Quilts For Orphans

Goodness, another year winds up for QFO. With lunch at Rose Cottage to celebrate.

And its the end of year gathering for our stitchers who gathered at Rose Cottage in Monbulk on Saturday December 8th to enjoy a lovely lunch as our end of year 'icing on the QFO cake' for 2018.

An overview of those present. 

Present were: Annette our new CEO, Mel (our website guru), Isobel, Win, Susan and Peter, Val R, Maxine, Carol, Alice, Sheryl, Libby and Peter, Julie and Ian, Yvonne and Don, Jenny and Peter, Sinling and Ron, Alison, Stephanie, Joanne, Sandi, Pauline and Chris .... and surprise attendees Gaynor and Reg who we were thrilled to welcome back to join us from their seachange of a year ago.

Apologies and much missed were Deborah, Christine and Val S.

The meal was, as usual, delightful and served by the very attentive staff of Rose Cottage ... many thanks for hosting us again. Always an absolute pleasure to dine here.

And many thanks also to the very talented Peter Stokes .... who kindly used his photographic skills to capture so many brilliant images of our lunch gathering. His snaps far surpassed mine and I am more than appreciative of his handiwork. Particularly the brilliant collage at the end of this Blogpost. Superb!!

Gaynor and Reg with Peter Sansom.

Annette welcoming all to our Christmas Breakup lunch.

Alison and Stephanie ... two of our stitchers ...

Ron and Sinling, Peter and Libby, Ian and Julie, Yvonne and Don ...


Peter, Susan, Sheryl, Alice, Carol, Maxine, Val, Win and Isobel ...

Making our lunch selections from the Menu :)

Roast Beef was flavoursome ...

Salmon was divine ...

Turkey was most pleasing :)

And who can quibble with a delicious Pavlova? Certainly not yours truly ;)

Annette fills us in on all that has been achieved by QFO in 2018 ...

Reg, Sandi, Joanne, Alison, Stephanie, Annette and Gaynor ...

Val, Win and Gaynor ... catching up since last they were together ...

Reg doing likewise ...

Joanne and Jenny ... and we must give a big 'shout out' to Joanne who has, with husband Kim ... kindly allowed us to occupy space at their Shed in 2018. Enabling us to continue stitching and creating for those in need.

It's been so very much a gifting to us and we look forward to being able to 'encroach' on them, with their blessing ... for a little longer in 2019. Many thanks to you both .. we would indeed be 'orphans' without your generosity of heart and willingness to share. Thank you :)

Jennys shoes ..... the ladies will understand. It's all about the shoes .. and aren't they divine?

Not to be outdone ... my attention was directed to Sinlings snazzy footwear too ;) It's a 'girl thing' folks ... 

Alison and Stephanie ...

Alison and Libby ...

Carol, Sandi and Maxine ...

Sinling, Win, Yvonne and Val ... looks like folk are beginning to depart ...

Sheryl and Alice ...

Yvonne, Don, Jenny ... and THOSE shoes ...Isn't the colour divine?

Val and Yvonne ...

Sinling ...

Sinling and Libby ..

Gaynor, Sheryl and Alice ...

Carol, Sandi, Maxine and Sinling :)

And that winds up the photographic side of things ... almost. But before I finalise this Blogpost I'll give a brief overview of all that has been done by QFO in the year that is nearly over ... according to notes I took yesterday.

We have created 60 Beanbags with our furnishing fabric ... for Indonesia. As well as many aprons also for the Hohidiai School there.

We gifted 50 quilts to the Babes Project which supports young mothers in raising their infants.

Quilts were also given to CPEC for the Cerebral Palsy children having therapy sessions there.

Different Journeys .. the Autism Spectrum folk also received some heavyweight quilts for passing on to a local school for classroom comfort with children on the spectrum.

Billanook College received quilts from us for taking to their Thai Service project on the Thai Burma border.

The Boomerang Bag ladies in Mount Evelyn were gifted our furnishing fabric for use in their eco friendly shopping bags created to reduce the reliance on plastics.

