The Merry Month of May

We had about 40 ladies in attendance on Monday, and it took us yonks to get through show and tell!  So much stuff!

But first I have to apologise because many of the photos I took were excruciatingly bad and had to be scrapped; there's still a few good ones though.

First up was Orrawin, whose specialty is taking smallish unfinished items and turning them into fabulous quilts.  She did a great job on a bow tie one, but sorry, no usable photo.  Orrawin also showed us this quilt/cape she made for her husband, who is big and tall and has much longer arms than our model, Lorraine.

 

Next is Kay's lovely spiderweb quilt.

 

Joan has been knitting dolls for over 10 years and has now made over a thousand!

They are all so special - and from all walks of life.  I think I see Harpo Marx there.

Joan also crocheted some of these rugs; I wonder what she does in her spare time?

 

Olwyn made a bright star quilt.

 

Margaret Brown sent us this pink flimsy, which a kind person has taken home to complete.

 

...and one from Glenda Halpin.  O!

Judy M made many kiddies carry bags, some of which she has filled with small items; colouring books, pencils, perhaps a small toy and toothbrush or pyjamas.  These little bags are given to children who are going into care and sometimes have to wait for several hours while everything is being organised.  The bags help to keep them occupied in the meantime.

 

I missed who made this quilt - a quickie but a goodie!

 

 

And also these two delightful baby panels

 

A bright star quilt with appliqued and embroidered birds made by Judy and Bev

 

And a fabulous starry quilt from Margaret S.

 

I love this strippy quilt as you go from Ann M.

Sharyn has sent us many, many unfinished quilt tops.  Here are a few of them after quilting, along with the orange one from Carol Beavis.  Thanks, girls.



An enormous amount of our product comes from people that we never meet, and sometimes we don't even know the names of donors, but we're always thankful to be able to pass on their items.

One such group is the Emu Park Crafty Chicks, who have mailed many unfinished quilt tops.  Below is one with beautiful hand embroidered blocks that has recently been finished.

Thank you, Chicks.

 

Some of the items that we make are more useful than beautiful.

This little vest has hidden pockets for small weighted bags, and they are used in classrooms in special schools.  The vests help to calm the children and keep them focussed on their lessons.  Lorraine has made heaps of them in various sizes and they are in high demand.

 

Check out what we distributed this month here.

 

Thank you so much to John Hay, who gave us a donation after receiving a touchy feely apron for his wife Beverley, who is suffering dementia.  Beverley has been much less agitated since receiving the apron.

 

Heaps and heaps of diverse items are being stockpiled for sale at our Open Day on August 31st.  We're hoping to raise lots of funds to purchase wadding and other essentials to continue our giving, and we're looking forward to seeing you all there.
 

In the meantime, keep sewing and we'll catch you next month.................

 

 

 

 

 

Thankyou from Judie B

Hello one and all. 

 

It’s the International Week of the Volunteer and what better reason for sending you a very big THANK YOU to every single volunteer for Sunshine Linus.  We’ve been in operation for three years and have achieved the most amazing amount of support for the Sunshine Coast community and beyond.  It is only with your generous gift of time and resources that we’ve been able to help those in need and in so many different ways. 

If you’ve not yet done so, have a look at what we’ve donated since our beginning in 2010. Click on the following link:
 

http://sunshinelinusgroup.blogspot.com.au/p/what-we-make-and-where-it-goes.html

 
We don’t have an actual figure of members for Sunshine Linus because a great deal of our volunteers work away on their own, in their own homes and arrange for their creations to be distributed by Sunshine Linus.  We don’t see your faces and in some cases know your names, but we truly appreciate the wonderful flow of donations for our community.

 

To each and everyone of you, I offer my most humble THANKS for everything that you do for Sunshine Linus.  Your generosity and community spirit is what makes the operation of Sunshine Linus such a success.  Please pass this message on where possible, to those who you know don’t receive our emails or are on our email list. 

 Looking forward to seeing those who can attend our next monthly meeting on Monday 27th May.

 Cheerio for now

 
Judie Bellingham

President Sunshine Linus Inc.

April meeting

I always seem to start off saying "Another busy day", but I can't help it because it's true!  Lots of ladies, buzzing about; creating, sorting, packing, and sharing skills.  It's so uplifting to be part of a group that's working together and filling a need in the community.  And we're fulfilling a need in ourselves at the same time, and that's important too.

So what happened.

 

Ann's friend, Lorraine, who lives far away in South Australia sent some baby knits by mail.

Lorraine has been knitting for us forever, and just in the last year has sent 107 baby jumpers and cardigans.  Talk about flying fingers!  Thanks, Lorraine.

 

Jan K has been on holidays, fishing I believe, but she found time to embroider these sweet little motifs, and put them into memory blankets when she got home.

So pretty!

 

Claire found some white lace in our supplies and was inspired to make this little lovely.

 

And Nicky demonstrated how to make a shaggy quilt like these.

So effective, and they're so warm and cuddly!  Thanks for sharing, Nicky.

 

Leone always brings in such a haul of product that we think she must sew 23 hours a day!

Amongst it this time were these Xray bags.  The radiology and oncology departments love these for their patients so they don't have to juggle cumbersome Xrays.

