Monday 30th May

Hi everyone, just a few reminders before we share the news of this month's meeting. 

• Next month (June) Sunshine Linus will be celebrating its 12th birthday. It will be a great opportunity to celebrate Sunshine Linus' achievements together, so make sure you make plans to join us, and Kaye will be baking a cake too!
• Remember to let Kaye know if you wish to join us for the Retreat at Bribie Island 29th November-1st December. There are still spaces left! Further details can be found on the Blog in the 'pages' tab.
• Marion has booked the electrician to 'test and tag' sewing machines at the next Activity Day on July 11th. Let her know if you are planning to attend and wish to get your machine tested.

It was a huge day for drop-off and distribution on Monday. It has been two months since our last meeting so members were keen to donate the many items they had been creating and making during that time.

Elaine had everything in order on the 'sales table'. The money earned each month is a great financial benefit to the regular running costs of Sunshine Linus. Thank you Elaine!

Items for sale

This month and next month there are four lovely items up for grabs on the raffle table including a Queen-sized quilt and matching pillow shams, a lovely crocheted rug, a hand-towel and book place-holder. Thank you to all who contributed these items.

The 'freebie table' had lots to offer as Carole and Jenny discovered. Thank you to Sue and Margaret for their efforts organizing this table every month!

Of course with the cooler weather now upon us, the tables were laden with piles of gorgeous wooly rugs, beanies and shawls.

Leonie, Bonnie and Pam tagging the knitted items

The 'yarners' amongst us have also been busy making a variety of toys and 'cuddlies'. Gabrielle made these delightful creatures including a daddy clownfish and baby Nemo!

Margaret knitted some very cute 'cuddlies'.

Lorraine arrived with a bag full of items including neck pillows, drainage bags, teddy bags, 64 surgical caps for the QE II hospital and 12 caps for SCUH.

The 'sensory' team have been busy making items suitable for patients with dementia. Rosemary and Margaret worked together to create this very clever, 'sewing' themed tactile mat.

Another 'sewing' themed tactile mat.

Touchy feely cubes

Claire has had a wonderful time designing and making another interactive play-mat, this time based on the book: Milli, Jack and the Dancing Cat by Stephen Michael King. Milli is a shoemaker who has become bored making  plain, dull shoes until she meets the 'dancing cat' who inspires her to be more creative with her shoe-making. So Milli sets about making much more interesting shoes using all sorts of recycled materials to decorate them.

Last month Claire created a number of other interactive items for school children. The vegetables are for teaching healthy eating using the book Oliver’s Vegetables. Rather than making a book quilt, it is a box of ‘planted’ vegetables.

The book quilt is for Rosie’s Walk and going to Currimundi Special School.  Rosie, the hen, takes a walk across the yard, around the pond, over the hay stack, in front of the mill, through the fence and under the bee hives.  She has to avoid the fox and is back in her hen house for dinner.

The town map is for Nambour Special School.  The students will drive the cars on the road and also learn to give directions to the different buildings.

Bonnie is now the new 'Kitchen Coordinator'. Thank you Bonnie for volunteering for this role.

The members queue for morning tea

Lots of yummies to eat with a cuppa

Thank you to Ponee (remote area nurse) for donating the scrumptious vanilla slices for morning tea, they were all gone by the end of the morning!

And then it was time for notices and 'show and tell'.

Kaye shares a few reminders 

Once again it was great to be able to share what has been made during the 'show and tell' segment. Glorianne and Anne had returned with the strip quilts they made on Action Day. We look forward to viewing more of these quilts next month.

Glorianne's quilt

Wheel chair quilt made from practice block and left over HST

Anne's quilt

Another 'star' themed strip quilt made by Anne

It was lovely to welcome Judie B back to our meetings. She came with a bundle of finished quilts to donate. Amongst the mix was a bright strip-pieced jelly roll quilt and two body quilts made from a larger quilt top!

Two quilts from one!

Bronwyn from North Lakes came to visit and brought 40 quilts for donation. Thank you for your generosity Bronwyn! 

One of Bronwyn's beautiful Christmas quilts

Another of Bronwyn's quilts which had been quilted by Dorothy

Hints, Tips and Tricks:

Here's a neat tip. Do you find your length of binding gets tangled, twisted or drags on the floor when attaching it to your quilt? Cut a length from a pool noodle and wind your binding onto it. Thread and tie a length of ribbon through the center of the noodle and hang it around your neck as you sew. Unwind the binding as you sew it onto your quilt!

One of Anne's lovely raffle quilts

Hope to see you for the birthday celebrations on the 27th June!

Scrap Busting Day

So what do you do with all those boxes of scrap fabrics hidden in the cupboard or under the bed because one day you might use them? Well, eleven ladies joined the Activity Day this month to 'scrap-bust' their way through several boxes of such fabrics. And what a fun morning we had!

Kaye had prepared a number of quilt blocks to demonstrate different ways to piece the scraps (in particular strips of fabric). 

Pinwheel block using 2 1/2 inch strips

Crumb block

Kaye also demonstrated her very innovative, fast, strip piecing method.

Barbara brought in a number of quilts to show how strips could be pieced to make these stunning quilts.

Barbara's jungle themed quilt

The dark strips highlight the embroidery

 After receiving instructions, the ladies set to work.

Anne rummages through the piles of fabrics

Sharon looks for just the right size strip

Even though Leslie isn't a quilter she lent a hand sorting the fabric and finding just the right colored strips for the other ladies.

And Marion is always finding some way to assist whether it be ironing strips or serving morning tea.

While all this creativity was happening Sue took the opportunity to sort the storage cupboard.

Yvonne had developed her own method of strip piecing using flannelette as a foundation.

Lisa's first attempt at patchwork!

And at the end of the morning quite a bit had been achieved!

Carol's array of strips

Kaye's four patch blocks

Glorianne's pinwheel block

Barbara's strip-pieced blocks with an QST accent

Evelyn's many strip-pieced blocks

 

Barbara's beautiful hand painted blocks.

We look forward to seeing all of these blocks when they return as beautiful quilts!

A reminder that our next Distribution Meeting is on Monday 30th May, so don't forget to add it to your diary! Hope to see you then!