IT DOESN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!
 
Thought you might like to share in an email we received from Sue Eagle who was the first Treasurer of Sunshine Linus.  Sue has recently become a grandmother to twin girls.  We make lots of lots of items for preemie babies, and distribute the items all over the Sunshine Coast.  We sometimes hear from someone who knows someone who knows someone that has benefited from our hard work, but we couldn't be more thrilled to receive this email!  It sure is a wonderful feeling to see our work come full circle.
 
Here's her email and photographs.

 Harriet & Georgia Leigh

Hi Judie,
Wanted to let you and the other ladies know that my new twin grand baby girls are getting the benefit of the items Linus make. They where born a week ago and are in the special care unit in Nambour hospital, born 6 weeks early.










Was nice to see the items you make. Never thought my family or I would benefit but you just never know. Thanks to you all for your hard work.

Have attached a few photos for you.  Georgia Leigh is doing really well. Harriett is fine but just needs reminding to breathe.  My daughter Catherine is doing a great job as a new mum.
Thanks again
Love Sue

 

 

September Meeting

It was all hands on deck on Monday morning.

A lot of new folk joined us, after our exceptionally spectacular Open Day (no bias here!); and all of the quilts and other goodies that had been held over for showing at the event had to be sorted for distribution, but we also had some very special visitors.

Claire has been liaising with the Endeavour Foundation, after reading in the local paper that two houses have been built in Pelican Waters for eight Endeavour Foundation clients and two staff members.  The residents will move in by mid-October and Claire thought donating colourful bed quilts would be another great way for Sunshine Linus to contribute to our community. Go, Claire!

So the soon-to-be new residents came to visit to collect their quilts and have morning tea with us.

It's starting to get busy in here!

 

Claire (right) presenting the first of the quilts

Another resident happy with her gift

 

Adele, the lucky winner of our raffle quilt, also came today.  Adele loves her new quilt (and her cat has also given his seal of approval!)

Nikki (left), who helped in the making of the quilt, and Adele.

 

After all the excitement it was back to work.

Jill and Judy are sorting the quilts for distribution. There is a lot more to go yet, girls!

 

As always we had plenty of show and tell

 

Nikki made this gorgeous scrappy purple lovely

Claire used furnishing fabrics for this one

 

Maggie made this sweet little girls number

 

And Bev did this scrappy log cabin

 

The distribution list for this month is long.  You can see it here.

 

See you all again on October 28th....

 

And the winners are..........

The quilt was won by Adele Davis of Bli Bli.

The woven rug was won by S Adams from Coolum Beach.

And the clown was won by Win Philp, one of our Sunshine Linus members.

Congratulations to those three lucky people.

Open Day 2013

Our inaugural Open Day last Saturday was enormously successful.  Our main objectives were to connect with the community and to raise funds to continue our work, and we have achieved both!

I popped around before the doors were open to take some photos.

Firstly, the meeters and greeters, Maureen, Nikki and Barb, ready to take admissions and sell raffle tickets.  The first prize is a choice of the lovely Irish Chain quilt or the beautiful woven blanket on the end of the table. A difficult choice.

 

Step inside and to the left and here's a long view of the church.  The quilts over the pews are Sunshine Linus donation quilts, while those hanging are the personal precious quilts of some of our members. 

Liz and Thelma discussing strategy

 

Looking back from the church through the vestibule to the meeting hall. 

 

The sales tables are groaning with goodies. 

Lee is waiting for customers - it won't be long now!

Quilts, toys, bags, scarves and so much more; it's hard to know what to buy!

 

But there's more! Cushions and owls and more quilts!

 

Rosemary has been bundling pre-loved craft magazines for sale, and is also raffling the delightful knitted clown.

 

Inside the meeting hall are displays of some of the items made and distributed by Sunshine Linus.

 

Blankets of love and tiny robes for babies, knitted jumpers, beanies and toys, children's pyjamas, adult bibs for nursing home residents, weighted blankets and vests for special schools, zippered bags for toiletries, bags for carrying xrays, and bright busy bags for foster children.

Touchy feely quilts and aprons, knitted slipper socks, drainage bags for oncology units, scarves, rice bags to stimulate Alzheimer's patients, and quilted, crocheted and knitted lap rugs.

 

Along a bit further here's Bev S at the demonstration table.

Bev's sewing some bags and chatting with our visitors.

 

Also, in the meeting hall are the vendor stalls.

Here's Penny from Patchwork Angel.

 

Robyn and Chris from Bowerbirdy.

Julie from Nimble Stitches

 

And Kim and her helper from Kimz Sewing and Patchwork.

 

The doors are open and our salesladies are being kept very busy.

 

And then a lovely Devonshire tea, aaah.

The ladies in the kitchen did a fabulous job of keeping up with the hungry hordes.

 

There was an enormous amount of work being done behind the scenes and our grateful thanks go to all the husbands and family and friends who came to help out.

 

There will be another post shortly with news of the winners of the lovely raffles.

  

 



12th August 2013

Yvonne made this beauty.
It will be available for sale on our special day.

We had an extra gathering today, in preparation for our Open Day and Quilt Show on the 31st August.  We spent the day with a show and tell, then collecting and counting and organising distribution and finally we sat down at lunchtime and fine tuned the arrangements for our special day.

We are getting excited to be throwing open the doors and inviting everyone to come and see what we do and where it all goes, around the Sunshine Coast community.

Our Handcrafted gifts table is full to overflowing with spectacularly clever and beautifully made items for purchase by our visitors. 

I know it's not Christmas yet, but it might be an opportunity to gather a few gifts together in preparation for the coming Christmas season!


 

Claire has been making the most wonderful bags for our Open Day.  The fabric she has used would ordinarily be used for curtaining, but Claire has a wonderfully creative skill and makes this fabric into the most delightful bags.

We had three new members join us today.  Hello to Moira, Lyn & Sue.  Lyn had been in touch with Sunshine Linus about the lovely little outfits she has put together. 

These sweet little ensembles are a crocheted vest (by Lyn) and purchased little tops and bottoms to complete the outfit.  We were blown away with the volume of outfits and the quality of the clothing. 

These items were distributed to a local women's refuge where they'll be very much appreciated.  We also distributed two huge bags of new toys that Lyn had collected, and these were taken to Chris Potter and the Gifts for Kids in Care organisation, who support foster children on the coast.

We are developing a very large clientele these days, and are starting to enter into some very close partnerships with various organisation who benefit from our busy hands and generous hearts.

SANDS(Miscarriage, Stillborn and newborn death support group,  http://www.sands.org.au/ is one such organisation that is working with us to provide specific little items to their members including little delicate gowns and blankets of love.  There'll be more on that subject next time.

Here's some more photos of the goodies that arrived yesterday, and went on to be distributed before we left.

We would also like to thank Kay Sauer at APatchy Quilting for donating the fabrics shown here for Sunshine Linus.  We simply couldn't do what we do without the generosity of other quilters and quilt business owners.  Thank you Kay, it is most appreciated.

A friend of Claires also donated these beautiful items - a very pretty quilt and a knitted rug.  Aren't they just beautiful?  Thankyou Claires friend. Your work is lovely.