Mustard Tree Op Shop in Lilydale received the remainder of the furnishing fabric which we are sure they will have no trouble recycling into useful projects,

And finally ... it pleases me to announce that following our Festival of Quilts at Mont De Lancey last month ... we had a winner in the 'Viewers Choice' part of the Quilt Challenge and it was Sandi and her 'Springtime on the Peninsula' quilt. We hope that Sandi enjoys spending her voucher ... on fabric of course ;)

Winner of the Puffing Billy Pass for contributing feedback on or Forum was Irene Ferguson. Many thanks for participating Irene, enjoy the train ride :)

And that wraps up pretty much our year to date. Hope that you enjoyed following our journey and I look forward to sharing more with you in the weeks to come .. as and when more news comes to hand. In the interim enjoy the brief hiatus between now and Christmas day and may your Christmas be beautiful, blessed and everything that you could possibly wish for,

 

Blessings,

Susan

Co-ordinator: Annette Stone  .... phone 0407 648 618                                                                                                    

email: [email protected]

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

email: [email protected]

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

And .... we are www.quiltsforphans.org 

On 'social media'  aka Facebook find us at https://www.facebook.com/QuiltsForOrphans/

Check out the following Links:

http://www.facebook.com/Chelseaonesock .... for delightful retro fabric childrens clothing

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

www.jewelsofhope.org ... the project we stitch for in Lesotho Southern Africa

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

http://elishacare.blogspot.com.au/

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

The Matombo Village Project vimeo.com/217129149

www.ujamaachildren.com

 

 

 

News from the Butterfly Hospice .... a Christmas update :)

Just received this .. forwarded on from our QFO member Joy who has a deep interest in this 
organisation in China.
As we have stitched for the Butterfly Hospice pretty much since QFO started I thought it would 
brighten your day to read their latest news :)


https://butterflyhospice.org/?author=15> Hello December
https://butterflyhospice.org/hello-december/> by Katie Hill
https://butterflyhospice.org/?author=15>

How is it December already?! This year has flown by and we cannot believe
it is time to start preparing for Christmas and the holiday season already.

Gifts are arriving to our home daily from all over the World. We are
extremely thankful for this continued support, which has been organised
again by our very own Irish elf, Katie.

This month will also see one of our current Butterflies and one of our
Butterfly graduates home with their forever families. We cannot wait to
share their stories. Keep an eye on our social media for more information
later this month.

We hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season.

Katie 

Gifting some fabric to the Boomerang Bag ladies ... for their wonderful work.

And another Blog update .. with pictures .. grab a cuppa and enjoy :) 

We were very recently able to bless a local community initiative Boomerang Bags with sturdy furnishing fabric in order for them to create reusable shopping bags .. a wonderful initiative in this day of throwaway plastic. Bags that are incredibly tough and help make a less messy environment. I have popped a Link I found on the Web below which explains what they do. Always good to be able to 'destash' a little and pay it forward to another community group. And we were also able to bless the Mustard Tree Op Shop in Lilydale with some of this fabric too, which I'm sure will help with the valuable work that they do locally.

https://www.mtevelynch.com.au/news

Christine and Jenny busily cutting fabric ...

Christine and Annette loading it all up ...

Filling the van ...

Handing over our 'destash' ...

And very soon the fabric will be .... bags :)

And that's this Blog update 'in the bag' ... so to speak :)

I look forward to sharing with you further after our Christmas lunch which will be happening this coming Saturday .. always wonderful to end our QFO year with a relaxing gathering and no pins or needles in sight :)

Till then,

 

Blessings,

Susan

Co-ordinator: Annette Stone  .... phone 0407 648 618                                                                                                     

email: [email protected]

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

email: [email protected]

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

And .... we are www.quiltsforphans.org 

On 'social media'  aka Facebook find us at https://www.facebook.com/QuiltsForOrphans/

Check out the following Links:

http://www.facebook.com/Chelseaonesock .... for delightful retro fabric childrens clothing

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

www.jewelsofhope.org ... the project we stitch for in Lesotho Southern Africa

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

http://elishacare.blogspot.com.au/

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

The Matombo Village Project vimeo.com/217129149

www.ujamaachildren.com

Stitching for Indonesia ....

Earlier in the year QFO was approached and asked to create some items for the Hohidiai school in Indonesia. And this week we were able to pass them on to Esther Scarborough ... for conveying to their destination.

Without further ado ... here are the pictures taken at the handover .. we look forward to being able to share with you later on  .. the images of them being put to good use over there by the children at the school :) 

And without further ado ... I pop this Blogpost out into cyberspace and get on with my next update ... busy, busy, busy ...

 

Susan :)

 

 

Thank you to Nellie ... and her amazing gift of quilts for us :)

Now .. and belatedly ... just before our Festival of Quilts opened we were blessed by a visit from Nellie Sutherland who bestowed upon us a wonderful collection of quilts, for which we are incredibly thankful.

I've just received the pictures taken on the day she visited, so without further ado ... here they are. I think you'll agree that Nellie and her team (Quilts of Love) have been incredibly busy stitching for us. Many many thanks :)

Beautiful work, incredibly generous souls ... how blessed are we eh?

Aaaaand .... now on to the next Blogpost .. goodness me it's been a busy month :)

 

Blessings,

 

Susan 

 

Summary of our Festival of Quilts 2018 ... from our CEO Annette Stone.

