Sweet surprises

It's the second Saturday of the month, which means just one thing around here - St Mark's Quilters!

Every month a happy little bunch of quilters arrives, but sometimes the 'bunch' is smaller than we'd hoped for, always for very good reasons, and today was one of those days.

However Di B and I have learnt that a St Mark's Quilters workshop is never without its delights, no matter how disappointing it might initially seem, and today brought enough sweet surprises to make it a beauty! 

Our first surprise was that, being able to fit around a single large table, instead of scattered around the room, we could all enjoy sharing the one big conversation as we sewed. That conversation, of course, included how much we missed our absent friends traveling in far-flung destinations like France, New Guinea and New Zealand, others celebrating special occasions with family, and Michelle in hospital recovering from a major operation.

We love droppers-in, and today brought a brief surprise visit from Robyn, who used to sew with us. Then trainee pastry chef, and graduate of our 2009 Stitchin Mission, Michaela, popped in to stitch for an hour or so, bringing cake and her latest kindy quilt!

It was almost tag-team quilting as, soon after she left, Perdita arrived for the afternoon and brought this sweet little Blanket of Love.

With so much going on we were still a productive lot. Some, like Margaret, were more productive than others. She managed a spot of machine quilting...

... before moving on to an afternoon of knitting squares for a blanket.

Barb and Di C were binding like busy bees

Liz was preparing to pin her latest Blanket of Love.

And we all admired Di B's Milky Way quilt, another version of modern hexagons, using 1 inch hexies and laying them out a little differently. Just look at that quilted grid!

Susan and Sophie (the "S Team") pulled fabrics from our St Mark's Quilters stash for borders and backing on this cute outer space themed panel.

While Sophie wasted no time in cutting out the borders, Susan got to work on the machine stitching. I love watching quilty teamwork! 

Matching up coordinates from our stash of both purchased and donated fabrics isn't always as easy as this, and a piece of fabric can languish in the box for months waiting for the right person to see its potential.

That person is usually our clever Di C, and today she took some quite muted strips of country-themed prints, fashionable a few years ago, and after much rummaging found some lovely rich reds and golden yellows that will turn them into a bright, sunny kindy quilt to be treasured.

The sweet surprises just kept coming when we broke open a rather ordinary looking jelly roll and found a magnificent flower garden of fabrics. Sadly, no pics as I was busy admiring the fabrics, but hopefully by next time "The S Team" might be working on transforming them into a little girl's quilt.

Life, and our Lord, is full of unexpected beauty and blessings if we just learn to see them. Don't you agree? :-)