Homes for Heroes

A few months ago Stitching Hearts were asked to help Aussie Hero Quilts to make up a set of quilts for the Homes for Heroes project.  It seems that many veterans who have served our country find themselves homeless for a variety of reasons.  To cope with this, the RSL LifeCare founded the Contemporary Veterans Homelessness and Assistance Program (Homes for Heroes) at Narrabeen in NSW.

Aussie Hero Quilts runs a Block of the Month program.  Any member of the AHQ community can make one or many of these blocks as and when they wish.  If this sort of thing interests you, the tutorials for the blocks can be found here.  The blocks are then constructed into quilts for the service men and women on deployment overseas.

Stitching Hearts were provided with a number of "kits" made up of these blocks of the month, and we made up a total of 20 quilts for the Homes for Heroes project.  Evelyn did a monumental job of co-ordinating this.  Great work Evelyn!

Here they all are.....

 

I think the ladies who participated in this special project need a pat on the back as well for a great effort. 

First Meeting for a While

Last Thursday we gathered for the first meeting in ages.  Our last scheduled meeting was cancelled as 4 of us were away on a retreat, and at least one other was away overseas.

[edited to add a couple of photos here]
Robin and Evelyn did a presentation for the Rotary Club of Drummoyne a couple of weeks ago.

The club has been a loyal supporter of our group for many years, and this time we were presented with a cheque for $500.  Thank you Rotary!

After the meeting, Robin and Evelyn were approached by a member of the Inner Wheel, and asked to do a presentation there.  More on that when it happens.

Each year we donate a quilt to be raffled at a fund raising dinner held by the members of the St Patrick's Catholic Church, Mortlake.  Here is the lucky winner from this year's dinner

We meet in the hall at the Concord Senior Citizens Club, and over the years we have given them a number of quilts for raffles and fund raisers.  The tables were turned recently when the Club's Committee presented us with a cheque for $200.  A big Thank You to the Senior Citizens Club.

We discussed a few options where we might donate quilts in the future, and Cheryl suggested we investigate Domestic Violence Units.  She will follow that up and report back.  Another option is Barnados.

So.  What have we created in the past month?  Almost everything I am showing will be going to Ronald MacDonald House.

Jan was not able to come this time, so se sent her contribution with me.  This one is a top made from some orphan blocks from the cupboard.

 

Love the fabric selection on this one - it gives the quilt a real 3D effect.

 

Can you see the quilted elephants?  There are dozens of them - big and small.

 

Evelyn brought in heaps as usual.

 

She made this next top at the Retreat in Katoomba from a panel.

 

This quilt was also a Retreat job.

 

This quilt was made from a pile of blocks that we made some time ago at a sewing day at the centre.  Looks good finished.

The story behind the next two tops is that Evelyn was after some specific fabric to complete a quilt.  The only way she could get it was by buying a bazillion precut circles.  So of course she now had to find something to do with the left over circles!

 

I showed you a terrible photo of this unfinished quilt in the last post.  Here it is all quilted and ready for its' new owner. 

 

Robin brought in two donations from her friends. This quilt top was made by her friend Jane Picksley.  Jane has donated quilts to us before.  Thank you Jane!  Robyn quilted it.  It needs binding, and then it will be complete.

 

And the blocks for this quilt were made by the ladies of the Trinity Grammar Friendship Group.  Robyn put them together and quilted it.

 

 

Cheryl made these....

 

And a few baby wraps...

 

 

And lastly, Dasha (that's me) made this..

 

 

Not a bad collection for one meeting eh?  Next post I will show you the quilts we have made over the past few months for Aussie Hero Quilts.  They deserve a whole post of their own.