And God said, “Let there be light”

And there was!

Outside, at least. The Lord kept his side of the bargain (he always does).

It was a different story inside the church hall though, where technology rather let us down for our monthly St Mark’s Quilters workshop today.

With the overhead lights out of action, but the power points (thankfully!) working we found plenty of other ways to shed light on the situation.

Sarah H did her best to sparkle for us in her glittery pullover.

Kirstin popped in to show us her knitted patchwork squares in sunshiny lemon, spring green and sky blue. These are going to make a simply beautiful baby wrap.

Of course Margaret and Moo always brighten up the room!

And our sewing machine lamps helped to light the way for machining.

One or two of our hand-stitchers might have nipped out into the garden occasionally to thread a needle, but for the most part we managed very well. Nevertheless there were smiles all round when the sun had travelled to its afternoon position, its rays beaming down through the skylight.

Helen

We were an industrious bunch. Oh, I wish you could hear the laughter and chatter that was going on!

Bindings were stitched.

Susan and Sophie

Michaela

Labels were made …

Me

…and sewn onto our Blankets of Love.

Cath

Quilts were pinned.

Perdita’s quilt

New quilts were begun ….

Di C’s quilt

Sue M’s Tumbling Block

… and others finished.

Michaela

 

With visits from our “honorary quilters” (L to R) Matilda, Chester and Evie , it turned out to be a doggone great day!!!!

In the same way let your light shine in front of people. Then they will see the good that you do and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

Di

The icing on the cake!

The Marcia* recently turned 2, and the generous kindy staff invited the ladies of St Mark’s Quilters to share their birthday party.

The relentless, driving rain that Saturday afternoon was … well… not the best for driving all the way to Liverpool on Sydney’s outskirts, but as always Di B, Cath and I received a warm welcome from Karen (centre below), the Director of The Marcia.

What’s a birthday party without cupcakes, and a magician with an adorable bunny for everyone to pat?

Then the best part … presents!

For almost 3 years our little group has been making quilts-to-keep for each little one at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre, but this was the first opportunity we’ve had to personally hand over some of our quilts to their new little owners, and this was the icing on the cake!

These little ones fit into the autism spectrum, so no arms were thrown around our necks in gratitude and there were no excited shouts of glee. Instead our gift quilts were received with expressions of quiet wonderment by some, gentle stroking of fabric by others, holding of the warm softness up to serious little faces,and enfolding themselves in the comforting snuggliness of the quilted textures.

Some even took one look at their quilt and moved right along!

Nevertheless it was absolutely clear to us that the children and their parents could feel all the love stitched into their quilts by so many makers.

Among the quilts we gave out were creations by Celina, Moo, Margaret,  Ruth, Becky, Eleanor, Geraldine and myself. I did try to check the labels as we went along but, as you can appreciate, we had to move quickly with these squirmy worms!

But the gifts weren’t only for the young party guests. We were quite overcome when the CEO of KU Children’s Services, Chris Legg, presented us with a special surprise.

This beautiful hardcover book contains photos of those original quilting newbies who came along to Linda Hungerford’s only Australian Stitchin’Mission, the beginning of St Mark’s Quilters.

It was carefully assembled by Margaret Gibson, the first Director of The Marcia, herself one of our Stitchin’ Mission beginner quilt-makers.

Yes, there were happy tears when we slid off the ribbon and opened the box!

 

This is such a precious memento, and we can’t wait to share it with the rest of our group this Saturday. Thank you, KU, for allowing us to partner with you as you nurture, teach and care for these darling children.

Di

*The KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning & Care Centre

Making plans

Let’s be honest, what passionate quilter isn’t planning her next project even as she’s beavering away on her current one? {Yep. I see you nodding}

When my English Quilt buddies gathered recently several were absolutely bursting with future plans.

Robbie’s about to immerse herself in a glorious heap of applique with these “Aunt Millie’s Garden” blocks by those Piece o’ Cake girls, Becky Goldsmith and Linda Jenkins.

She’s even started putting together her delicious collection of fabrics, and isn’t that one of the BEST parts of planning a new quilt?

She says she’s going to make this cute Paper Dolls Play Book for her granddaughter, but I wonder if it’s really for herself! {Or is that just me???}

I used to love playing with paper dolls as a little girl, dressing and undressing them, and the pocket inside the cover of this book holds a generous enough wardrobe to amuse any little girl (or ‘old girl’!) for hours.

