More donations from generous people...

Each fortnight on a Wednesday afternoon,a group of ladies gather in a meeting room in Chermside Library, for an afternoon of crafting, chit chat and sharing of projects. This group is Sisters of Stitch and people bring in whatever craft project that they wish, so there is a lot of variety; crocheting, knitting, patchwork, hand quilting, embroidery, smocking, hand sewing/finishing of dressmaking projects, tapestry, tatting, drawn thread work are just some the projects that can be seen at SoS! And many of these ladies often hand over donations for me to pass on to K4BN.

One Wednesday recently I received a large bag of items from Margaret...

Some children's tote bags...

Several pairs of children's shorts in lovely bright fabrics...

Some cute little girl's outfits...

A closer look at that one on the left...

And lots of little dresses!

Some dresses for older girls...

And some little pouches that can be used in a number of ways...

These lovely items from Margaret will be much appreciated by the recipients. 

In the cooler months over the last few years, another lady at SoS, regularly hands me a bulging plastic bag. 

Glenda makes crocheted squares for K4BN...and I join the squares into rugs...we're a good team! :-)

So on the same afternoon that I received the donations from Margaret, Glenda gave me a bag of squares; which became this blanket.

And just this last Wednesday, Glenda gave me another bag of squares!

Thank you to both Margaret and Glenda!

The year is winding down...

The end of year celebrations have revved up a notch in the last few weeks...

Wednesday of last week was particularly busy. In the morning the Albany Creek Knit and Natter group celebrated at the last meet up for 2014...

Barbara brought along her beautifully knitted Santa...

And the sweetest little bunny...

Helen had been busy joining squares...a never ending job! Lol

Then it was time to head off to my next stop

Sisters of Stitch, the fortnightly craft group at Chermside Library were celebrating with a Christmas party on Wednesday afternoon...the buffet table had quite a sumptuous spread...

 Saturday was the next busy day for celebrating...

Grovely Knit and Natter in the morning...

Always lots of fun at Grovely...Lorelle keeps us all in order though...lol

I 'annoy' her by always taking lots of photos...

Then my friend ( from my school days) picked me up and we both drove to Shornecliffe a beach suburb of Brisbane. Our destination was this place...

But it's not a Masonic Hall any more...it's a lovely restaurant called Matthew Thomas. There were four of us school mates meeting for a Christmas lunch. From our table we could see the sea...

We may be ladies in our 60s but we do what a lot of young people do...take photos of restaurant and cafe food! Lol.

And here's my delicious lunch...Noosa Whiting and salad...it was beautifully cooked.

Valerie gave each of us a beautiful wooden reindeer ornament...we lined them up for a photo...of course! 

Lastly, more photos before we headed for home.

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. DH and I will host a Christmas dinner for 2 of our girls with husband and partner. On Christmas Day DH and I will celebrate with his brother and his family. On Boxing Day we will celebrate with my brother and any of his family who are around...phew...but there's more! On Boxing Day DH's eldest and her partner will arrive to stay with us until Jan 2. Because they will be so busy catching up with her Brisbane friends and her mum,  Christmas dinner with them and a few other rellies, won't be until Dec 29. 

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Sisters of Stitch 5th Birthday!

Last Wednesday this group celebrated its 5th birthday with quite a spread for afternoon tea.

The lady second from the right in the photo is Nicky. Nicky had the loveliest item for Show and Tell...not one of her usual beautiful quilts sewn for Sunshine Linus and not an item sewn to help with sensory issues for autistic children in Special Education Units...

This item is an 'Angel Gown'...for a little angel baby who died before birth or soon after birth. 

So a grieving family will have not only a blanket of love to wrap their baby in, but also a sweet little gown. 

FNSI...making blankets again...

In the last few days I've 'gone back' to joining donated squares into blankets for K4BN after having a break of a few months while I caught up on sewing projects for the Christmas swaps. I find using all the donated squares and creating something useful to be very satisfying.

I think I have the easy job...it's possible to have a completed blanket in just hours, not weeks, as it would be if I were to make blankets/throws/rugs 'from scratch'. A number of the ladies at Sisters of Stitch make squares for K4BN and last night I finished joining some squares from 2 of those ladies, to make a new blanket. One of the ladies takes the opportunity to try out some very effective looking designs...such as the one in the photo below...

 Most of the blocks are 'traditional' granny square blocks but there weren't enough to make a decent sized blanket...the 'fancy ones' are a lovely feature and have ensured a good size.

Joining these squares was my FNSI project. I started crocheting around the edges of the blanket but tiredness overtook my enthusiasm to be finished...

 One lady at SoS has been very generous and over the latter part of 2013 gave me dozens of crocheted squares. One blanket was finished last year but it's just in the last few days that I've been back joining squares. Glenda had set herself a goal of one square per day and each fortnight she would hand over 14 (sometimes 15) squares.

 These are the two blankets I completed Wednesday/Thursday this week; just need to neaten off some ends.

 And I still have one bag of Glenda's squares to join...the yellow/orange colour scheme.

So as you can see, there will be some beautiful blankets going into the K4BN stockpile thanks to the lovely ladies at Sisters of Stitch.

Don't forget the Giveaway; just leave a comment here before Sunday 6pm AEST and those bright fabrics could be yours!  ( non-Bloggers, remember you may also email me if you find it frustratingly difficult to leave a comment)

What if ?...

