think this'll do for now. 

The final clause asks what attracted you to your chosen item. I guess volunteering for Girlguiding and getting all the badges meant they had to live somewhere - and once you take the first steps to get the badges onto the blanket you're pretty much locked in until it's full - how do you decide what goes where? By just sewing them on and hoping you've got space! If you get really lucky you can get a whole load of badges together which fit (like the teen's blanket and her Brownie interest badges, or the Skills Builder badges we have). 

When you look at the blanket in more detail it is a record of my badge-earning life - though older badges like swimming (I only got my 25 metres) have been lost in time. They also seem to cost too much to get a cheeky replacement. 

When you go to a camp with several other Girlguiding units present you go into automatic show off mode - without saying "hey look at my awesome blanket" - as it is on display anyway. Plus you're warmer. So I'd say what attracts me is at a Guiding event it's a good conversation starter with other members of Girlguiding - from Rainbows to Leaders. You can't beat a good conversation starter. 

This is also the first badge in Volume 2 that I've completed. Because yes, I bought both books to keep me busy.