In the Pink

We had THE best day at Toowoomba Quilters club house today.

Each year around this time we hold our biggest quilting bee and have a cuppa for cancer.  This is one fundraiser that  we are all very passionate about.  We remember those friends and family who have been taken from us by cancer,  and we celebrate the lives of those who have survived.  In doing so we raise funds for cancer research and have a lot of fun to boot.

This year, congratulations must go to Margie, Loretta and Sue S who did a splendid job in organizing this event.  Our events co-ordinators, Lyle and Joan B put in a big effort too.

Here is Loretta in her little pink fez hat standing by the multi draw prize table.  She put a lot of work into this!

This was the programme for the day.

 

Throughout the day, there was a multi draw raffle.

The day was themed “In the Pink” and Glenda T took out the prize for the most spectacular lady in the pink.

Here are Glenda’s pink sexy legs.

Members were greeted at the door by these two sweet pink ladies, Sue S and Madeline.

Love those glasses, Madeline.  Madeline made a lot of cute little pink bags we she generously gave out to members.  Thank you Madeline.

During the morning we had a local skin cancer doctor come and speak to us and show us a slideshow.  There were some very scary statistics there, and the whole talk was a bit of a wake up call.  GET YOUR SKIN CHECKED regularly by a qualified skin cancer specialist.

The walls were lined with pink quilts and pink balloons.

Here is Dianne S showing her lovely pink quilts.

Joye P on the right made this magnificent hexagon quilt.  Her friend Maid in Pink Marion on the left admiring the quilt.  Well done Joye!

Lyn L was there showing off her pink bras.  No, she doesn’t really wear them.  Lyn made these some years ago for a display for breast cancer fundraising. 

They are a lot of fun.  The black and pink one on the left was picked up originally at the op shop and then Lyn decorated it.  Thanks for bringing them along Lyn.

Two pink friends, Ineke  - L- and Sheila K – R-  enjoying their day.

Admiring the beautiful applique work of Lyn J (on the left) is Kerrie K and Robyn G.

THEN……….

There was a PINK feast for afternoon tea.

Chriss made us a delectable pink pav.

Glenda T, our pinkest lady brought her little afternoon tea kit.

Pink plate, cup and saucer. pink napkin, pink tissues and she even embroidered her pink napkin on the day.

Thank you to all members who attended and gave so generously to Cancer Research, and thank you to those ladies who put in the effort and made the day so much fun.

"Quilt-as-you-go"

This is a photo of Club members taken with Jan Phillips (centre front) who conducted a "Quilt-as-you-go" workshop in Toowoomba this week.  It was a full-on day that required some prior preparation but we learned lots!

 

This was the second-last workshop in a series that was subsidised by funds made available to our club by a grant from the Toowoomba Regional Council's Community Cultural & Arts Support Fund. All members had the opportunity to participate in any of the different workshops that comprised this series, providing a range of learning experiences and encouraging the exploration of different styles and techniques.

This new knowledge has to be implemented and, hopefully, outcomes from these workshops will be evident in quilts on display at our annual exhibition to be held at the Salo Centre during Carnival of Flowers week in September.  For some, it may take a little longer!

Prize Winner

Congratulations to our member, Lyn Crump from Busy Quilting, who took out first prize in the Commercially Quilted Section at the Toowoomba Show.  The quilt also took out Champion Quilt of the show.  Lyn purchased the pattern which is a Crabapple Hill pattern in the U.S. and the quilt is called “Over the River”.  Well done, Lyn.            It is difficult to see in the photo, but there is some beautiful hand embroidered sections in the quilt.

This quilt will now go to the Brisbane Exhibition’s “Quilts Across Queensland” show where they have a class for the champions of all the affiliated show societies.

This gorgeous rail fence quilt was put together from fabrics we had donated from the wonderful ladies at Indigo Niche for community quilting.

The club sets aside the third Saturday of each month for community quilting. We now have enough quilts to send out to flood affected areas and the community quilters will now work on special quilts for autistic children.

Thank you most sincerely to all those people who have generously donated materials and their time to our community quilting project.

More and More Flood Quilts

More quilts for flood victims came in last Tuesday.  Sue M has sent us quite a few and we thank her sincerely for those.

We are now ready to distribute the quilts and begin on our next journey of community quilt making.

Enjoy the following show and tell of flood quilts.

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.