Tuesday Show and Tell Flood Quilts

There was a huge crowd at quilting on Tuesday.  Many ladies were working on their Sashiko from the sashiko workshops.  Some of the ladies were busy sorting out donations and the flood quilts.  Altogether, it was a busy, busy day.

Lyle is seen here with Mary who lives in the badly affected flood area of Grantham.  Mary and Lyle were sorting through some needlework bags which may make their way to the various crafts people in Mary’s area. 

Some of these beautiful needlework bags and their contents were a surprise donation from the wonderful ladies at Bateman’s Bay Needlework Group.  Thank you ladies from the bottom of our hearts.  We know fellow needleworkers in our region who have been flooded will enjoy receiving these very much.

Here are our ladies busy at work.

Thank you to all our members who have given so generously of their time and material to make these quilts.

Art Quilt Group

Late last year a group of Toowoomba Quilters’ members got together and formed an Art Quilt Group.  It began with 5 members and we now get about 12 members to a group get together.
This past Saturday the AQ group worked on a technique using lutradur and acrylic paints to create a landscape.  The idea for this came from an article by Ineke Berlyn in a Stitch magazine. 
All the individual quilts (A4 size) are going to be very different. 
Here is Ann J, Linda W and Robyn M beginning work on their landscapes.


and Wendy starting on hers.
The ladies did a show and tell at the end of the day showing what they had achieved so far.

We look forward to seeing them finished.

A Special Visit

Helen joined us for lunch today.  Helen was a victim of the January floods and we were so pleased to have her back amongst the ranks.  She is currently living in Brisbane but hopes to be able to visit us from time to time until they eventually move back to our region.

Helen was overcome with emotion when we presented her with some gifts.  The club presented Helen with 2 bags stuffed with sewing goodies.  Everything she needs to get her fired up to start back into sewing.

Clare from NSW very kindly donated a sewing machine.  YES a sewing machine.  Thank you very much Clare, and the picture below speaks a thousand words.  Helen is so very appreciative.

Judy, from Michigan USA, sent some gifts to Helen via Dianne C. Thank you so much Judy.  As you can tell by the photos Helen was so very excited to receive them.  Judy made a  needlework case with lots of little odds and ends in it especially for Helen.  There were other lovely gifts included in the parcels too.

The flood quilting is still going on and some more quilts and quilt tops adorned the walls again at quilting today.

Our ladies are still working on flood quilts and we hope to start distributing some of those quilts in the coming weeks.

The weather is starting to turn cooler now, so our recipients are going to love receiving a quilt to snuggle up with.

More flood quilts

Yesterday we held our AGM and details of our new office bearers will be posted soon. It's been a busy year so far and we've also started our regular planning meetings for our 2011 exhibition.

 

Work continues on quilts to be donated to assist flood victims. Some readers may have donated fabrics that they can recognise in completed quilts. We are really appreciative of everyone's contributions.

Some members work on flood quilts on our meeting days and others turn up to meetings with completed quilts. The backing and labels on many of our quilts are also worthy of attention; look at this one!

It seems that many of our members are "toppers" and tend to have their quilt tops professionally quilted. Those club members who are happy to quilt tops have extended themselves and are making a wonderful effort to assist with the completion process.  Here are a few more of our completed "flood quilts".

Donation of Quilts

 
Yesterday this HUGE box arrived and it was full of wonderful quilts.  Thank you to the North of the Yarra Quilters for this very generous gesture.  We will make sure that these quilts go to the needy people in our region.  They will really appreciate the warmth and comfort a quilt can bring.

Here is the great pile of quilts just unpacked.  Members of NOTY quilters are to be congratulated on the fine work they do in their community quilting.
 
Our ladies are still hard at it producing vibrant, happy quilts for our flood victims.  This butterfly one will be sure to cheer someone up.



















Angela has put together this beautiful bright quilt using some Kaffe Fassett scraps and other bright and cheerful prints.
 
Here are two more quilts where scraps have worked their magic!
 
Vicki has made a lovely strippy quilt.  She made this one as her house was being cleaned up after the floods.  Fortunately her sewing room was left unscathed.  A real flood quilt!
 
