To Tasmania with love

The St Mark’s Quilters came together for our June workshop today under leaden skies and chilly air, thinking of our friends in even colder Dunalley (Tasmania). This town (population little more than 300) lost its school, police station and bakery, as well as  dozens of homes, in a devastating bushfire on 4th January this year.

Two weeks ago, with the assistance of Toll who gave their services for nothing, Di B and I were able to send them a box of 16 bright and cosy quilts made by our group. Here’s how our local newspaper reported our group’s gift.

 

Inside our church hall today we kept warm doing what we love best, monkeying around with fabric and making quilts.

Quilting team Susan and Sophie have been very busy since we last met, and arrived with three sweet little Blankets of Love for RPA Hospital’s Newborn Intensive Care Unit.

 

 

Margaret must have visions of hexagons dancing in front of her eyes after this lot! A pink and a blue Blanket of Love.

Inspired by Di B’s demonstration of the simple Shoo Fly block last month Margaret made all these from primary coloured fabrics in her scrap bins. How effective is that! This quilt, and those that follow, is going to an autistic preschooler at the KU Marcia Burgess Autism Specific and Early Learning Centre (otherwise known as “The Marcia” – for obvious reasons!).

Here’s another scrap quilt (below) from Margaret, using the quilt-as-you-go technique.

Barb’s enjoying having more time to make quilts in her retirement. She arrived with these beauties.

 

 

 

 There’s just too much for one blog post, so please pop on over to the next one.

Di

2012 Report Card on Di

Quilting

Three words describe Di’s quilt-making efforts this year: Can do better.

In the entire year she has finished just six quilts.

These were the Whirligig quilt, Daisy a Day, Ben and Sunny’s Wedding Quilt, two Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care and one child-sized quilt for the Marcia Burgess Kindy for autistic little ones. The seventh “quilt” here is really just a cushion top, her entry in the Dots on Dots blog hop in September, and as such doesn’t really count – it’s just there to complete the collage.

Perhaps if she were to spend less time reading blogs, pinning to Pinterest and playing Words with Friends she might be able to turn more of those quilts floating round in her imagination into reality. Somehow, though, I don’t think that’s going to happen since Di loves keeping in touch with her cyber-friends all over the world and gathering quilt-making inspiration from the blogs she follows.

She could also benefit from not setting such unrealistic goals for herself. Just a thought.

Smaller Items

Di has scored better in this area, with around 40 finishes.

The friends who helped Ben and Sunny’s wedding day in August go smoothly were very happy with their “thank you” gifts of cathedral windows pincushions.

In June Di’s efforts were boosted by an extremely productive collaboration with Di B. She made sock monkeys and owls, crocheted teddy bears, travel trays, luggage labels, applique baby singlets, tea towels, golfers’ hand towels, baby shoes and a growth chart. Together Team Di, along with others on the Rose Bay Committee, were able to raise $3,500 from craft table sales for St Luke’s Hospital.

In a strong finish to the year Team Di (and a friend) knitted seven fat googly-eyed sheep for their neighbouring church, St John’s Darlinghurst, to use in their Messy Christmas Nativity Trail.

The observation must be made that without Di B urging and encouraging her Di would not be nearly so generous and outward-focused and could easily spend far too much time navel-gazing.

Final Comments

The last four months have not been easy for Di J, and she has lost the plot somewhat, as far as her handwork is concerned.

However she has received so much love and support from her family, friends and fellow bloggers that we are hoping to see her finding renewed joy in her all her creative endeavours over the coming year.

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May God bless you all in 2013!

Just slap me (gently) across the face with a fat quarter*

…if I ever again start whining about not being much of a finisher.

Admittedly my big quilt finishes are so rare it’s been rumored there are small principalities where a national holiday’s declared when Di comes to the end of stitching a binding down. But when I trawled back through this year’s photos I couldn’t suppress a tiny “Hooray” of my own.

Hey, small projects count as finishes too – don’t they?

