Perfect quilting weather!

After a week of rain and hats and scarves weather it was no surprise to wake to grey skies this morning. Were our St Mark's Quilters bothered? Not a bit! 

We turned up the heating in the church hall and, fuelled by Gail O's delicious passionfruit cake and banana and walnut loaf, settled in for a day of stitching and chat.

Sophie and Susan have been absent for a couple of months, but they've have definitely not been idle. Susan brought along three finishes - a sweet little Blanket of Love,

A bright and cheery cot quilt, which it was quickly decided is to be given to a sick little bub in the Prince of Wales Children's Hospital,

And this cute little row house quilt which we'll add to our next bundle for for The Marcia's preschoolers.

Margaret has done a fabulous job with this soccer-themed quilt, which is also backed with a pattern of giant soccer balls. 

Gail loves a scrappy quilt (don't we all!) and brought along this cheery I Spy quilt. We're always being asked for a few extra boys' quilts, so these two super finishes are really appreciated.

Finally, Barb brought along a Blanket of Love as well as a kindy quilt.

For the kindy quilt Barb has used one of Linda Hungerford's original Stitchin' Mission beginners' quilt patterns, Loaves and Fishes. Those meandering quilting lines almost look like the flight paths of the butterflies, don't they?

We love our quilters to bring along their works-in-progress for "show and tell", even if it's not St Mark's Quilters related, and today Gail D had us open mouthed with admiration for the French themed quilt top she's making for a little girl who, at the age of eleven is already a Francophile! 

We each spent time picking out our favourite appliqué vignette. Can you guess mine? Of course it's the pink "ribbon" on the Eiffel Tower!

Unfortunately I was too distracted by the food and chatter to take photos of our busy hands at work, but rest assured there are some simply lovely quilts in the making, just like these finishes from today, to be revealed as they are completed in the next few months.

One year ends and another begins

Here we are in February, starting another year of stitching with St Mark's Quilters, when it seems no time since we were celebrating Christmas with our break-up lunch in the garden at St Mark's!

As usual there was plenty of colour and creativity with these finished cot sized quilts added to our collection for the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning Centre.

By Sophie and Susan

By Sophie and Susan

By Di J

By Barb

I'm pleased to say we once again have enough quilts to give every child who starts at The Marcia this year a quilt of their very own.

Over the years some of our quilters have moved out of Sydney, but one of the aspects of our group that warms my heart is how our "absentee quilters" continue to keep in touch with us, and even make quilts for our cause. One such quilter is Cath, who recently gave us these pretty Blankets of Love. 

 Liz had made this lovely cross-hatched creation.

And Gail finished another sweet Blanket of Love in her signature dusty pink, muted style.

Sue M was busy making a set of bright placemats for a family Christmas gift.

And Di B put her best foot forward to show off her latest sneakers - in rainbow colours!

Our quilters ask for nothing in return for their work, they make quilts simply to put their faith into action. But Di B and I like to give each one a small gift at Christmas to show how much we appreciate them, and this year we made magnetic pin bowls.

It's not difficult to find a tutorial on the internet, if you want to make one for yourself, and they are so useful because the pins cling to the bowl, even if the whole lot slides off the table! Oops!

 Our quilting dogs, Chester and Elsa, made sure they were rewarded with treats too. They always do!

 In January we were delighted to accept a $300 donation from Rotary Inner West towards our batting and fabric, in continued memory of our late friend Peter Crooks.

It was also time for us to deliver 54 gorgeous little Blankets of Love to Danielle Achikiam, Volunteer Co-Ordinator at RPA Hospital's Newborn Intensive Care Unit, but not before Di B snapped these beautiful shots on a sunny summer's day to show them off in a particularly Australian way.

Don't our Blankets of Love look glorious hanging from an iconic Hills Hoist, flapping in the breeze beside Sydney Harbour!

Danielle was delighted with them, and that makes us happy too! 

Let's get blogging again!

I'm truly sorry for the "radio silence" here over recent months. If you follow me on Instagram (@darlingdi) you'll know I'm still alive and quilting, taking photos, working and spending time with family, friends and my gorgeous labrador, Chester (@chesterthewonderlab). 

If not, I hope I can fill in the gaps for you soon, as I break into a rather breathless and ungainly run in an effort to catch up.