A little further down the track Robbie has dreams of making this stunner as well, and she probably will. And she’ll do all the quilting by hand, mark my words.

 

Jill’s plans involve using these fun nursery fabrics in quilts and cosy wraps for her expected grandbaby. As you can see, she’s going to be well prepared whether this bub is a boy or a girl.

Back from her safari in Botswana, Anne wasted no time picking up her Lynne Alchin-designed quilt again. Love that fussy-cut centre!

Also ‘out of Africa’ was Wendi who’s been away from us for far too long. Ask her what she’s working on and she’ll extoll the virtues of English paper-pieced scrappy stars as a wonderfully soothing pastime and a perfect project to pick up whenever there’s a spare moment. She says she has enough stars finished to make at least three large quilts!

But why stop now?

It might not look exactly like the real thing (photographed on safari by Anne) but don’t you think Lyn’s Sue Spargo woollen giraffe is going to look wonderful on her Folklore quilt?

Because it’s always nice to have a “slow burner” on the go (as my friend Erica has dubbed them) Robbie’s quietly working away piecing tiny scraps of fabric into the jazzy quilt seen here in her photo. When does that girl sleep?

Finally, what was I doing, you ask? Apart from admiring everyone else’s creative efforts and taking the photos, I spent a little time putting the finishing touches to this young fella for the St Luke’s craft stall.

Awww, I know he looks a little sad but trust me, from another angle he’s actually smiling, and I’m sure he’s very happy with his new owner and getting plenty of cuddles in bed on these chilly winter nights.

Di

Retail Therapy

We have just a few items left from our hugely successful craft stall for St Luke’s Care last week and, rather than find space to store them till next year’s fundraiser, we decided to offer them to you!

We felt the easiest and fairest way to do this was to list them on eBay as fixed price – “Buy it Now” – items, and you can find them  here.

We’re in Sydney (Australia) but we’ll be very happy to post to most overseas destinations, and the good news is that shipping won’t cost too much because our goodies are all quite lightweight.

So, do you fancy a little retail therapy ?

Speaking of shopping, as part of our ‘recovery program’ after the fundraiser, Di B and I tootled out to Patchwork Products last week.

With the end-of-financial-year sale in full swing it was a great chance to stock up on new fabrics for St Mark’s Quilters to make into Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care, and kindy quilts for the tots at The Marcia.

A few of these came home with me too, for a Top Secret Project!

Now you know why we need the storage space

Di

Thank you!

Brrrrrr!! Big Ted and I nearly froze our little socks off as we set out very early on Monday morning for the Card Day organised by the Rose Bay Committee for St Luke’s Care.

After sewing, knitting, and stuffing* toys for weeks (and weeks!) Di B and I had stuffed* her car to the limit with our treasures, tables, hangers and all the paraphernalia  for our stall, and we were just a little excited once we had it all laid out. So excited, in fact, that we completely forgot to ask someone to take a photo of the two of us on the day!

We had lots of help…

Others on the Committee had made those cute little monster softies, and cooked delicious meringues, cheese biscuits, marmalades and chutneys, and Di B’s mum, Margaret, had made jars and jars of her lemon butter and green tomato pickles (and she grew the lemons and tomatoes herself!).

Two of our St Mark’s Quilters (also Committee members) helped too - Di C donated four beautifully made baby quilts, and Moo made four of her baby playmats in bright fun fabrics, as she does every year.

Thank you everyone!

Even the job of keeping our money safe through the day was made easier with the multi-pocketed sewing aprons Linda gave us a couple of years ago.

Finally, you – yes YOU, my wonderful bloggy friends – are to be thanked for all your encouraging comments, support, prayers and general warm fuzzies. Mwah!!! XXXX

The craft stall was a HUGE success this year, and raised MUCH more for St Luke’s than it ever has before. Indeed, the entire fundraising event yielded a great result and will enable the hospital to buy more hand-held scanners to use with their state-of-the-art computerised sterilising system.

* * * * *

And another Thank You, this time to all of you who were kind enough to vote for my quilt “Alhambra Romance” in the “Favourite Applique Quilt” section of the latest Bloggers’ Quilt Festival run by Amy of Amy’s Creative Side. My quilt didn’t win, but it was a thrill just to have made it into the finalists.

Amy will be featuring interviews on her blog with some of the entrants, and if you keep watching one day you might see a mention of someone you know

Di

* Just quietly, we were rather stuffed by the end of the day too!