Wednesday, 13 October 2021

Lockdown Stitching No. 5

The big news is that this should be the last "lockdown" post!  Some of our restrictions have been eased and we have a face to face meeting scheduled for next week.  Woo Hoo!  It will be so good to see everyone again.

Since my last post, we have made a donation to Mahboba's Promise, an Australian non-profit organisation dedicated to helping disadvantaged women and children in Afghanistan.  The organisation has recently brought 10 orphans to Australia out of Afghanistan.  We donated 36 beanies, 8 scarves, 3 single quilts, 8 laps, 5 childrens and 5 soft toys.

Here are the quilts and other goodies which have been delivered to our collection point lately. They will be distributed shortly.

A shawl, scarf, beanies and some squishy toys:




And lots of quilts:



















That's it for now folks.  

Monday, 4 October 2021

Lockdown Stitching No.4

This is a slightly different post.  One of our lovely members has sent me a little story.  I am sure anyone who does craft will relate to this story!  Enjoy.

A quilt story from Stitching Hearts 

At times over the years there has been a need or a desire for some hand sewing, or appliqué, or needlepoint, or embroidery or ........ but most of these projects just end up in the UFO box

Let me tell you the story of one little quilt. This little quilt is one of those. It has rested in my UFO box for quite a few years but I knew it was now time for it to be rescued.

This little quilt began life many years ago when I saw the beautiful pattern at a friend's home. | recognised it as a project that would occupy my time, use up a few scraps and eventually find a loving home. A perfect project to take when travelling 

Some time was spent cutting out and preparing the appliqué and my project was under way, However, other more interesting projects were begun and the little quilt soon found its way into my overflowing UFO box. 

Sometime later my husband was scheduled for surgery. Yes - I had a project to help me pass the waiting hours and long hours beside his bed. Surgery over, my little quilt was soon returned to the depths of my UFO box. 

Friend's suggested I join them at a hand quilting group and that's when I knew my little quilt might finally see completion. It rested comfortably in my bag between meetings but finally it was done. However I had no idea how I would be able to quilt it so again my little quilt was put to bed in the UFO box. 

Again my Friends came to the rescue and together we pinned the quilt while at our Hand Quilting Group meeting. "Yes. I would hand quilt this little friend and get it complete.  I tried, I really tried - first with little stitches which were soon removed; then with larger stitches but it just didn't work, so I returned it to the box. Friend's, they do nag at times, but I decided to give it one last go. Out came the hand stitching and on with the quilting foot. I thought it would be easy to machine quilt it, but I was very disappointed so out came those stitches as well. 

Finally, one of those wonderful friends offered to quilt it - hooray! It was returned to me a few days later - wonderfully quilted and looking so good. I didn't waste much time getting the binding done and I am so very happy with it now. 

This story is not unique, but what is special is that those ladies are all members of Stitching Hearts and this is how many of our quilts reach completion. 

I feel so lucky belonging to such a group and I thank every one of our members for making it so special.