If there's one thing guaranteed to spur me into blogging, it's the opportunity to praise my friends, in this case all the wonderful quilters, past and present, who have been part of St Mark's Quilters. 

Last week marked a rather special anniversary for us. 

It was eight years since the Sunday when did something very unusual for me! I stood up in our church (eek!) and announced to a full congregation, consisting of exactly two quilters (myself and Di B), that we were about to hold a Stitchin' Mission, five weeks of beginner quilt making classes, to be taught by my friend Linda Hungerford. 

You can read the background here . 

Di B and I (Team Di) had each made sample quilts in the weeks leading up to that Sunday reveal, and had them on display, with a clip board on hand to sign up those keen to be part of our venture.

Something amazing happened!

Two dozen eager beginner quilt makers came forward to learn to make a quilt for the children enrolling at the brand new KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (these days known as "The Marcia"), many experienced quilters offered to be helpers in the classes, and several other friends made quilts to the specifications required, to add to the number.

Heatwave conditions on the last day of class did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of these generous-hearted ladies, seen here with the results of their work. 

Linda's infectious enthusiasm had made the 5 week course so much fun that quite a few wanted to continue, and so St Mark's Quilters was born.

Over the intervening years a few quilters have come and gone, but we've retained a core bunch of around 12 to 15 ladies who come from near and far to stitch and share friendships on the second Saturday of the month from Feb to November.

We've broadened our vision and now also make tiny Blankets of Love and humidicrib covers for Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's Newborn Intensive Care Unit.

If you have a little time, you might be interested in clicking on the Pages tabs to see some of the creations of our little group, an estimated 800+ quilts (not all photographed). Not bad for a group that grew from almost nothing!

Di B and I are thankful for Linda's initial boost and teaching, and proud to be part of this diverse but passionate group, whose ages from youngest to oldest range over 60 years.

Before I leave you (but not for long!) I'd like to show you my latest quilt finish for The Marcia. 

I can't claim to have pieced the quilt top, having found it as an "orphan" languishing in our SMQ stash, but it made me smile with the clever fabric choices someone made, and deserved to be finally finished.

I quilted it (in the ditch) and bound it, and here it is, proving that a quilt doesn't have to be complicated to become a potential treasure for a little child.

We don't usually give our community quilts a name, but I thought I'd make an exception this time and call it "Frogs Just Want to Have Fun". 

(Apologies for the Cyndi Lauper ear worm that will probably stay with you all day!)

We love our work

The cricket's on the radio, carols are playing in the supermarket, and there's barely a space left in my engagement calendar. Yes, Christmas is almost upon us, and with our Christmas break-up workshop and lunch this coming Saturday it's high time I caught up with sharing our St Mark's Quilters' October doings.

 There were some truly amazing kindy quilt finishes.

Di B brought along her cot-sized Paint Box quilt, beautifully quilted on her domestic machine.

Sue M was working on the placement of pieces for her gorgeously scrappy hexagon "I Spy" quilt.

Michaela was stitching down the binding on her latest kindy quilt.

Perdita was cutting sashings.

And Michelle, Liz, Margaret and Gail were just concentrating hard. You'll see some of their beautiful finished work if you click on the Blankets of Love and Kindy Quilts for "The Marcia" tabs above.

Our lovely Barb usually drives down all the way from the Central Coast to be with us, but sadly she couldn't make it. 

This time Susie W won the gold star for coming furthest - from Orange! We've missed Susie since she and her DH retired and drove off for a tree-change earlier this year, so it was wonderful to have her back, if only for a visit.

Di B and I continued our tag-team process as we started on the binding for the Autism Puzzle quilt we're making for the reception area of the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre at Liverpool.

Creating quilts always makes us happy. Sometimes it's laugh-out-loud happy, especially when we're working together. Sometimes not. 

Even making a Blanket of Love gives us deep joy, trusting and praying it will warm the heart of a grieving parent. Only rarely, though, does it become 'personal'.

A friend contacted us recently with a special request. Some friends of hers had just lost their much-wanted and loved baby girl, born far too early, and she wondered if we had a Blanket of Love she could give them.

We chose this pretty starry hexagon quilt made by Gillian, stitched on a personalised label to the back, with the bub's name, and sent it to her parents (via our friend) with much love from St Mark's Quilters. 

We've never met this family, but being able to make this little gesture felt so good. 

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