Second Meeting for July

Last week we all met for our second meeting in July.

Jill told us that we had delivered 7 lap quilts for the mums and 7 quilts for their kids to Kathleen York House.

We have also had a mention in the Concord Senior Citizen's Club's President's Report advising that Melica Milic from Westmead Children's Hospital had accepted our donation of baby wraps and quilts at their morning tea on June 26th.

Here are the quilts which came in this week. 

The first two were donated by Yvonne, a friend of Robin's from QuiltNSW.

 

Thank you Yvonne!

 

Next is a quilt made by a friend of Dasha's, Gillian from Friday Quilters.  It was quilted by Cheryl.

Cheryl quilted some great feathers in each block.

 

Cheryl also quilted this one made by Dasha.

 

 

And Evelyn made the last two.



 

Each time I post I show photos of the finished quilts, but that really doesn't give the full picture; there is just so much that goes on each meeting that never makes an appearance because it is "background" stuff.  So starting with this post, I thought I would put together some stories of the quiet ones who work away in the corners and are never seen by the public.  Without them, we wouldn't exist!

 

Today I want to start by talking about the donations.  We get a large number of those, mostly fabrics, but sometimes part finished tops or blocks (we call them UFO's or Un-Finished Objects), and occasionally a completed top or quilt.  This is part of what came in this week (I wasn't quick enough with the camera, and some had already been taken for sorting). 

 

This week's donations came from Lesley and Yvonne, and piles of that were novelties featuring animals especially dogs.  Amongst this generous haul were several completed quilt tops made by Yvonne (remember the first two quilts I showed you earlier in this post?)

 

Each week Ann sorts the donations, measures and folds the fabrics and then finally stores them into colour piles in the cupboard.  The smaller pieces go into tubs stored under the stage, and the UFO's in a separate tub.  Ann patiently toils away keeping our stash in some sort of order.  This cupboard is where the larger pieces for backings etc., are stored.

You should have seen that cupboard before Ann decided to take that job on!!  Awesome job Ann. 

Group members often grab some fabric from the stash to go with the quilt they are making, or for borders.  Quite often you'll find one of us rummaging around for some inspiration too. 

This is Coleen.  She does loads of the ironing, and is always available for the other back of the scenes jobs.  She almost always manages to source the donations for us too, and brings in huge quantities from her contacts.

 

The last couple of weeks she has been in the back corner, quietly putting together a quilt top.  Remember I told you a few posts ago about the kits Evelyn has been cutting up for us from the scraps? 

 

Jackie has been working with Coleen, and is also putting together a top.  Here she is laying out the rows; she's nearly finished hers - hers is the green, and Coleen's the purple on the right.

 

Jackie is usually in that back corner piecing backings, and many of the quilts you see featured in the posts have backings made by Jackie.  She makes life heaps easier for the others doing that.

More on the back of the scenes jobs next time.

6th July

More than half way through the year.  Where has it gone?

During the business end of the meeting, Jill filled us in on the happenings during the past couple of weeks:

• We donated 37 baby wraps to Westmead Children's Hospital,
• 13 quilts were given to Concord Hospital's Palliative Care ward, and
• 5 single quilts and 6 children's quilts were given to the Burwood Women & Girls Emergency Centre.

Here's our Show & Tell for this week.

Evelyn made a Kaleidoscope quilt.  Brilliant!

 

Here is a detail of two of the blocks.

 

Lesley

Remember I told you of Evelyn's "kits" in the last post?  This is Jan's effort.

 

Jan also made this hand pieced hexagon quilt.

 

And she quilted one of the tops made by Dasha

She echoed the flower applique on the alternate blocks.  Great job Jan.

Robin made this bright and cheerful quilt.

And the next three are all by Bev.

And just in case you thought we hadn't done enough, these are the flimsies which came in this week.....

 

Great effort everyone.

Second June Meeting

The last few meetings we have been stash busting; using lots of the fabric in the bins at Cabarita.  Evelyn has worked like a slave and prepared a whole heap of "kits" for us to sew.  Some of these are now starting to appear here in the photos, and you will see lots more in the coming weeks as they tops are completed and quilted.  In fact if you have read the last few posts you will see that I have included a few of these quilts in those too.

 

Here are 3 that came in this week.  First two made by Evelyn, and I am pretty sure I saw Robin sewing the third one at the Retreat we went to in May.

 

 

Next one is by Evelyn, also made on Retreat.

Next up are two by Dasha, both quilted by Cheryl.

 

Lesley made the next one, quilted by Bev.

 

And some adorable applique by Bev.

 

We make flannel baby wraps for Westmead Children's Hospital.  Most of them are made by Cheryl and Jill.  This week they came up with no less than 14 between them!

April 6th

Here are some photos of our meeting way back in the beginning of April.  As usual the group has come up with a great bunch of quilts.

 

First up are three quilts made by Dasha.  Not sure who quilted them.

 

 

Road to Oklahoma Blocks in Rainbow colours.

Made by Jill and quilted by Maria

 

 

Made by Evelyn and quilted by Maria

 

Maria

 

Maria quilted this one

 

And two by Robin.  Love the black and grey shading on this.

 

Not sure about the next one, but I think it was quilted by Robin.

You might think we only had a few members from the photos I post, but in fact there are several who work hard each week in the background, and without whom we would never be able to manage.  They are the fabric sorters, backing piecers, wadding cutters, pin basters and those who like to sit and sew the labels on.  Go girls, you are invaluable!