I’ve made sock monkeys (“Stella” for Toni’s Auction for Queensland Flood Relief, and “Blossom” for the St Luke’s Hospital fundraiser).  Along with my friends Di B and Gail I made origami bags for the Gumtree Designers’ New Beginnings appeal after the QLD floods.

In addition, for the St Luke’s Hospital (Potts Point) fundraising event mid-year I crocheted and knitted baby bootees and beanies, sewed pincushions and pink origami bags embroidered with grub roses, and created a ‘parliament’ of cute little sock owls.

I sent off two cosy knitted cowls to Sarah, shivering with the approach of winter in the USA – they arrived there just a day before she left for tropical Botswana (but that’s another story!). My dear friends Moo and Margaret scored mug mats for their birthdays this year, and there were baby singlets appliqueed with an elephant, a teddy bear and a ladybug for our new grandson, Jack.

And there were just enough quilt finishes to keep those principalities happy . I had great fun making the red, white and navy hippo quilt for Jack, and tried my hand at a quilt-as-you-go scrappy quilt that went, along with others from St Mark’s Quilters, to help victims of the Christchurch (NZ) earthquake.

I managed to complete several Blankets of Love for RPA Newborn Care, and put the finishing touches on my Scrappy Hexagons quilt which hung in the Victorian Quilters’ Fabric of Society Challenge at the Melbourne Craft and Quilt Fair in July.

Then there were the projects Di B and I worked on together, though when I think back to our stitching days throughout the year I’m amazed we were so productive with all the fun and laughter going on.

We delved deep into our scrap bins for the most colourful and girly fabrics we could find and made a large hourglass-patterned bed quilt for our friend Alicia’s 60th birthday. This was extra-sneaky of us since we’d only just completed a bowtie quilt Alicia had asked us to make for her to give her friend Ian, and she certainly wasn’t expecting to be presented with a quilt of her own at her birthday party in January.

Our St Mark’s Quilters made individual blocks with appliqueed teddy bears which Di and I sewed together into a quilt for the arrival of our Assistant Minister’s new baby boy in the middle of the year.

We quilted and bound a large cheater cloth in time to cover the table in the entrance to St Mark’s for the Advent and Christmas season, and Di helped me sew and machine quilt all the “healing hearts” blocks sent to my mother by Southern Cross Quilters when my father passed away last year. This was a real labour of love.

Finally, there were the cupcake potholders we made as Christmas gifts for our lovely St Mark’s Quilters. Let’s just say the question “Whose bright idea was this, anyway?” might have been uttered a few times, as we tried to wrangle several thicknesses of fabric and batting beneath our sewing machine feet and machine needles constantly broke under the pressure of stitching through Insulbrite. We expended quite a bit of blood, sweat and … laughter on that project .

* Non-quilters, be assured this isn’t some kind of masochistic plea. A fat quarter is just a small piece of fabric (18” x 22”) whose uses include small projects, piecing … and silly hyperbole such as this. 

I have a little more to add to this story about baby Morgan:

One of our St Mark’s Quilters, Ruth, has moved out of town but still makes Blankets of Love for us and keeps up with our doings via this blog. 

I was so excited when, after reading about Morgan, she emailed me this - “You’re not going to believe this! The couple featured were in the cabin next to us on that cruise.” Ruth and her DH shared the same dinner table with Paul and Leanne a couple of times, but Ruth had no idea of the drama that eventually unfolded and was very happy to hear the positive outcome.

What a small world it is – and what an uplifting ending to 2011!

Happy New Year, everyone. God bless you and thank you for reading my ramblings.

Di

Stella has her bags packed and is ready to go!

This morning she’s just hanging around, making the most of Sydney’s sunshine.

She’s so excited to see how much people are willing to donate to the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal to own her!

 

Toni from Make it Perfect has recommended a change in the finish time for our Queensland Flood Appeal auctions, so instead of ending at midnight (Australian Eastern Standard Daylight Time) Monday 24th January we’ll finish at 9.00pm (AESDT).

