Quilts For Orphans

Penultimate 2014 Blogpost ... and calendar for 2015 ... get your notebooks out :)

Helloooo again ... 'tis I ... with a brief roundup of our cleanup Working Bee on Saturday last, November 15th .... where we tidied the Barn in readiness for our Christmas Breakup .. and made plans for 2015.

I am also sharing a Link further down in this Post ... the Butterfly Hospice in China is in urgent need of funding in order to keep beds open for their palliative care children. I will post the Link and ask that readers of this Blog keep it on their hearts to share the need and help by following the Link given to donate if possible to the cause. 

Now ... present last Saturday to tidy up were Christine, Win, Pauline, Jenny, Val, Gaynor and myself. We did the taking down and storing of items from our QuiltFair weekend and did a run thru of the calendar dates and lunch 'Themes' for the year ahead.

But before we started the packing and storing, Yvonne had a parcel to open ... and it was a donation :)

Three gorgeous completed quilts from the mother and daughter team of Sylvia and Edith in NSW. Well done and Thank You SO much ladies ... these are, as always, just beautiful. Bless you both :)

Now some frantic tidying up ...

Win taking an armload of quilts to storage ... a few less quilts to store ... as we sold 15 on the weekend of our Quilt Fair .. which was an awesome boost for our fundraising and, as mentioned in the previous Blogpost, will ensure that we are funded for the year ahead as far as batting for our quilt 'middles' is concerned. A sterling result :)

After a quick bite of lunch ... no 'Theme' this time ... it was just BYO ... we planned the calendar for 2015 .... do you have your diaries ready? Good .... here goes ....

        CALENDAR DATES FOR WORKING BEES AND OUR QUILT FAIR WEEKEND FOR 2015

February 14th ............ Cold meats, salad and desserts.

March 14th ............... BBQ ..... BYO meats, salad and desserts.

April 11th ................ Multi National mains ... and desserts.

May 9th ................... Finger foods, savoury and dessserts

June 13th ................  Soups and dessert

July 11th .................  Curries and desserts

August 8th ...............  Italian and desserts

September 12th .........  Chinese and desserts.

October 10th ............. Subway 'make your own' .... $5.00 cost

November 14th and 15th .... QUILT FAIR WEEKEND

November 21st ... Post Quilt Fair tidy up .... BYO lunch.

December 12th ........... Christmas Break Up lunch ... cost to be advised.

And folks  .... that just about winds up this Blog Post ... other than to say that the next one will be written up after our Christmas Break Up lunch next month :)

Now .... as mentioned at the start of this Blog .... the Butterfly Hospice is in need of funds ... here is the email I got from our friend Fiona McNeill ... we have supported this organisation over the years with quilts and wall hangings for the children. You may have to 'cut and paste' the 'indiegogo' fundraising Link into your browser bar to access it. Here is the email we received from Fiona: 

 "Hi Susan - I wonder if you want to share this - the quilts in this 
 blog post were from you. Thanks you so much.
 http://butterflych.org/follow/?p=5334
 I thought that your group might like to read it.


 We're having an important appeal right now too.   I wonder if you can share
 it with the quilting group? (totally understand if that is not policy 
 but I just really wanted to ask. I know you all have a heart for 
 orphans)  We desperately need to raise funds as we have a dip in our 
 finances over winter. We will have to close some cots for the period 
 if we don't meet this target ($30 000) and I know kids will suffer if 
 we have to do that.

 I've attached some information and a link, for your information.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/butterfly-home-china-s-first-children-s-hospice

 Love Fiona."

Looking forward to another wonderful year of friendship and stitching in our Barn in 2015 ... cannot wait!! Till next Blogpost .... blessings to all and thank you for all your support and encouragement for the year that is almost over. 

