Happy Birthday 2 us!

Wow, two years on and look how far we've come!
At least 927 quilts; 112 weighted blankets; 71 Touchy Feelies; 183 Zipper bags; 44 pairs children's pyjamas; 179 Xray/tote bags; plus countless items of knitted babywear, beanies and bears; crocheted and knitted rugs; chemo turbans; situpons for small schoolchildren; hot gel bag and wheat bag covers; and pillowcases.
What a wonderful band of talented and capable and giving and caring and fabulous women you are!!  Congratulations to everyone - give yourselves a pat on the back - and thank you all so much.

We had a great party - lots of food and fun and frivolity.

And cake!

I'm sorry I didn't take more pictures, but I was too busy enjoying myself.

But there was some work done, too.  Many lovely quilts came in, and some beautifully knitted kiddies' jumpers and knitted bears.  And Irene Joyce sent along 3 lovely quilts - thanks, Irene.

And Wendy's been busy again with her "art" touchy feelies.

Here's Minnie Mouse - I think she's off to the casino all dolled up and loaded with cash!
We've distributed a load of goodies this month, too.
Royal Children's Hospital have received 114 boy's and girl's quilts, 103 zipper bags, 4 weighted blankets and 6 touchy feelies; and 42 touchy feelies have been sent to aged care facilities, 5 each to Glenbrook, Nangarin Lodge, Sundale Bowder Lodge, Sundale Palmwoods, RSL Tantula Rise, Adventist Retirement Village Caloundra, and Mt Coolum Aged Care, 4 to Noosa Nursing Centre, and 3 to Southern Cross Care Caloundra; Glenhaven Refuge have been given 43 quilts for women and children;  Special Education at Mountain Creek have had 4 weighted blankets; Premion Oncology, 35 Xray totes;  Nambour General Hospital have received 46 hot gel bag covers and 14 wheat bag covers (courtesy of Sharon the Unstoppable); and Lions Emergency Accommodation have received two enormous bags of knitted teddies which we received from Samford quilters, plus various knitted hats, scarves, socks, jumpers and blankets.  We also received a donation of 6 very fancy pillowcases

which have been forwarded to Pillowcases4OncologyKids (Check them out on facebook).

What a day!!!

Because there are 5 Mondays in July we're squeezing in an extra meeting day on Monday 16th.  We'll be having a quilt-as-you-go demo/workshop, so if you have some blocks prepared, and possibly even quilted, we'll show you how to put them together. (We'll show you even if you aren't prepared!)  Then the following meeting will be on July 30th.

Until then, keep busy and warm...............

Oops!

I forgot to mention that for our birthday party next week (on June 25th) we're all bringing a small plate of food to share for lunch.  What sort of a party would it be without food?
But don't forget to bring your rotary cutter and mat and ruler as well, because we're also having a cutting party.

Touchy Feely Monday

Wow, over 30 ladies present at our Monday meeting:  the place was abuzz with activity!

Touchy feely kits were being made up, which involves small pieces of lots of different textiles, other girls were busy cutting lengths of lace and ribbons etc.

This rather special example of touchy feeliness was made by Wendy.
Many lovely quilts came in today, too.  Here's a selection of them.  What a clever bunch!

A fabulous sampler

Lovely kid's quilts (and quilters!)

Snuggly baby quilts

These fairies will make a little girl's heart sing!

Lorraine was working diligently at making weighted vests.  These are used as a calming tool for the kids at special schools.

Lorraine almost stopped talking long enough to have her picture taken!

We also received 10 lovely crocheted rugs from Maxine O'Sullivan along with three gorgeous teddy bears, lots and lots of coloured pencils and activity books, and children's socks and babywear. (I'm sorry, but I forgot to take photos of them).  And we'd also like to thank Rowan Young for his kindness in paying for our liability insurance once again.

This month we've been able to send; to Lily House who look after single teenage mums and their babies we've given 8 adult and 10 toddler quilts, 3 bears and some babywear; to Nambour General Hospital we've sent 10 baby quilts, 15 baby jackets and 5 chemo caps;  to Sunshine Coast Children's Therapy Centre 6 touchy feelys; and another 6 to Compass Institute;  Mt Carmel Prep have received 1 touchy feely; to Premion Oncology in Brisbane 30 xray bags; 11 crocheted/knitted rugs to various nursing homes; warm knitted beanies and slipper socks to Lions Emergency Accommodation; and children's socks and coloured pencils and activity books to Gifts 4 Kids in Care.

Our next meeting is on June 25th and we'll be celebrating our 2nd birthday!  We're going to have a real party with cake and games and stuff!  We're also going to be working so don't get too excited!  We'll be having a cutting party, so bring along your rotary cutter and mat and ruler - we're going to cut some of the excess fabric that we have into kits.  All hands on deck, so see you then........

Sunshine Linus goes to Peachester

We took advantage of an invitation to have a display stand at Mountain Quilters Exhibition at Peachester this weekend, and over the two days we had the opportunity to speak to lots of people about what we do.  I even think we might have recruited a few of them!  And many thanks to the people who dropped off donations to us there, too.
The Quilt Show was terrific, the diversity and the standard of work fabulous, and the food - well, you just can't beat country hospitality, can you?
Thanks, Mountain Quilters, for having us, and for helping out as much as you do - we really appreciate it.

Weighted blankets and other things

Our meeting day on Monday was taken up learning how to sew weighted blankets.

This is Judy S, queen of the weighted blanket.

Weighted blanket - there are secret pockets inside to put small amounts of weight in.

Judy makes up the weighted blanket kits, and she demonstrated how they're put together. They're very useful for the calming of autistic children, and we are supplying many Special Schools with them.  You can click here for more information about them.

We also had some lovely finished quilts come in.

This quilt shows off some of the free style quilting learned at the last workshop

Pretty squares and rectangles

Yvonne's very proud of her first ever touchy feely!

Lots of prepared tops and backs ready to be quilted

We were able to give 26 quilts for children and babies, 3 pairs pyjamas and 3 cuddle bunnies to kids in foster care; 17 Xray bags and some baby things to Nambour Hospital; 16 sit-upons to Mitchelton Special School; and 5 pairs pyjamas and some ladies' beanies to Lions Emergency Accom. Centre.

There are a couple of events in the coming month, at which we will be represented.
May 16th, 10.00am - Kawana Quilters Show &Tell at Uniting Church, Thunderbird Drive, Kawana.
May 26th and 27th, 9.00am-4.00pm - Mountain Quilters Quilt Exhibition at Peachester Hall.
Please support these events if you can.

Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Judie B. and Margaret S., who both have been unwell, and we hope to see you all next time on May 28th, when we'll be have a demo/workshop on the making of touchy feely quilts.