St Mary's Villa 2005 & 2006

Over the two year period 2005 & 2006 the group made a total of 56 quilts for St Mary's Villa, Concord, one for each of the residents who were living there at the time.

We handed the quilts over in two lots, one lot on the 2nd June 2005, the other in August 2006.  St Mary's Villa was so delighted with our quilts that we were invited as a group for a tour of the facility and then treated to an afternoon tea.

Here is a sample of some of the quilts we made:

Colleen loved making the one below.  It was made up of squares of grey & black suiting fabric samples which were donated to us used in the background, on which were randomly placed pieces of colourful fleece.  These were stitched on with naive stitches. 

The one below was a Postage Stamp challenge planned by Dasha.  She gave everyone an envelope containing 49 x 2 inch squares to sew together into a block 7 squares x 7 squares.  I don't think anyone spoke to her for months afterwards!  But it does look terrific, don't you think?

A gorgeous 100 Pyramid quilt in soft florals.  Everyone helped to piece this one, and Jill was emphatic that she was doing "no more triangles"!  We haven't been able to budge her since. LOL

Strippy blocks with blue sashing.  This is a deceptively easy block to do, and what a great way to bust the stash.

Flying Geese & Four Patches.  So simple, so gorgeous.  So often the simple quilts are so effective.

Here are Colleen, Lyn, Darleen & Rema with the representative from St Mary's Villa hiding behind Colleen, admiring the quilts we were handing over, August 2006.

And here is everyone at the hand over August 2006. L-R Jill, Cheryl, St Mary's Rep, Colleen, Dasha, Darleen, Lyn & Rema.  Seated in front are Sister Elizabeth & resident.

Jill & Rema loading up the car with quilts to be delivered.  Stacked up, the quilts makes an impressive pile!

And some happy customers.  Faces blanked out for privacy reasons.  The quilts looked so bright and cheerful in the rooms.

On Tuesday, 29 August 2006, the Inner West Courier printed an article in their "News" section on page 11. 

Inner West Courier 29 Aug 2006, p. 11

It reads: 

"Patch of colour at home

The elderly residents of St Mary's Villa in Concord recently received 20 hand made quilts from the Stitching Hearts charity group, which also made quilts for the the aged-care home last winter.

Stitching Hearts member Darleen Fawl said each quilt took close to two weeks for the eight members to make.

Materials were donated by students of the Purple Patch fabric shop.

Spokeswoman for St Mary's Villa, Elizabeth Landon, said the quilts had added a bit of colour to the resident's rooms"