Angel Babies

Last Sunday in the Sunday Mail, there was an article about an ongoing project of the Queensland Smocking Guild. The ladies are making tiny smocked outfits, specifically for tiny still born babies. That reminded me that I had some photos that I had taken a month ago at Sisters of Stitch.

 I have previously written how Nicky had been accepted by NICU as a sewer of outfits for 'Angel Babies', the little ones who are stillborn or who die soon after birth. 

The outfits are made from donated wedding gowns and I was able to take photos of Nicky at work, cutting out a number of outfits that afternoon.

The donated gowns often feature beautiful embellishments, which Nicky uses by careful placement of the simple pattern pieces...

Beautiful dresses that were possibly bridesmaid outfits, are also donated and made into Angel Gowns.

Nicky also sews little 'pouches' which are for Angel Babies of 20 weeks or less...

All very sad, but I think we all have to agree, that the way such family sadness and tragedy is handled today and acknowledged is so much better than it used to be...is there anyone else who was also told by hospital staff to 'go home and have another baby'??

At last Wednesday's Sisters of Stitch, Nicky said that coloured outfits are becoming more popular, so donations of bridesmaid dresses and ball gown/ formal outfits are urgently required. 

Read more about this program here:- https://www.facebook.com/angelgownsaustralia

Sunday Stitchers; July Meetup...

The Sunday before last, this group met at the Ormeau Community centre...

There was the usual table of food goodies...

And lots of stitching, chatting and laughing...

And of course some wonderful items displayed during the usual Show and Tell Session...

The group made July the month to collect items for the Dream a Little Dream Premature Baby Support Packs...

This is a cause close to the heart of one of our members, Debbie, who organised the coordination of this collection.

Debbie checking out some of the items that had been brought in

The boxes and bags holding all the items that we collected...

Kat, from the Dream a Little Dream group came to pick up the items...
here is the hand over...including a card that we had all signed.

Kat was overwhelmed by the amount of items ...
Some of the ladies gave her a hand to take everything to her car...

We didn't have any photos of the actual items, but the lovely people at Dream a Little Dream photographed all the items and shared the photos, along with a big thank you, on the group's Facebook page...I've made a collage with some of the 17 photos...
The items include tiny baby clothes, personal items for the mums, gifts for siblings of the premature babies, drawstring bags to carry baby 'stuff'...etc

These items will be used to make up the Support packs that are given to parents of premature babies. (Knitted items came from Knitting for Brisbane's Needy)

Street scenes in Warwick's JJJ Festival...

As promised, here are some more photos from our visit to the Jumpers and Jazz in July Festival in Warwick.

We arranged to meet our friends at the Town Hall...

The Warwick Town Hall from the other side of the street...note the palm tree in the foreground dressed in its hula skirt :-)

Warwick State High School band was giving a concert outside the Town Hall

Knitted/crocheted  post covers and crocheted bunting

Up and down the street were trees that had been yarnbombed...

The Ladies Lingerie/Sleepwear shop had decorated the tree in front of the shop, quite cheekily :-) (large photo and bottom right photo in the collage below)

Some more...

This tree was dressed in a jumper of bottle tops...

The next entry was from Knitting Nannas Against Gas...obviously an objection to the practice of 'fracking' to remove natural gas...

 Vandals had damaged this entry...we were told that if it was some local who did the damage, they will be found via CCTV

 Close up of the damage on the left chin...

 This was the charming Red Rooster Entry...those 'chooks' were just so cute!

Most of the shops entered into the fun...

Even the statue of Thomas Joseph Byrnes  12th Premier of Queensland, had been yarnbombed slightly! lol

But wait...there are more yarn bombed trees!!!

One tree was dressed in op shop jumpers...

Above hung lots and lots of odd socks...there was a suggestion that these were socks which had gone missing from washing machines and washing baskets...wink wink!

DH and I only had a day trip to the festival but as you can see, we certainly saw lots of delightful things. (There are a number of excellent craft shops in Warwick as well but I didn't check them out on this visit)
On our way home to Brisbane, we heard on the radio that a traffic problem that had caused morning peak hour chaos near our home was even worse in the late afternoon. So clever DH worked out a way of getting home without going near Alderley and the broken water main. We detoured and went across the river in the Moggill Ferry...

We were one of the last cars on..we had arrived just in time :-)

Glancing upstream...

So then it was a lovely drive through Moggill, Kenmore to Gap Creek Rd and then home. It had been a lovely day.

Warwick's Jumpers and Jazz festival 2014...The Knitted Kitchen...

I found out about this festival a few years ago but up until now, haven't had the chance to go to have a look. But this year we had an added incentive...a former work colleague and his wife now are living in this town, so we could catch up with D and M, as well as have them as our own personal tour guides.
They said that we MUST see the Knitted Kitchen, so after enjoying some jazz street musicians, and walking around looking at the yarnbombing, a stop for a lovely cup of coffee and homemade scone, we went to the Art Gallery to see this exhibit.

Walking towards the entry to the Art Gallery

I'm not sure whether I let out a squeal of delight when I first caught sight of the display, but I wouldn't be surprised if I did!

 And cameras were not banned like they are in so many galleries...you could not enter the 'kitchen' or touch anything but there was one chair which people were encouraged to sit on to have photos taken...

 The tiled floor was knitted...

D was the Learning Support Teacher at my last school; he's retired now too :-)

Now for a closer look at some of the items...

A box of macaroons beside the old dial phone

The fridge was covered with crocheted doilies...

The 3 level cake tin...so 1950s :-)

Ducks on the wall, the view out of the window in front of the sink unit...

I loved this chair!

There was a little knitted mouse near the kitchen bin...

 A closer look at the table...and that roast chicken...

The back of the kitchen unit...

 A closer look at the ducks!

The kitchen utensils...

 A closer view of the sink...

The dish drainer and the stove top...

For some background information on this art installation I suggest this website...lots of people were involved and the results are amazing! http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2014/07/21/4050199.htm

This knitted sculpture was just near the doorway of the exhibit...

If you live in SE Queensland, it's not too late to have a look at what the Jumpers and Jazz in July Festival has to offer...the festival ends on Sunday (27/07)
Program details here...http://jumpersandjazz.com/
I will write another post about the yarnbombing in the streets, so stay 'tuned' for more clever exhibits!