Quilts For Orphans

September Stitching Day .... and getting closer to our November Quilt Fair :)

             

Hello and welcome to our September update. We met up at the Barn on Saturday September 12th 2015 and were soon busily stitching away. Present were several sets of 'twins' ... two Carols, two Vals and two Susans ... as well as Christine, Joy, Pauline, Yvonne, Win, Emily. Alison, Tracy and Margaret (who came all the way from Bendigo to spend the day with us). 

The ladies had been busy since we last met and the two Vals had been brainstorming some great ideas for items to stitch for our fundraiser in November. Here is the result .. think they'll have to make enough to sell 'in house' as well, because these little pincushion frogs were extremely cute.

Joy had also been active in an 'owly' way ... with her pincushion idea. More are planned to be stitched for November :)

Joy also added to our quilt top 'stash' with these lovely warm flannel cot quilt tops ...

We always appreciate donations from folk who have heard of our quilt ministry and wish to bless us with items that we can put to good use. One such 'blessing' came to us courtesy of Rita Hemmings who had been tasked with the job of dealing with the craft magazine/fabric/accessory stash of her friend the late Bru Breasley. As well as fabric, Brus husband had given Rita the go ahead to donate an overlocker that Bru had used. We are now the very grateful recipients of this gift and Brus' bequest will enable us to create many well finished stitchings for the projects we will continue to make. Many thanks Rita and the family of Bru.

 

Some of our ladies getting down to business .....

And this is what it is all about ..... our Annual Quilt Fair ... ink it into your calendars.

Even 'yours truly' cranked up her machine and got to work attaching bindings to quilts :)

Val and Win were busy also ......

 

 Rita  (who is going to be joining us) with Joy .....

 Christine and Val .... deep in conversation ..... surely quilting related :)

 Margaret ... who travelled from Bendigo to spend the day with us :)

Carol .... busily hand stitching bindings to quilts ...

And also stitching was Alison ..... hand sewing is such a relaxing 'duty' at our working days.

Pauline, hard at work on her machine ....

A short break for lunch ... the 'Theme' was Chinese :)

 

And dear reader ... that's where the photos for this months Blog finish ... as I soon enough had to resume stitching also ... to justify my seat in the Barn ;) However I can let you know that there is one more Working Bee before our Fundraiser on the second weekend in November. This Working Bee will be held on Saturday October 10th .... lunch 'Theme' is going to be 'Make your own Subway' .... cost will be $5.00 payable on the day and Christine will be in charge of organising the repast :)

Now it just remains to remind you of our contact details and to also thank those who support us via publicity on their own sites .... and also to promote those organisations that we quilters support with our fabric 'hugs'.

Blessings all,

Susan :)

 

Contact details:     Gaynor Peterson email ... [email protected]

 

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

And our very own website ... maintained by the wonderful Fiona Peterson.

http://www.quiltsfororphans.org/

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/

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

Our Projects for 2015: 

http://www.thebabesproject.com.au/

 http://elishacare.blogspot.com.au/

http://rangescc.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/elisha-care/

https://jewelsofhope.wordpress.com/partners/

A midway Blogpost .... and a visitor from Shanghai ...

Dropped what I was doing and headed to the Barn today (Monday August 31st) as we had a visitor from  Shanghai visiting QFO. Absolutely delighted to meet Jan, who came by to meet the quilters and to also fill us in on Mifan Mama and the Shining Star Foster Home for vision impaired children in Shanghai who we provided with quilts some time ago. 

Shining Star, which opened in June 2012, operates from a Villa which is part of a residential complex, and is home to 8 children with vision impairments and some other health issues. There is a permanent staff of two ( a carer and a cleaner) as well as a team of volunteers who help with the various needs of the children. Shining Star developed under the 'umbrella' of Mifan Mama (founded in 2009) which has orphanages in four Provinces throughout China. Mifan Mama has provided rice, flour, strollers and walkers, clothing and toys and Boxes of Love during this time. See the website at www.mifanmama.com for further details of the wonderful work being done for the children by both Shining Star and the Mifan Mama organisation.

Below is a picture of young Tom, from Shining Star .... who has just been adopted .... 

Are they some of our quilts I see on the beds above? .... :)

Jan is involved with fundraising for Shining Star and is a key motivator in the fundraising for the Boxes of Love, which provides 50,000 gift boxes (the size of shoeboxes) filled with toys, candy and food for every orphan for the Chinese New Year. Companies and individuals contribute to the 'ingredients' of these wonderful boxes.

As part of this fundraising there is a Gala event coming up and for this Jan visited the Quilters and we were more than happy to provide her with two lovely quilts to be part of the Silent Auction at the upcoming Gala. Visit http://mifanmama.com/gala.html to see pictures from the inaugural Gala in October of 2014. 

We also gifted her some smaller quilts for the children in the Homes. These quilts were cot size to single bed size and we look forward to hearing that the children were well pleased with the fabric 'hugs' we sent back to Shanghai with Jan. 

Jan then presented the quilters with Thank You gifts and a beautiful handmade card on behalf of Shining Star ..

So we bid farewell to Jan (and her friend & 'chauffeur' Barb) and wished her every success for the Gala fundraiser and the very best for Mifan Mama & Shining Star. Delighted to meet you .... travel safe.

 

 We then set to some of the usual Monday tasks ... preparation for the next Working Bee and some 'housekeeping' tasks ... for our upcoming November Quilt Fair.

Deborah, hard at work creating price tags for our 'For Sale' quilts ..

Jenny sorting a roll of donated fabric into lengths for quilt backings.

Yvonnes awesome custom quilting .... think this one may be for sale ...

We also were extremely happy to receive a box of 29 wonderful quilt tops from Gayle in Rockhampton Queensland ...

 Yvonne busily unpacking Gayles parcel ..... 

Gayle has been an awesome 'offsite stitcher' for QFO and we thank her so very much for the incredible amount of work she has put in for us with this awesome number of 'tops'. Look forward to showing them off further after they have been 'sandwiched' and quilted.  

And that just about winds up this 'impromptu' extra Blogpost. Stay tuned for the next one ... which will hit cyberspace after our September Working Bee at the Barn ..

 

Till then, blessings to all ...

 

Susan :)