So we can all be in bed at a sensible hour (ahem… some of us, anyway!)

So if you’d like to have Stella come and live with you, please go here to see the guidelines for this auction, and leave a comment to place a bid. 

She can’t wait to go to her new home. Will it be yours?

[This link will take you to the Master List of auctions where you can see all the fabulous items crafty bloggers are offering for this great cause.]

It’s only a little thing…

But then, every little bit counts :-))

Not having any new quilts or other large crafty items at hand to auction, but feeling compelled to get on board the Make It Perfect QLD Flood Appeal Auctions, I’ve spent the last couple of days creating this little lady.

Meet Stella the sock monkey.

She hasn’t been around for long but already it’s plain to see she has star quality!


  
Stella is made from a pair of brand new socks (acrylic, nylon and elastane) and stuffed with new polyester toy stuffing.


In case she ends up travelling to somewhere where it’s a little chilly at the moment I’ve made her a little felt jacket (with a felt star on the front, so she won’t forget her name).



Her eyes are made of felt so there are no buttons to be a danger to a baby, and Stella loves an occasional beauty bath (obviously without her jacket!).



Stella’s vital statistics?  From the top of her head to the tip of her starry-covered tail she measures 15 inches, and from the top of her head to her twinkle-toes she measures 11 inches.

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Here’s how this auction works: 

1.  Bidding will start at $10 (Australian).
2.  You can place a bid by leaving a comment on this blog post with your bid amount and email address.  Please make sure that your bid is higher than the previous bidder.  
3.  Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
4.  This auction is open to everyone, however International winners will be asked to pay half the cost of postage to their part of the world (I'll pay the other half).  Postage is FREE for Australian residents.
5.  The auction begins NOW and will END at 9.00pm (Australian Eastern Summer Time) on Monday 24th January 2011.
6.  At the close of the auction, I will contact the winner (please make sure your bid comment or your blog profile includes your email address).  The winner will pay the winning amount directly into the Premier's Flood Relief Appeal and send me proof of payment via email (they will email your receipt to you).  Once proof of payment has been received, I will post Stella to you.
7.  Thank you for participating - and happy bidding!

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The fabulous Giveaway I won …. or did I?

I’ve been very excitedly awaiting this parcel from Kellie at Don’t Look Now, and when it arrived last week the contents – her “Sugar Candy” cushion and cheeky monkey Amy – didn’t disappoint. Kellie’s workmanship is meticulous, and her machine quilting technique is to-die-for.  If you have the opportunity to take one of her classes you should grab it with both hands. I managed to stop drooling over this exquisite work long enough to take these photos for you to see Kellie’s creation up close. The spots on the ladybug’s back are created by machine.  How clever is that?  And as for the lovely Amy… Let me just say that Kellie sure knows how to stuff a monkey!  Amy has the firmest biceps and tightest abs of any sock monkey I’ve met and makes my own sock monkeys look positively limp-wristed.  You go girl!

Why the question mark over whether or not I won?  Well, my name didn’t actually come out in Kellie’s draw.  But my kind-hearted bloggy friend Lindi’s name did, and she had secretly entered  for me!!

Isn’t that just the loveliest thing you’ve heard today?

Let’s hear it for Lindi – Yaaaayyyy Lindi!!!   (Thank you again, dear friend)

Did I say she has ‘attitude’?

Polly the Sock Monkey

Flickr Tags: sock monkeys

I’ve been temporarily diverted from my quilty endeavours by this little cutie.

A friend has recently had a baby girl so I thought I’d try my hand at making her a sock monkey.  They’re soft and cuddly characters, and those long skinny limbs and tail are perfect for tiny hands to grasp.

Do you like how Polly turned out?

It’s so satisfying seeing a few pieces of fabric gradually turning into a creature, albeit inanimate, in one’s hands.  The very best part is the final touch - stitching the cheeky grin!!!

And if you think you’ve detected the beginnings of an obsession you may be right!