Busy morning

No sooner had I unloaded all the gorgeous quilts from my car, than I had a phone call from Pip on Ward 10 of the LRI Children's Hospital to see if they could have more quilts!  Of course, is the answer.  So Paula and I loaded 80 of the checked and labelled quilts into the car, and off we went.  We have finally cracked how to get lots of quilts along the paths, through the doors, up the lifts and along the corridors to the children's wards - use a porter's cage with a door! 

This cage had a kind of box at the bottom so the quilt bags didn't slide out, and a door to keep them all inside.  The fact that it had a mind of its own was another matter, but nobody was injured on our way up to the ward! 

Here are me, Pip and one of the nurses with quilts they selected.  They were over the moon to receive so many lovely quilts, and we're looking forward to spreading hugs all over the ward!  

Th en Paula and I headed off to Fosse Park to meet Margaret who had some quilts for me. 

I forgot to take her picture, but here are her lovely bright and cheerful quilts.  Thank you so much, Margaret, and keep up the good work! 

Shepshed Superstars!

I'm always excited when I'm invited over to 'Quilting Together' in Shepshed, as I know I'll bring away lots of lovely quilts and some fun memories.  They are a lovely group and very dedicated to Project Linus.  Last year, there were 99 quilts given to me, and I knew they were keen to replicate or even surpass this number this year. 

Here are the quilts waiting for me.  Nobody knew how many there were, but here was talk of at least 60 or 80 being there.  First there was the important business of looking through some of the donated fabric I'd brought. 

Other people's fabric choices are always more interesting than what's in your stash!  I brought three boxes of fabric and took just the one home.  Result!  

Then there was the equally important business of tea and cake.  I must say, Mr Aldi bakes exceedingly good scones - especially when they are spread with jam and clotted cream!  Yum! 

Then the quilts. The tally mounted as they were held up, admired, photographed and put into piles of ten.  Eighty, ninety, a hundred, a hundred and ten, a hundred and twenty - a hundred and twenty one!  Amazing!  Although I took photos of all of them, I'm only going to put some on the blog, or I'll run out of space! 

An alphabet panel cleverly bigged up to a good size. 

Squares on point, arranged in a cross design. 

A selection of HSTs arranged in windmills. 

A medallion made from a central block and lots of small orphans. 

Another medallion with bordered little animal blocks as a centre. 

Is this Chinese coins or a jelly roll race?  Either way, it's fun. 

Good use of blocks and 2.5" squares. M

This is a blast from the past - a Rocheberie Mystery quilt from way back when!  

You can't beat rail fence, and this sashed version looks great. 

Lots of small blocks in toning colours - looks almost like Tula Pink blocks! 

Rainbow Mile A Minute, arranged in stars!  The quilting on this one is lovely too! 

Robot fabric bigged up by a striped insert.  Perfect! 

Strips and squares in a very satisfactory arrangement. 

Another old friend - Bonnie Hunter's 'Allietare!'.  Such a great design. 

And Bonnie's Scrappy Bargello, another favourite scrap buster. 

And finally, a great way to use hexagons.  They are always tricky to know how to make up, and this is a good idea. 

So, 121 quilts.  Thanks particularly to Eileen for packing lots of quilts carefully in my boot, so I was able to see out of the back window over the beautiful piles of quilts on the back seat!  Happy quilting ladies, and see you next year, if not before! 

It's a dog's life in Barwell!

Paula and I were delighted to be invited to the U3A Craft Group in Barwell again, to do some sewing with these lovely ladies.  The projects have to be hand sewing, as the centre where they meet insists that all electrical equipment used has a current PAT test certificate.  That's no problem for me, as all my Linus equipment and my own sewing machine have valid stickers, but I can understand that people who only use their machines infrequently outside the house wouldn't think it was worth the cost.  No problems as I can always come up with a hand sewn project. 

This time it was dogs! I had cut out some dogs using the Accuquilt cutter, and provided each person with a dog, an ear, a piece of white fabric and a choice of thread to blanket stitch the bonded dog onto the fabric!  The nine patches had been made at a Knit and Stitch session, and add a bit of interest, as well as using up some of the donated scraps!  

Here everyone is hard at work.  

And here are the blocks which were completed on the day and sewn together in strips by Paula.  I aimed to make the quilt 7 X 7 blocks, and have a few more completed and nearly completed blocks to add.  It's amazing that although the dogs are all from an identical template, their positions and ear placements seem to give them their own personalities!  I'll post more pictures of this quilt once it's completed. Thank you very much ladies for your welcome, your hard work and the kind donation to funds which you gave me.  See you in 2019!

Hospital visiting

I had a call from Susan at the LRI Paediatric Intensive Care Unit that they would like more quilts.  I rounded up Julie and Maria and we braved the LRI car park (and the rain!) to take 30 quilts there.

Here are Dawn, myself and Susan with a couple of quilts they pulled out of the bags.  They were delighted to receive them, and said how much colour and individuality they bring to the ward.  The children love them, and the parents love them too.  They have a high turnover of patients and they said these would be soon giving out hugs!  I was very glad that Julie and Maria could be there to receive such fulsome praise for their efforts!  Well done!