Well, what a busy month it has been for we Quilters for Orphans!!! We spent two blocks of three days each at the Tesselaar Tulip Festival in beautiful Silvan, our Stall raising a magnificent $1400 with which to purchase batting/wadding for the inner 'sandwich' of our quilts.
Here we have Gaynor, Veronica and Christine setting up our Stall at the Tulip Festival.
We were right next door to the Alpacas for the second year running ... amiable neighbours indeed!
We had the perfect spot for our Stall ... with views over the Tulip fields ... and the young staff.
We sold quilts, handmade Christmas decorations and napery, tote bags, finger puppets and dressed dolls, all created by our own nimble fingers.
Our Christmas themed gift selection ..... Gaynor and Christine putting the final touches on our display.
This fantastic amount, Gaynor tells me, will enable us to purchase sufficient wadding for 400 quilts. AWESOME!!! This makes our job of creating quilts for the children in India and China so much easier. As I have mentioned before, whilst we receive donations of fabric and quilt tops from many kind folk, the batting (at $216 per roll ... enough to make 40 of our quilts) is the most expensive component of our fabric 'hugs' and thus we have to fund its purchase through our sales of dog coats, specifically created quilts and whatever other items we can whip up for sale during the year.
Handmade cards .... beautifully crafted and popular too!!
Handmade and dressed dolls .... ready to be given a face and hair by the recipient ... nice idea!
Our pet 'pillows' and dog jackets .... could have sold our 'model' dog several times over:)
Christine ... having a brief break between customers ...
What would a Tulip Festival be without Tulips I ask you? Aren't they stunning?
So, all in all it was quite a successful enterprise for QFO and we thank the Tesselaars very much for allowing us to participate .... it was also a great way to get what we do 'out there' to folk .... all of whom were most supportive of our efforts to create a little comfort in the young lives we reach with our quilts.
Now on to all the news and pictures from our Working Bee held on October 8th at our Barn. We had a slightly smaller turnout yesterday, but were still very pleased to have Yvonne, Amber,Val, Christine, Win, Grace, Janagi, Jenny, Noelle, Julie, Emily, Tracy, Margaret, Gaynor .... and her son Dale, daughter in law Fiona and grand daughter Tyler with us.
Fiona is going to create an on-line 'shop' for us, so that we can sell some of our fundraising quilts and our wedding dresses to interested clients. This will be a brilliant way to be able to raise funds from those folk who are a little further afield and unable to visit personally to purchase from us. This should enable us to generate more cash flow for wadding and other needs to create our quilts. With the COM Homes and FreeToBeKids in India, the New Hope Foundation and Butterfly Hospices in China (they are creating more Homes in China for us to kit out with quilts) it is now even more imperative that we have enough funds to purchase supplies for what we do.
Gaynor .... with daughter in law Fiona ....
I am also able to tell you that we are 'adopting' yet another group of recipients to bless with our quilts. Gaynor has been approached by the 'Zoe Hope project' in Zambia. See the Link for this organisation at:
www.zoehopeproject.blogspot.com
We will be creating quilts for the very young mothers, and their babies, who have been the victims of the turmoil in the area. We very much look forward to being able to provide them with a 'hug' in the form of our quilts with which to brighten their lives and that of their babies as they put their lives back together and gain skills with which to create a future for themselves and their little ones.
There are also 112 quilts to be provided early in 2012 for the newly built double COM Childrens Home in Orissa, India, which will house children who have been the victims of persecution in that place. So you can see we will really have our work 'cut out for us' (pardon the quilting pun) to provide quilts for all these children. Work which we gladly do ... as it is just wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of the children who are able to wrap themselves in tangible proof of the caring that comes from our hearts and hands to them.
Here we have Yvonne, Janagi and Grace .... with a quilt which you will see a little further on, being bound by Grace.
And here is Amber ... at 14 the youngest of our group ... and Grace ... at 93 ... the oldest.
Grace ..... quite amazing ...... so lovely to have her as part of our group.
And Amber .... rarely without a needle in hand or at her sewing machine. Yvonne has taught her well!!
Win and Christine selecting fabrics to create quilt 'kits' for us, for the Chinakidz Butterfly Hospice.
Val .... busily measuring and cutting fabric for us ....
Julie, Amber and Noelle ..... we later put Noelle to work on Teddy 'repairs'.