Susan

 

Our contact details are as follow:

Gaynor Peterson ... phone (03)9756 7950

email ... [email protected]

Susan Hamilton .....phone (03)9737 1825

email: [email protected]

Our postal address (for donations) is  P.O Box 398 Monbulk Victoria 3793

Check out the following Links:

http://kayleenwest.com.au .... for Art with a positive spirit

http://mellyandme.typepad.com .... creative clothing etc for children

 http://mrsmartinsquiltshop.typepad.com/  ...whose customer blessed us with awesome fabric

We also stitch for the following Childrens Homes ....

http://www.butterflych.org/.... for news about the Butterfly Palliative Care hospice in China

And their very own Blog ... which is beautifully written and contains inspirational stories on the children in their care. See the Link below:

http://butterflyhospice.blogspot.com.au/

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a59784e7a45314d6a673d0d0a&sb=1

www.freetobekids.org/- .... the rescue organisation that frees children from slavery and exploitation

www.hopefosterhome.com ... the babies we are creating crib quilts for in China ...

www.zoehopeproject.blogspot.com  .... giving hope to children in Zambia.

http://english.chinaconcern.org/  ... more children in China that we have stitched for ...

http://www.lolachildrensfund.org/ .... in Ethiopia

http://www.fikelela.org.za/orphan.asp .... the Fikelala AIDS Project in Capetown

http://mifanmama.com/Shining_Star_2.html the Home for vision impaired children in Shanghai

http://www.austchamshanghai.com/about-us/csr/mifan-mama.aspx

And also our latest Project .... for the Holocaust Survivors in Israel.

http://au.icej.org/

 

 

All's Fair at our Quilt Fair ..... November 2014

Well Hello there my lovelies .... and what a lovely Blogpost I have for you this month. I'll start off with a Thank You for a lovely donation that was delivered to me last week by a kind friend Norma Rose. She very generously went through her sewing 'stash' and has donated two lovely quilts and a large quantity of fabric which will be immensely useful for backings on our quilts. Many, many thanks Norma.

WE are always incredibly appreciative of the kindness of people like Norma ... blessing us with their handiwork .... so on behalf of Gaynor and the QFO ladies Norma, thanks so very much.

The weather was kind to us on the weekend, Gaynors garden was simply 'bloomin; marvellous' ... all the roses were in full flower and with the assistance of Reg and his trusty sidekick, all the visitors cars were well 'stabled' on the property as the owners shopped.

We had an abundance of wonderful items on display .... quilts and stitcheries created by our quilters and friends.

You may recall we showed you this lovely quilt created by Deborahs friend for her recent Birthday ... I will show you some close ups of the detail ... it truly is awesome!

 

We also had beautiful needlework on display from Val ....

Vals work is just beautiful ... and as you can see she also does paper tole as well as needlework.

Then we had Maxines incredibly detailed needlework on, dare I call it a blanket? It's far too mundane a description for this lovely work ... there were actually two such beautiful pieces created by Maxine.

 And here is the second work ...... 

Aren't these just adorable?

We had many, many items for sale ..... and so many people eager to peruse our wares came thru the Barn door over the weekend of 8th and 9th November ..... the following pictures give a glimpse of of what was on offer.

This delightful little purse actually holds a matching needlework kit inside .... sweet :)

Some of our Christmas sale items ...

Jan made these lovely little miniare tree decoration stockings

Christmas candles ...

Some of our wares on display outside .... we had sooooo many things available for sale ...

Felt finger puppets created by Lois ....

Many and varied patterns .... for quilts and stitcheries ...

Preparing for the influx of visitors ..... Yvonne and Deborah ...

Maxine getting ready too ...

Plenty of homemade cakes and slices for the customers ...

First visitors ..... welcome, welcome :)

And still the customers kept coming :)

Isobel, on right, chatting to Alison .... who had kindly gifted us many craft magazines for fundraising.

Noelle and Gaynor ..... both quite chuffed at our turnout on the weekend .....

Deborah and Gaynor .... taking a well earned lunch break in the garden.

Just a few of the beautiful roses from the garden which surrounds our quilt Barn ....

Gaynor was also offering standard roses for sale as part of our fundraising ...

Almost the end of the day .... and Reg has one more car to attend to :)

Born 1926  ..... still going strong (the car .... not the 'Valet' service) .... isn't it a ripper?

And summing up .... below ... this is what the weekend was all about .... the vast range of places across the globe that get our quilts, with the weekend fundraising enabling us to continue providing fabric 'hugs' for another year. We had almost 80 people thru our Barn door ... a very encouraging number ... and we are quietly confident that we may have even recruited a few to come join us next year .... woohoo!!!!

I will now, in closing, share with you some photos and an email from Roedie Rap ... one of the Pastors who ministers to Russia and the Ukraine. His email below will tell you just a little of the impact our fabric hugs can make to lives far away ...

