Monday 24th June - Happy Birthday to us!!
We celebrated our third birthday at our gathering in June. After only three years in operation, we have achieved enormous success in providing quilts and other comforts free to our community here on the Sunshine Coast. If you'd like to see what we've made and where it's gone, click on the prompt at the right side of this screen.
Our VP Ann made the most scrumptious cakes and we sang happy birthday to
ourselves. We had intended to play some games and have a bit of
frivolity, but we just didn't have the time. That's not to say we didn't
get up to mischief - we seem to be able to do that without thinking!! Lots of
giggling and chatting is the order of the day, while our hands are busy
sorting, counting and packing and stitching, stitching and stitching.There is just so much going on at Sunshine Linus. Every monthly gathering sees another haul of wonderfully hand made items that have not only been made by our regular members but items that have been given to us by the crafting community to distribute for them, to those in need.
Lately we've noticed that the centres and organisations who receive our donations are requesting us to make certain items that they need, that may not necessarily be something we're making at the present time.
A good example of this was bought to our attention by Barb from Gympie (yes
Barb travels from Gympie each month for our gathering!). Apparently a
lady at Cooinda Aged Care in Gympie contacted Barb and asked if Barb would
make a bag to store the footrests that come off wheelchairs when not in use. (These
footrests are detachable to allow patients to roam freely in their wheelchairs
by using their feet to propel themselves along). The footrests need to be
stored in a place nearby so they can be replaced on the wheelchairs to keep
patients feet safely out of the way when being wheeled by attendants.
These bags are kept on the handles of the wheelchair, so a bag was needed for
each wheelchair in the facility. Barb made a prototype and the Occupational
Therapist was very happy with the finished bag and had 12 more made for the
mobile patients in the facility. Different wheelchairs will obviously
need different sized bags. I imagine that we'll be asked to make these
bags for other nursing home facilities. It's such a great feeling knowing we can help in such practical ways.
We have a wonderful member named Joan who is the most prolific knitter I've
ever come across. We've shown a number of Joan's lovely knitted
dolls on this blog in the past and here's a few more for you to enjoy. Joan's skill is
remarkable and she arrives each month with a bag full of lovely knitted goodies
including dolls and items of clothing for children. We really appreciate
having Joan as a member of Sunshine Linus. It's always wonderful to be
inspired by such beautiful work. Thankyou Joan and all the other wonderful
knitters that make such precious little gifts to our community - your efforts
are very much appreciated.
Our Open Day Preparations
They say "if you want something done, ask a busy person", well that rings true for us recently. Lee is one of our members who works full time and is only able to attend gatherings during the school holidays. But this doesn't stop her, and we always look forward to seeing her husband Tony drop in at our gatherings as he delivers the lovely quilts Lee has put together over the previous month, and of course collects more projects to keep Lee busy for another month. Anyway, we were brain storming last month about how we can attract attention from the passing traffic, during our Open Day in August, and Lee volunteered to make some bunting. Isn't it fabulous? It's going to look marvellous on our special day. Thanks Lee.
We've also finally got photos of our prizes for our raffle. We've decided that the winner can decide which prize they prefer - a beautifully crochet pure wool lap rug made by sisters Hazel and Jennifer or a Liberty Print Quilt made by Barb and quilted very skilfully by Diane Farrugia from Quilt Quest. Here's the photos for you.
Here's some more photos of some of the goodies that arrived on Monday and were distributed throughout the community the very same day. Well done girls!
Above, Claire is holding some knit fabric socks that we're making for the Dialysis patients at the Renal Unit at Nambour Hospital. Patients get very cold whilst undertaking dialysis.
We are finding our Touch Feely Quilts and Aprons very popular for Alztheimers patients in nursing and care facilities, especially those patients that are mobile, but high care. These aprons keep busy fingers occupied.
We receive donations of fabrics and other textiles for which we are most grateful. We also often are given patchwork blocks that haven't found their way into a quilt top. Our volunteer sewers are just terrific at putting these orphan blocks into a delightful quilt top. We waste nothing, always finding a use for any goods that are donated to us. We use zips for our treasure bags, curtain fabrics for our xray bags, wool for our knitters and crocheters, cording, laces and all manner of haberdashery for our Touchy Feely quilts and aprons, stuffing and batting for our stuffed toys and sit-upons, and of course beautiful patchwork fabrics (particularly children's themed fabrics) for our special quilts for children.
The red quilt was put together by Hazel and hasn't she done a lovely job. The colour graded quilt top is a Barb Newman "special", made with donated scraps. Well done ladies!
What a busy month we've had. We are getting ready for our Open Day on the 31st August and invite everyone to come and see what we do and who benefits. Plus there'll be lots of crafted goodies for purchase as well. See you there!