If I didn't enjoy crafting with fabrics and yarns (and have enormous fabric and yarn stashes)

would my spare bedrooms look like this do you think???

This was the second bedroom in the unit we rented last week...

 No clutter...

Remember how I tidied up bedroom#2 for DsD1 and Dan's visit in the recent school holidays???

Floor visible, and only the doona on top of the bed....

 On one wall are the shelves, but you can see a glimpse of the big striped bags filled with yarns on top of the shelves too unfortunately! lol

Yesterday my friend came over with 3 HUGE bags of fabrics and 1 filled with yarns that one of her scrapbooking friends had given her, for me to hand on. Today (Monday) I started sorting out the fabrics. One pile of mainly quilting cottons and children's designs for Sunshine Linus, another pile for Morag at Sisters of Stitch who collects fabrics for a Refugee Ladies' sewing group that she helps with, another pile for some ladies at the Zillmere Knit and Natter who make children's clothing and quilts for K4BN and one more pile for some ladies at the Scarborough Knit and Natter who also make children's clothes for K4BN. So I guess my messy second bedroom can be viewed as a 'Distribution centre' at the moment.

Dreadful mess isn't it? Oh dear...such a shame! lol (I still haven't removed the traces of the stickers that were put on the shelves by the girls when they were a lot younger) 

The bag of yarn will naturally go to K4BN as well, so theoretically all of this should be moved out in the near future. 

Someone new, whom I met at Sisters of Stitch...

Yes I met someone from 'the quilting scene' last Wednesday at Sisters of Stitch. Judie introduced Jacky to all of us, before Show and Tell time.

Judie explained that Jacky used to own the lovely patchwork store here in Brisbane, called Apatchy Quilting, but had sold it and now runs a business called Wacky Jackys. This site sells beautiful batik fabrics which Judie described as of the most beautiful quality and very reasonable prices. But as well as selling luscious fabrics, Jacky organises quilters' retreats to Bali.

Judie was so enthusiastic that I took advantage of the free city council WiFi and checked out Jacky's site on my iPad which I just happened to have in my knitting bag! :-) And I loved what I saw! The batik fabrics on Jacky's site are gorgeous and I particularly loved the 'wacky rolls'. Now I may never get to go on a retreat to Bali but I can sure see myself indulging in some of those batiks!
Now as well as asking Jacky if I could take her photo, I also asked if I could take a photo of the project that she had brought to Sisters of Stitch to work on...
Some beautiful sashiko using coloured threads including some gorgeous variegated ones!

Ever since buying a jelly roll of batiks in Pendleton, Oregon, USA, I've 'fallen under the spell' of these fabrics so it's lovely to find a source of high quality ones locally. (the fabrics are sourced by Jacky's company from Bali, Indonesia)

Sisters of Stitch and Sunshine Linus...

The last few SoS gatherings I've noticed an increase in numbers of ladies attending...and that is great!
We gather in a meeting room at Chermside Library here in Brisbane. It's actually 2 meeting rooms but our group unlatches and folds back the dividing wall. We set up work tables in one half of this big room...then in the other half we set up an area for afternoon tea, with a table of goodies to share and a trolley with a number of urns of hot water for tea and coffee.

 But in the last month, we've had to set up extra tables and so now our work tables extend into the other half of the room...long may this increase in numbers continue as it's such a great place to spend a few hours with others who enjoy crafts.

This last week, 2 of our members came with a bag of 'Show and Tell'...these two ladies, Judie and Nicky are members of Sunshine Linus. Often they show us the lovely quilts that they make for children who are undergoing treatment for cancer, or cute or way out beanies for young people and children who have had chemo treatments, but this time they had a number of other items which are made by the group.
The first photo shows Judie holding up a 'touchy feely' quilt which is used in nursing homes to calm dementia patients.

In this photo Nicky is modelling some examples of the aprons that are made by Sunshine Linus members. These aprons have all sorts of gadgets sewn on them...again the emphasis is on the tactile. These aprons are used in nursing homes...each morning an apron is put on a dementia patient and especially for males, it is like going to work... it calms them and they are quite happy to 'play'with the items attached to the apron.

Here's a closer look at those gadgets...and Judie is wearing another apron made by a Sunshine Linus member.

here Judie is showing an example of the bags that are made for nursing home residents who are in wheelchairs...the removable footrests can be kept close at hand, ready for they need to be put back on the wheelchair...

In the next photo, Judie is demonstrating how post operative patients wear the bags which are made by the group to hold their drainage bags...both male and female patients are able to leave their home with dignity when the wound drainage bags are popped in these outer bags.

This is a lovely flannel raggy quilt...the latest made by Nikki for Sunshine Linus.

Next the girls showed us the 'Blankets of Love' that the group makes for stillborn and babies who die shortly after birth...the babies are wrapped in these little quilts...

Nicky shows us another Blanket of Love...

In this photo below, Judie is explaining that there is always a need for bedsocks/booties for the Renal Clinic at the PA hospital, and Sunshine Linus provides many.

Now this wonderful group of ladies (Sunshine Linus) is having an Open Day in Nambour on August 31. Details are here...There will be a Quilt Show at this Open Day, as well as demonstrations, Show and Tell, Stalls with Quilt Shop Vendors, as well as beautiful craft items for sale. Sounds like a great day out and the bonus is raising funds for this marvellous and very productive group!