Dear People,
The conference in Rivne has come to an end. Various churches were responsible for us
at different times. Two of these churches share the same building and that is where
all meetings were held. The building is owned by the Messianic Church. They held a
church meeting at 6pm on Friday, which of course is the start of the Sabbath. Then
another service at 11 am today. (Saturday, also Sabbath). We preached at both these
services to finish off the conference for the Messianic Church. The official end for
the other churches will be tomorrow (Sunday) at the same building. Are you confused
now? Don't worry we have been trying to get our head around the schedule all week
also. We have had a tremendous response to the conference so far. 

Today we spent half an hour with a young couple, Sasha and Katya, with their
daughter Nastya from Lugansk (East) Because of the war they lost their home,
business, church and so on. They are trying to rebuild their lives here in Rivne.
All this time we have carried with us three quilts and trauma bears. Instantly we
knew this couple needed a set. See photos.

Tonight we had dinner with great friends, Misha and Julia from Krasny Lutch. Their
son Leon has autism. We knew already in Australia that one quilt and bear would be
for them. Autistic kids like stability in their lives and the war situation of
course does not provide this at all. Julia had built an English tutoring business
with 400 students in Krasny Lutch. They found out they were targeted by the rebels
because of their pro Ukrainian stance, so they were one of the first families to
leave Krasny Lutch. She already has rebuilt a new school with 30 students now. Misha
was the youth pastor in the church.
Leon liked the quilt very, very much and at the time we left their home he was
nicely tucked under the quilt and did not want to separate from it any more.
Julia & Misha and Sasha & Katya give special thanks to the ministry in Australia
which so kindly provided these gifts.
He Lives,
Roedie & Jeannette       

Sasha and Katya, with their daughter Nastya.

 

Misha, Julia and Leon.

Leon with his quilt ..... ^

So there you have it .... it's always so awesome to see our quilts in the arms of those whose lives they have made that little bit happier. Thanks so much Roedie for sharing the pictures with us :)

And that just about winds up this Blog ... it just remains to remind our little band of stitchers that we will have one extra Working Bee before our Christmas breakup .... and that will be this coming Saturday the 15th. This Bee will be convened for the purpose of a final tidy up before we put our machines and needles away till 2015 :) No theme has been announced for lunch .... so it will be 'pot luck' with our ladies just being asked to bring something to share :)

Till next Blog .... which will be posted soon enough .... just a week away :) I will leave you with warm thanks from Gaynor and the rest of the QFO ladies for enabling us to stitch for another year. Its been simply awesome to be involved in this ministry and I look forward to sharing more in my next Post.

Blessings to all,

Susan.

Our contact details are as follow:

Gaynor Peterson ... phone (03)9756 7950

email ... [email protected]

Susan Hamilton .....phone (03)9737 1825

email: [email protected]

Our postal address (for donations) is  P.O Box 398 Monbulk Victoria 3793

Check out the following Links:

http://kayleenwest.com.au .... for Art with a positive spirit

http://mellyandme.typepad.com .... creative clothing etc for children

 http://mrsmartinsquiltshop.typepad.com/  ...whose customer blessed us with awesome fabric

We also stitch for the following Childrens Homes ....

http://www.butterflych.org/.... for news about the Butterfly Palliative Care hospice in China

And their very own Blog ... which is beautifully written and contains inspirational stories on the children in their care. See the Link below:

http://butterflyhospice.blogspot.com.au/

http://secure.smilebox.com/ecom/openTheBox?sendevent=4d6a59784e7a45314d6a673d0d0a&sb=1

www.freetobekids.org/- .... the rescue organisation that frees children from slavery and exploitation

www.hopefosterhome.com ... the babies we are creating crib quilts for in China ...

www.zoehopeproject.blogspot.com  .... giving hope to children in Zambia.

http://english.chinaconcern.org/  ... more children in China that we have stitched for ...

http://www.lolachildrensfund.org/ .... in Ethiopia

http://www.fikelela.org.za/orphan.asp .... the Fikelala AIDS Project in Capetown

http://mifanmama.com/Shining_Star_2.html the Home for vision impaired children in Shanghai

http://www.austchamshanghai.com/about-us/csr/mifan-mama.aspx

And also our latest Project .... for the Holocaust Survivors in Israel.

http://au.icej.org/