Good news, a bit of public speaking, a surprise in the mail...what a hotchpotch!

Yesterday I received an email from Karen Croke from K4BN, which contained the most amazingly good news. I had written in a previous post that my knitting group did not win the recent Sunsuper Dreams contest...well yesterday afternoon Karen, (the founder of the group) received a phone call from the organisers of the competition. They had decided to award us a Bonus Grant of $5000, as they felt that the group was a very deserving cause and make a real difference in the community. Sunsuper will also organise publicity for the group as well. So you can just imagine how elated and excited we've all been.

Karen and Peter are both ill with nasty viruses and Karen had a speaking engagement at the City Tabernacle Church here in Brisbane City for this morning. This church is situated in the Wickham Terrace, Upper Edward St precinct of the city and do a lot to help the needy in the inner city. When it became obvious that she would not be able to do the speaking engagement, Karen asked me yesterday morning if I would take her place. As a former teacher and uni student (with all those tutorial presentations etc), I was quite happy to do that for Karen. Yesterday afternoon, I made a Powerpoint Presentation as well as made a folder of  photos of the group and items that have been made and saved all to a USB. I also went through the group's files online, and found an info sheet that just needed a few date and total donations' figures changes and printed off a number of copies for a handout.
And this morning at 10 am I arrived at the hall of the church. I was welcomed and shown around and after morning tea I did my talk. I thought it was a disjointed at the beginning but the seniors' group seemed to enjoy it and found what I had to say about the group informative. I think we will get some donations of knitted and crocheted items from the way people spoke after the talk.

All set up ready to go after morning tea. I didn't expect that there would be a data projector; the church even had a laptop I could have used but I had brought my own. The photos filled the screen when  I  pressed 'play' so everyone got a good view. (And I got the timing of the slides just right for once )

Now the surprise in the mail... I've written about the shawl that I made for the Once A Season Swap, well on Monday I got a parcel from the lady who was matched up to send to me. (In this swap, the person who sends you a gift is different from the person to whom you send a gift) Sue, from Quiltedhugsandothernonsense, was my (Incoming?) swap partner and this is what I found in my parcel...I felt very spoiled! Thanks so much Sue :-)

A beautiful cushion cover, needlework/sewing kit

The sweetest 'cotton reel fabric' was used

The back of the cushion; more lovely fabric with a beautifully sewn, button up  closure.