Lucas Gardens School September 2010

During 2010, we decided to make quilts for all the children who attended the Lucas Gardens School in Five Dock.  The  NSW Public School Locator website describes the school as follows:

"Lucas Gardens School provides educational programs for students with intellectual and physical disabilities, some of whom also have sensory impairments and complex medical conditions. The school operates 6 classes on the Canada Bay site, and retains 2 places for part time enrolment for students in respite care at the Summer Hill Respite Centre. The school draws its enrolment from the Inner West area of Sydney, resulting in a diverse student population from a range of backgrounds."

The school website can be found here

We approached the staff at Lucas Gardens with our proposal, and they supplied us with a list of the children who were attending at the time, and a suggestion of the likes of each of the individual children.  The personal likes and choices the children made were quite diverse, and we had a ball making the quilts.

Here is a selection of the quilts we made:

Cars

Footballs

A Rabbitoes supporter



Dainty butterflys and flowers in mauve and pink



African animals in lush greens

Bright butterflies

And more cars

The handover was in September, and the school invited us all to the Annual School Presentation Day and morning tea.  

Shirley, Colleen & Rema at the Presentation Day

Some very talented staff and parents put together a wonderful collage of photographs of all the kids with their quilts, which was put on display at the morning tea:

Colleen, Rema Jill & Shirley with the collage.

The Lucas Gardens School Newsletter dated 24 September 2010, which is distributed to parents & supporters from the community, featured an article about the quilts we had delivered to them:

"Beautiful Quilts from the Stitching Hearts

In another generous act from our wonderful community, 31 beautifully sewn handmade quilts were delivered to the students of Lucas Gardens School this week, by the very talented ladies of the “Stitching Hearts” group of Nth Strathfield.

Darleen and her group of talented ladies, delivered the beautiful quilts to every student in the school on Tuesday, and whilst we were planning to use these quilts at school, they were so amazing that we decided to send them home to be used and admired in the children’s homes every day!

Each quilt was custom made to suit the interests and preferences of every child, reflecting their likes and personalities, resulting in a rainbow coloured display of creativity and skill.

The City of Canada Bay subsidised the cost of materials for these quilts.  Thankyou to the Stitching Hearts and Canada Bay Council!"

Besides this article, there were several photos of the children with their quilts in this Newsletter, and also other snippets about the quilts were in the news from each classroom.