Smiles all round!

 For the fourth time in as many years the congregation at St Mark's, Darling Point, will find the church decked out in quilts this coming Sunday. I hope they bring their sunglasses!

Made by St Mark's Quilters, this batch of cheery quilt-love is bound for Springwood in the Blue Mountains where 193 houses were destroyed by catastrophic bush fires in October last year.

Since Linda Hungerford kick-started our quilting group with her exciting Stitchin' Mission in 2009 we've had an ongoing commitment to -

* Making a quilt for every boy or girl who enrols at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific Early Learning and Care Centre (aka The Marcia) at Liverpool

and

* Making Blankets of Love, mini quilts, for the grieving parents of bubs at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital at Camperdown who sadly don't survive childbirth, or who spend time in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit because of serious health problems following birth.

However, from time to time, when emergencies crop up, and organisations put out a call for quilts as part of providing comfort to folk suffering as a result of natural disasters, we also like to help.

We've sent quilts to the victims of the January 2011 floods in Brisbane, the February 2011 Christchurch New Zealand earthquake, and last January's bush fires in Dunalley Tasmania.

So when Tracey Greenaway, co-ordinator of the Springwood Salvation Army Quilters, let it be known that she had a dream to have 500 quilts by March 2014 to be able to give every child in this hard hit community a quilt of his or her own, we joined in - as did a huge number of my quilting friends across Australia.

I just thought I'd share with you three quilts I've made or finished off for Springwood. After Sunday's Hanging of the Quilts you'll see what everyone else has made. It'll be worth the wait.

I pulled out a couple of quilt tops that had been waiting for their moment in the sun, and with some simple machine quilting and bindings they were ready to shine. Don't tell Linda, but I think this "Stairway to Heaven" quilt was the quilt top she and her granddaughter Celina made when they visited one of our Saturday workshops a couple of years ago. It was good to see it finished at last!

Here's another orphan quilt top I finished off, a "Noah's Ark" design.

Someone donated this backing fabric several years ago and it's my very favourite. Turning over the corner of a quilt and seeing these sunny, smiling faces just has to be the happiest surprise!

You've seen this rail fence quilt before. I made it last year when I was trying to use up some of my scraps.  Ha! Silly me. Of course they just multiplied.

 Though it was destined, at the time, for The Marcia, we like to keep a few quilts in reserve and I've decided this one will go to Springwood instead.

This quilt is all about blocks of colour rather than the individual fabric prints. For a "free" quilt I was very happy with the result.

But it wasn't until I looked closely at each of these three quilts when I was taking photographs today that I realised each one has oodles of smiles! Some are more obvious than others, but just look...

I really hope and pray they will bring a smile to their recipients, whoever they may be.