Dianne C made these sample squares up into a colourway nine patch quilt.  The squares were 4" and were found in our donation cupboard.

Thank you to all members who have donated their time, fabric etc. and made these quilts possible.

From Scrappy Beginnings

From time to time the club receives donations of fabric and orphan blocks from  members and their friends.  Thus, when the need arises, we are able to put some of them together and make them up into quilts.  Many of the quilts we are going to show on the blog over the next few weeks are wholly and solely put together from what has been donated.  It is truly amazing what wonderful quilts can be made from the smallest pieces of fabrics, and the whole process reminds us of how patchwork started in the first place!







We would like to thank some sponsors who have helped us greatly in all sorts of ways to bring these quilts together:

Kathy and Geoff Adams from Koolkat Quilting
Lyn Crump from Busy Quilting
Sue and Colleen from Indigo Niche
Lisa from Precious Time  (Cnr David & Holberton St Toowoomba)
Saba's  (Ruthven St)
Shirley Bourke Crafts (187 Ruthven St)

We would also like to thank friends and relatives of our members who have given us some wonderful donations of fabrics, notions, threads etc.  We are very appreciative, and putting it all to good use.

Sew -a thon Saturday

Saturday saw our ladies sewing madly - making quilt tops for our friends in flood ravaged parts of Queensland. Some of our sewing friends would have lost their entire sewing room whilst others may have only been able to salvage a little.

We are also making up some kits and Lyle, Libby and Vida are pictured here putting all the items into groups and preparing the kits.

Lyle is showing the group what went into the packs. Each pack is being presented in a lovely handmade bag. Lots of sewing notions, books, magazines, embroidery threads, fabric, patterns, handtowel, etc. etc. We are hoping the kits will help in some way to bring some hope to our fellow quilters and sewers.

Libby sorting through some of the fabrics which have so very kindly been donated to us from members, members' family and friends.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this venture and especially to our wonderful members who have really come to the fore and stepped in to help and have given their time and donations of goods and money so selflessly.



















Small appliqued butterfly quilt put together by Joan B.

Beautiful sampler quilt put together by Fay S.

This one put together by Genell is looking stunning, using some squares of furnishing fabrics.  That is Genell just peeping over the top.
Another small one for a child put together again by Joan B.  Thank you Joan.

We know these quilts will bring warmth and comfort to flood victims in the coming cooler months.

Morning Tea Fund Raiser

Some of the ladies brought along their sewing machines on Tuesday and got stuck into it.  We have started producing quilts and putting the sewing kits together to be passed on to our friends who have suffered because of the floods in our region.

Lyn L in front of some more quilt tops which are underway.  The photographer was a bit under the weather and was not thinking straight.  Alas, no photos of the beautiful spread the ladies put on for morning tea.  Some serious money was raised and everyone enjoyed the delightful food.  Thanks to our wonderful kitchen ladies for putting it all together.
Thank you to our wonderful members and sponsors who have given so generously to the club. 
This Saturday is our sew-a-thon starting around 9.00am.  See you there!

Floods and Community Quilting

Our group has always set aside the third Saturday of each month for community quilting.

After the recent devastating floods in our region we have decided to put some quilts together to bring a little comfort to those families who have lost everything.
We are also doing up some sewing kits to send out to our fellow quilters who have lost sewing items in the floods.  Some may have lost their whole sewing rooms - imagine!!  We hope the sewing kits will give them hope to start over.

Some of our members were right onto it and have already donated quilt tops.




Here is Angela Langdon and Dianne S in front of quilt tops they have donated.  Angela has completed and dontated  FIVE tops during the holidays.....well done, Angela. 


The group on Tuesday got together and started the organization of the whole process.  We will be having a fund raising morning tea next Tuesday 25 January starting around 10.30am  for members.  Members will be asked to give a gold coin at the door, bring a plate to share and if they have any sewing requisites surplus to their needs, they may bring them along as a donation as well. 

Then on Saturday 29 January (our designated community sewing day) we will be having a sew-a-thon and getting some more quilt tops put together.  We can start at 9.00am.  and sew right through til 5.00pm.

Our friends at KoolKat Quilting, Kathy and Geoff, have very kindly offered to quilt for us free of charge.  Thank you so much Kathy and Geoff.