Christmas Party - What a hoot!

At last a chance to relax and enjoy each others company and relax we certainly were! 

We had a very successful Christmas gathering yesterday with lots of delicious morning tea and lunch - all provided by the SL members.  We have some very, very, good cooks amongst us and they excelled yesterday. 

We invited guests to our party who work furiously for SL during the year, but are unable to attend gatherings.   It was so lovely to be able to thank these ladies personally for their hard work.

We didn't have Santa visit yesterday, but we did have the next best thing - The Gingerbread Man(n) (term used loosely) arrived all ready for a party complete with Thin Lizzy face powder and cherry on the nose.  Only our Lorraine could carry this off - and she did so with such aplomb!!

Some of our members put together little Christmas packets for needy children for Christmas.  By shopping cleverly and making every cent count they put together some delightful surprise packages for little ones. 

This group of ladies (who are happy to remain nameless) also purchased a huge number of new pj's and clothing for children.  The generous heart shines bright at Sunshine Linus.

One of our dear members, Olwyn, is in the throws of moving from her beloved property to bayside Brisbane and has been cleaning out her cupboards and donated these three lovely quilts.  Olwyn is a wonderful giving person, and her quilts are truly magnificent. 

We are hoping that Olwyn will continue to join us here once her move is completed.  We have a number of members who drive up from Brisbane for our gatherings so car pooling is possible.

 Our Asst Treasurer and Distribution Manager extraordinaire (Claire) is a very creative gal, and has shown us just how creative she can be with her wonderful bags and purses she made for our Open Day this year - from Curtain scraps! 

  

Well, she's done it again.  We received this little Christmas hanging from a donor - it was a simple little hanging. 

Claire has  upcycled it and has added all manner of touchy feely resources to it, and it will now adorn the halls of one of our nursing homes, for residents to pause at, and to look and touch. 

We've had a number of requests for this type of "calming tool" for nursing homes. Great job Claire - very creative!

 Here's a gorgeous quilt top (and a biggy) that was given to us by a donor (thanks Christina) and we'll be having this quilted by one of our volunteer long arm quilters.

We will offer it to an organisation as a raffle quilt to raise much needed funds. 

 

Barb, (the other half of the Treasury team) is a little touched, and has a penchant for taking on enormous challenges with scrap fabrics that most quilters would run for cover from. 

To confirm her unique status in our group, here's her simply stunning quilt top that she's recently completed, all hand pieced in the most fabulous fabrics. 

Barb is going to hand quilt this monster (I told you she was a little touched).

 Our lovely friends at Mountain Quilters have donated some more quilts and quilt tops for us to use - thankyou ladies for continuing to help us with our endeavours.  Your time and effort is very much appreciated.

We also received these delightful little people from an 85 year old lady who has made these for the first time - great effort and we're thrilled they've come to us for distribution.

May the joys of the season be with you, and we hope that 2014 brings happiness and good health to all.

 

 

 

November Meeting and AGM

Today's proceedings started out with the very important business of conducting our AGM, with the key executive positions remaining unchanged.  We did however elect a new management committee and the following are our new management committee members for 2014: B. Moore, T. Lingard, S. Hanson, J. Stewart, M. Doblo, J. Kerr, K. Nightingale, N. McCulloch and L. Newell. Congratulations Ladies.


Crocheted Baby Jackets

 
Aren't these gorgeous?  These little matinee jackets are crochet, and they keep their shape so well.  If we can get the pattern I'll post it on this blog.  Keep your eyes out in "Free Patterns" on the right of your screen.

Cuddly crocheted rugs

We received a large amount of knitted and crochet articles, including these lovely knee rugs.  We simply can't keep up with the demand for these knee rugs that we deliver to many of the nursing homes on the coast. 



As you are no doubt aware, we receive all manner of fabrics from very generous sewers and quilters on the Sunshine Coast, who are pleased to see that their donations are going to good use. 

Claire who is a pretty terrific sewer, hasn't heard the rule about not using 100% cotton fabrics for quilts. 

This quilt you see to the right is made completely of knit material (suitable for t.shirts) and backed with a piece of polar fleece.

The quilt sits very straight, there is absolutely no signs of stretching and it's so soft and cuddly.  Claire has certainly given us food for thought. 

We do spend a great deal on batting for these quilts, but perhaps some polar fleece might work also?









Our resident "super knitter" Joan, again bought a huge box full of knitted toys, and they are really beautifully made and stuffed. 

We decided that this time these little darlings will be given to the organisation that we support, Gift for Kids in Care (foster children) and they will be given to the children as part of their Christmas Appeal





These delightful little sets are made by Lyn, one of our new members for children in need.  Lyn crochets the little vests and purchases t.shirts and little skirts to match the vests. 

They are really very pretty and beautifully made. Lyn puts a great deal of thought into these little sets and it's a pleasure to be able to distribute them to little people who will really feel special wearing them.




Here we have a lovely boys quilt with fabulous stars.  We are still needing 10 big boy quilts for Caboolture Special School, so if you've got one on the go, perhaps you can finish it in time for delivery on the 20th January 2014.

Thanks also to Kay Nightingale for coming to the urgent call for a "girlie coloured" large quilt for a particular friend of Sunshine Linus who has recently undergone a double mastectomy.  Here's Kay and Michelle with the quilt.

NEXT GATHERING JANUARY 2013
Because the next gathering coincides with the Australia Day Public Holiday, we have changed the gathering day to Monday 20th January (one week before the scheduled day).  This will help those who travel up or down the major highway to avoid the inevitable traffic snarls.  Thanks for your understanding.

October Gathering

We had an early start this morning to another day of feverish activity.

We've had a lot of new members come to join us since our Open Day and the room was buzzing!

 

Masses of "product" was brought in to be sorted and distributed.  Here is just a small selection of it.

 

Cuddly toys, knitted and sewn.

 

Claire turned a panel into a "World of Quilting"

 

A sweet baby quilt

 

Knitted and crocheted rugs

 

A lovely scrappy "Ocean Waves" quilt

 

This selection of quilts is going to bring some cheer to a family that's battling through a difficult patch.

 

Our next meeting is on 25th November and will be our AGM, so please attend if you can, and then on December 9th we'll be having our Christmas Party (can you believe it's that time of year already!).

 



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.