February Already

Last week was our first meeting for February.  Not quite as many quilts came in this time, but it was only 2 weeks since our previous meeting, so a stirling effort! 

This week we had the pleasure of making friends with Beverly who has come to join us. 

As usual, we started with Show and Tell.

Jan made the next two quilts and quilted them as well.

 

 

This one was made by Jill and quilted by Evelyn.

Evelyn,

 

You may have noticed that sometimes I photograph quilts where the binding is not sewn down, as in the two above.  This is because several of the ladies really enjoy hand sewing the binding on quilts.  So several of us machine sew the binding and leave it to be finished by someone else.

This one was made by Cheryl and quilted by Robin.

I love the quilting that Robin did in the plain squares.  Here is a close up....

 

If you have read the last few posts I have done, you will have noticed that I have mentioned an awful lot of donated quilts.  We were lucky enough to get part of the stash from a deceased estate.  Robin went to collect it and sorted it - we had a portion, some went to the op shop which supports Crowle House, and the balance went to the Quilter's Guild for their charity group.  Our part of the stash consisted of a lot of completed and part completed tops, a lot of fabric, and a few notions.

The centre of this next quilt is a donation, the borders added by Jan, and she quilted it.

The next two are whole cloth quilts (one piece of fabric) which has been quilted by Robin.  Love the fabric in the first one.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  It is a lovely rich blend of colours, in a stunning pattern.

These cheerful sunflowers were made by Jill

 

Robin made the centre blocks for this, Evelyn added the borders to enlarge it and then Robin quilted it.

 

The blocks for this next quilt were donated to us by Linda Butcher.  The ladies of the Trinity Grammar Quilters each made a block, Robin made a couple of extras to make it up to size, then constructed and quilted it. 

 

This is one of the blocks made by Robin.

 

And this one is by Linda.

 

When Stitching Hearts first started, we used to meet in one of the rooms at the Purple Patch quilt shop in Cabarita.  Linda worked at the Purple Patch, and she and the owner were always very supportive of our group.  Sadly, the shop is now no longer, but the connection to Linda continues.  Thank you Linda!

Last time I did a blog post, I mentioned the quilts we had donated.  One bit of feedback was "nice to know the statistics, but where did the quilts go"?  So here is where our donations went in 2015:

14 Raffle Quilts:

St Patrick's Church, Mortlake; Newington Preschool; Concord Hospital, Cancer Research; Cara House; Cabarita Senior Citizen's Centre; Barnardos, Wyong; Catholic Care; Concord Hospital, Irritable Bowel Research; Concord Hospital.

Donation Quilts:

Anglicare, 16 laps;
Concord Hospital, Palliative Care Unit, 21 laps;
Westmead Children's Hospital (Oncology), 47 baby wraps;
Catholic Care, Rose Gallagher cottage, 6 doubles;
Ronald McDonald House, 41 children's;
Barnardos, Wyong, 17 children's;
Domestic Violence, 10 children's, 21 singles;
St Mary's Villa Nursing Home, 10 laps;
Estia Health, Aged Care, 6 laps;
Kathleen Yorke House, 7 singles, 5 children's.

That's it for this time.

First Meeting for 2016

Our first meeting for 2016 was last week.  Since we hadn't been to the centre since the end of November, a heap of tops and finished quilts came in. 

 

The way we work is that quilts come in either as a quilt top or a completed quilt, and they are either made by our members or are donations.  Those that come in as a top are matched with wadding and backings, and pinned at our meetings.  Then people just grab a quilt that needs quilting and take it home to do.

 

First up is a quilt top made by Jan and quilted by Cheryl.

 

This one came in partly made as a donation.  It is hand pieced.  Jan completed it, added borders and Cheryl quilted it.

 

Cheryl made this one. 

 

 

 These next two were donations.  Cheryl added borders and quilted them.

 

Cheryl made this pretty little girl's quilt.

 

And this crazy log cabin....

 

And this one too.....  Did the girl sleep??

 

I don't think Evelyn had time to sleep either.  Evelyn has bought herself a Sweet 16 quilting machine, and I think she has been practising on these. 

 

She made this cute Paddington Bear panel up into a cute child's cot quilt.

 

And the alphabet cot quilt.....

 

And the Disappearing 9 patch.....

 

And this one too.....

'

 

And this one too (sorry, it's on its side.  When I turned to it looked daft, so you'll need to look at it sideways)

 

This is a whole cloth quilt, and the photo doesn't do it justice.  Beautiful piece of fabric.

 

This last one was a donation.  It is actually one piece of fabric, but the quilter has outlined each circle with quilting to make it look as if the black pieces were appliqued on.   It is so effective.

And here are a couple of photos of all the quilts laid out on the floor of the hall where we meet.

Awesome effort ladies! Well done.

Before I finish up, I thought I would give you a breakdown of the quilts we donated in 2015.

Quilts for raffles                                        14
Lap quilts                                                  53
Single bed quilts                                       28
Children's (crib, cot & singles)                120
Double bed quilts                                        6
                                                               ------
Total quilts donated 2015                        221

You know you beaver away on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis but it is only when you see the figures laid out like this that you realise what a terrific effort our members put in.  That is 221 people who have benefitted from our little group in the last year.