And here she is ..... these Teddys were donated in need of slight 'cosmetic surgery', before we despatch them to India,
Then it was time for 'Show and Tell', always an enjoyable part of our get togethers, where we see just how creative we can be with fabric ...
First we had one of three specially created quilts, made by Helen Van Dijk from Happy Valley in South Australia. These quilts, donated to us by Helen, will be destined for the New Hope Foundation in China ... and we thank Helen VERY much for her kindness and creativity.
The quilts for the New Hope Foundation are made in sets of three, as each group of three small babies in this Home are cared for by a single nurse and it makes her job easier if 'her' cots are easily identified.
Next we have a Seaside themed quilt top made by our Jenny ... she has been particularly busy recently!
This is also one of Jennys ...love the small picture squares in this one,each one looked like a little quilt.
Another very clever bit of piecing ... so many 'pictures' in this one to amuse a small child.
Gorgeous pooches in this ... and dramatic use of black sashing to set off the diamond piecing ... and if you enlarge this picture, you will see that the green fabric is covered with tiny dog bones!!
And finally ....this one was made by Jennys friend Cheryl Meyer ... and is a dramatic and vibrant piece of 'piecing' indeed ... absolutely stunning!!! Many thanks to Cheryl for creating this one for us:)
Now we are not too sure who created this pretty quilt for us ... but have a close look at the wonderful custom quilting on the borders .... done by our very own Yvonne. Her attention to detail and choice of quilting pattern is just lovely ...
Here is the quilt .... and now for a close up of the 'Piano Keys' quilting pattern ....
Here is the corner .....
And the sides ... with the roses on the piano keys .... just lovely!!!
Soon it was time to break for lunch ... we made our own 'gourmet' meat and salad rolls ... with scrumptious Strudel and icecream for 'afters' ... sewing is hungry work indeed!
Scrumptious fare .... and thanks to Reg and Gaynor for doing all the setting up...
A well earned meal break ..... for Christine, Tracy, Amber and Yvonne ....
.... also Win and Julie .... the rolls and salad were just delicious!!!
Then it was back to work for the remainder of the afternoon ...
Janagi and Win with some colourful quilting strips for future use ...
And Emily and Margaret hard at work .... slaving over hot sewing machines :)
And that, dear reader, just about wraps it up for this months double Blog entry ... not much else to add .... other than to remind our stitchers that the lunch 'Theme' for the November Working Bee will be 'Barbeque and Salad' ... so select your prime cuts and bring them along, with a salad to share ... and we will have Reg firing up the Barbie before you can say 'make mine medium rare'!!
We will meet up for this Working Bee on Saturday November 12th .... and our usual 'info pack is listed below ... as well as the Links that you may care to follow ... both of our supporters ... and those we support with our quilts.
Our contact details are as follow:
Gaynor Peterson ... phone (03)9756 7950
Susan Hamilton .....phone (03)9737 1825
or email: [email protected]
Our postal address (for donations) is now P.O Box 398 Monbulk Victoria 3793
And don't forget to support the Blogs and organisations that we both support and publicize for their connection to us ...
www.chinakidz.org .... for news about the Butterfly Palliative Care hospice in China
http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a59784e7a45314d6a673d0d0a&sb=1
www.freetobekids.org/- .... the rescue organisation that frees children from slavery and exploitation
www.com.org.au/ .... our very own Christian Outreach Ministry in Mount Evelyn
http://kayleenwest.com.au .... for Art with a positive spirit
http://mellyandme.typepad.com .... creative clothing etc for children
www.hopefosterhome.com ... the latest group of babies we are creating crib quilts for in China ...
and also now .... www.zoehopeproject.blogspot.com giving hope to children in Zambia.
And finally .......
Our Link to Treasure Corner Opshop in Wray Crescent Mount Evelyn .... the brainchild of Helen Greenwood so many years ago, the start of the support for COM Homes in India is listed below. Well worth a visit for the many bargains available, proceeds from the sales go toward the Childrens Homes in India ... 26 so far have been built through funds raised by this shop, an amazing achievement indeed.
So .... till next I put fingers to keyboard and tap out my next Blog for Quilts for Orphans ... blessings to all ... and keep supporting us. Without YOUR help it would be so very much harder to provide our 'hugs' where most needed! I will also hopefully have news in my next Blog of our on-line Link to purchase the quilts we offer as our fundraising project.
Susan
Much in line with the thinking of the people behind such a bill
very happy to read your blog.
Posted by: Cincinnati Bengals Jersey | October 28, 2011 at 12:12 PM