   



The inaugural Quilts For Orphans Festival of  Quilts concluded Sunday 18th November.

 The extra hands to pack up were welcome and clever negotiation meant that the bulk supply of product
 for the Draught Horse Festival was stored at Mont De Lancey ready for the weekend of 24th and 25th
 November. The Festival itself took many months of planning  and on 8th November the set up commenced. 

Challenge Quilts adorned the walls and centre panels,whilst the side benches were stacked with
Quilts of all sizes. An explosion of colour and pattern.

 Karina Noblett, chairman of  C W A Yarra Valley Group opened the event. As a newcomer to Australia
 some years ago, she found the network of women in CWAwelcoming and appreciated the friendship  
and community involvement as a member.
She commended our group on providing similar social network opportunities, the quality and variety of 
our display and the focus of our work providing hope and comfort to those in need. Many hands have 
touched these quilts in the making process but one pair of hands has touched them all. We took the
opportunity to thank Yvonne, who is our sole quilter.  Thank you Yvonne. We couldn’t do it
without you. 

 Lunch in Monty’s followed with plenty of lively chatter amongst the group. Guests to the exhibition 
were invited to vote for  their favorite quilt from the Challenge display the winner of viewers choice
will receive a voucher to spend at Ozquilts.
 
We enjoyed Devonshire tea in Monty’s and later in the Heritage room Janet O’Dell spoke about
her collection of vintage quiltsdisplaying a random collection from the 60’s and 70’s. We were 
delighted to haveladies from Lorne visit with us. They have gifted us quilts in the past and we look 
forward to continued association with them. The afternoon ran smoothly,and Janet presented a slide
show of Australian quilts from settlement to recent times, pointing out material and pattern changes . 
The show and tell session drew 'oohs and ahhs' as we admired tiny piecing, intricate patterns and
poignant personal stories of the quilts. Afternoon tea in Monty’s concluded the afternoon.

The exhibition continued daily under the supervision of our dedicated helpers, the craft table doing 
a brisk sale and our 'for sale' quilts also were snapped up.

 The machinery shed meeting room was the venue for Makers Marathon on Friday. Our thanks to Lewis
 and the boys. We welcomed 3 new faces and a total of 9 ladies hit the machines and stitched for the
 day, stopping briefly for lunch. Preparation by Christine and Jenny, with buckets of colour coded strips
 prepared and a design plan, meant that with a coordinated effort a quilt top took shape during the
morning and a second design attempted in the afternoon. Everyone had fun and we all agreed that it 
was a productive process, that would be worth repeating through the year.
 
 We concluded on Sunday with a Thanksgiving Service in the Chapel with the pews bedecked in Quilts.
 For each one unique person, part of our group, the local andinterstate individuals and groups who know
 and support our work,for the worldwide community we serve ...  we give thanks. As we journey through
 life’s ups and downs , dealing with issues around health, relationships, work, we seek His presence , 
guidance and comfort, and working alongside others, an understanding and compassion for their story 
too. We confess our shortcomings in dealing with the bumpy prickly bits in ourselves and others and
 submit to His guidance and correction to restore us. We anticipate new opportunity to serve Him in 
serving others, and to be  a pleasant fragrance in the community.

 My sincere thanks to the Exhibition Committee and those who went the extra mile to launch the 
Festival. For the daily helpers,  the quilt makers, the event coordinators, Lewis and the machinery boys
 for sharing their space, the Mont De Lancey team for exhibition space and front desk support for 
sales, Sheryl and Jono in Monty’s tea room, the groups who made special excursions to visit us, I thank
you all.

Annette.

 
Many thanks to Peter Stokes for his amazing collage of pictures ... showcasing our Festival. Very much
appreciated :)

Susan

2018 Draught Horse Festival at Mont De Lancey ... and QFO were there :)

And now a message from Deborah ... who, along with a team of helpers, represented Quilts for
Orphans at the recent Draught Horse Festival at beautiful Mont Delancey.

 

Despite the inclement weather we had a great time talking to lots of people about QFO's . I feel sure 
we will have new members in the new year along with stash and UFO's donations. Also a big thank you to
 Pauline who donated 2 quilts to us at the Festival of Quilts. You can see her needle turned quilt as the 
back drop for the stall. It is now a beautiful QFO hanging quilt . It was a great talking point and greatly
admired.

Many thanks also to Annette, Christine, Stephanie and Libby for helping out on the stall over the weekend. 

Deborah 

 

 

Our CEO Annette .. with Pauline and her beautiful gifted quilts. Just stunning ... thank you so much.


And finally .... what would a Draught Horse Festival be without ... a Draught Horse. And on 
that note, I'll send this Blog update into cyberspace for your reading pleasure :)

Susan