 

Of course, in amongst all this loveliness our main focus is quilts; and below is a selection from this month.  I apologise that I do not always remember who made what.

This strippy might look a bit plain, but the other side is pink plush that a little girl is going to fall in love with!

 

I Spy squares and corduroy, what a great combination.

 

And tartan for a big boy.

 

Tweet tweet - too sweet.

 

A scrappy delight, with a very striking border.

.

And lastly, woven pink hearts.  Yes, that is not check fabric in the hearts, its woven strips!

 

Our next meeting will be on May 27th, and we'll be working on preparations for our Open day on August 31st (which is going to sneak up on us real fast!

 

 

 

 



Busy, busy day!

Wow, they came from everywhere!
So many people!

 

And look at this fabulous space that the Nambour Uniting Church allow us to use, FOR FREE!

We really couldn't continue without their generosity, and we're very grateful.

 

Chris Potter, from Gifts4KidsInCare came to talk to us today (that's her standing way over in the corner), to tell us what an impact the gift of a quilt can make on a foster child, and how treasured these gifts are.  We've been supporting her efforts for a couple of years now, and supplied over 250 quilts, but there is still a great need.

 

 

Here's Chris and Cynthia (our Secretary) holding two of the quilts that Chris collected from us today to start her winter appeal.  There are a lot more kids in foster care than most of us realise.

 

With so many in attendance today Show and Tell was quite a long affair.

Quilts, chemo caps, crocheted rugs, knitted items for babies and children, touchy feely quilts and aprons, pieced quilt tops and backs, all manner of tote bags, and sit-upons; the list is endless.

 

 

The tables are groaning under today's haul!

 

Just before I leave you with some photos of individual items to drool over, I'll remind you that we're having an extra meeting on April 15th, mostly to work on making, packing and pricing items for our sales stall at Open Day on August 31st.  (More about that as the time draws nearer.)  Then we're back to our normal meeting on April 29th, which will feature a raggy quilt mini-workshop.

There's always plenty happening!

 

 

Cosy baby wraps

This one is such fun

 The stained glass effect is the backlighting from window behind, and the leaves are on the backing.  Pretty, isn't it?

 

Stunning colours

 

We're very lucky to have so many talented and generous people making for us.

Thank you all.

25th February Gathering

Well, we had big plans for our day at Sunshine Linus.  We hoped to have a mini workshop on making drainage bags for those women who have had mastectomies.  Well, Mother Nature had other ideas and we had a small gathering due to yet another "weather event" as the Bureau likes to call it. 

We normal people call it something else I probably shouldn't type here, but you get my meaning.  It poured and poured throughout the day, and driving up from Brisbane and home again became a bit of an adventure.  We travelled over two flowing creeks, and both were almost at the point of bursting their banks and covering the road.  We held our breath as we passed over, and had no other problems other than a very slow trip.

But there were a about 15 of the die hards there, who all now would qualify for being postwomen for their local communities!  (Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail shall keep the postmen from their appointed rounds.) 

So we abandoned the idea of a mini workshop and spent the day enjoying show and tell, and organising, sorting, sewing, gathering like bits together etc.  We had a few newbies join us, it's always lovely to welcome new members and delight in their skills.  We had one particular newbie who also happened to be a on the receiving end of our quilts recently.  Nicky's little boy Stewart was in hospital and received a quilt from Sunshine Linus.  Nicky went super sleuthing on google and found our blog.  Nicky and her family wanted to thank us and the rest is history - she's very happy being a part of our wonderful group.  BTW, Stewart is doing well, but being monitored.

Thanks also to Lyn who took these photos for us - she is also a very skilled quilt maker and we delighted in seeing her great creations - the red one is hers, isn't it stunning!

So here's some of our photos from yesterday.



This quilt was a wonderful idea from Rosemary.  Lots and lots of scraps, with an I Spy centre.  Here's a closeup:

 



This one is very jewel like, facets abound - Another Lyn creation



Simply red and white looks absolutely stunning.

This one has been made using the Quilt as you Go method.  Very effective results.

Frogs Frolic

A simple row by row, but just gorgeous

 

Plans are underway for our Open Day in August and we received a large amount of beautifully made goodies for our stall in August.  Leone has made some very clever little nick-knacks which may not last till August.  Lots of lovely things, and it's looking like we're going to have a huge stall.  More information about that in the next blog posting.  Bye for now.


Here's a listing of the goodies that we received today and where they were distributed to:

16 x Baby wraps, 4 baby caps, 26 hot pack cases, 11 wheat pack cases all to Nambour Hospital
2 Touchy Feelies to Winton, Qld
5 Fitted Touchy Feelies (to site on wheelchair trays) and 5 Touchy Feelies to Winston House
1 Raffle Quilt and Bag to Cystic Fybrosis for Fundraising
9 PJ sets, 10 Toilet Bags, 4 small childrens quilts to Salvation Army Teewantin
10 Children's Quilt to McConnell Ward RCH
12 Teenage Quilt to Foster Parents Assoc
4 Touchy Feelies to Maryborough Special School
33 Toilet Bags, 15 shopping bags and 2 beanies to Lions Emergency Care, Nambour
14 Quilts in storage for next month.

Given that this was a very wet day, and we only had a few members attending, we are very pleased with out output for this month.  Well done ladies.