Meeting in the park

We have continued to have socially distanced Knit and Stitch meetings in the park, and the weather has mainly been kind to us. it has been lovely to meet up and have a quilty chat, and the show and tell was excellent, as usual! Here we are, with Martha showing the quilt top she has assembled from some of the blocks donated from the late Sylvia Palmer's stash. She has made a great job of them. We actually had two meetings, one with me, Martha, Fiona, Naomi, Heather and Anne-Marie, and then a separate one with Paula, Maria and Julie. Currently we are in the age of 'the rule of six' so didnt want to fall foul of the law!

I havent been accepting quilts recently, as I have had so many that my cupboard would barely close! But then I have been able to donate some, so can build up the stocks again.

Firstly i was able to donate quilts to Baby Basics, a charity which provides equipment for new Mums in need. unfortunately Laura had had to pop out, but we left them in her porch. Next i went over to Andrea's to take quilts for Looked After Children. sorry she's a bit out of focus! Then I had a visit from Asha, who is a health visitor in the Saffron Lane area of Leicester. She took 80 quilts for needy children in that area! Way to go! I am hoping to book an inside venue for our meeting in November, then we can dodge the weather and flying footballs! Contact me if you want to come along.

Knit and Stitch meeting July

Apparently, when it became possible to meet up outside (socially distanced of course) a few of the knitter members of Knit and Stitch took their chairs onto Lutterworth Rec and had a meet up.  I don't think any knitting actually took place, but a good time was had by all!  At the end of June I notified some of the quilting group members that the meeting was going ahead in July, so on July 2nd eight of us congregated round a seat at the top end of the rec, with umbrellas and raincoats.  It was actually raining lightly, but it soon stopped. 

Some people had brought quilts for me, Sue brought one she called Pigs and teddies - always a good combination!- and Martha brought seven quilts, including the one with kites on, which is her own design.

At one point, we were alerted to the presence of a helicopter in the sky above us.  Was it the police checking whether we were social distancing and whether we exceeded the numbers for an outside gathering (we did!) but realised it was the air ambulance.  Bad news for someone.  Martha also brought goodies to share (individually wrapped little packs of biscuits, yummy) and we have decided to meet up again in August, if the hall isn't open.  So, on August 6th come along to Lutterworth Rec, bring your own chair or cushion and some show and tell.  There is a free car park on Coventry Road, and if you walk along the right hand side of the grass towards the other end, you'll find us.  Looking forward to seeing you. 

News at last!

Oh, dear.  I have been very remiss at posting this year, for which I can only apologise.  Blogger is very temperamental, and often won't load, making posts impossible.  Anyway, I'm in business now, and keen to share what has been going on.

Apart from General sewing, the first event of note was Knit and Stitch's 9th birthday!  We had cake and singing, and a good turnout of members.  In the photo you can see me and Sue Turner, who has been in charge of the knitters from the beginning.  Sue has decided to move away from Lutterworth, nearer to family, and we have been looking for someone to replace her.  (We quilters were planning to  rebrand ourselves and carry on in a smaller room if no one came forward.). Luckily it didn't come to that, and our future as a group is secure!  We'll miss Sue though. 

Next I had a visit from a quilter who was reducing their stash.  I was overwhelmed by her generosity, and by the number of large pieces of bright and cheery fabric!   These will all go to good use! 

Amongst the goodies was this piece of  William and Kate commemorative fabric.  I had no idea there was such a thing produced.  I'll try and sell it on eBay if I can, as I'm sure someone will treasure it. 

Then, I was delighted to have a visit from Julie.  Last year, the Cotton Craft Company had sent us some scraps and off cuts of their fabrics.  There were some beauties amongst them, including some Frozen off cuts, which Maria made into a lovely couple of quilts.  Julie sent photos of the results as a thank you, and the company asked if we would like more fabric.  Well, of course we would!  However we were unprepared for this generosity.  As you can see, there is a box full of fabric.  Some yardage, some packs of a metre of five coordinating fabrics and some fat quarter bundles, plus a few off cuts!  Wonderful!  We will certainly enjoy using these quality fabrics, and let them have more photos of the results.  

It didn't take long for us to make some inroads into this treasure chest, as we had been invited up to Shepshed again, for a seeing day.  Unfortunately, I was full of cold, but managed to keep myself dosed up.  There were lots of the Quilting Together ladies and Maria, Paula, Caroling, Julie and I had a great day.  

This group usually have a lot of quilts for me, but I'll pick them up at a later date. 

Next came our annual visit to the Barwell U3A craft group.  This group of crafters make Linus blocks every year.  Sometimes they sew by hand, but sometimes I take sewing machines.  This time we made Charm Drop, a Jenny Doan pattern.  The blocks themselves are very easy, but the arrangement of them can be a bit trying. 

Still, the finished result is worth all the head scratching! 

The final news is that Piecemakers held their annual Linus sewing evening too!  They made Delectable Mountain blocks using green and neutral fabrics from the Linus stash, and here is one of the quilts made from the blocks.  Gorgeous! 

Then, lockdown.  Everything has been cancelled since the middle of March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  This doesn't mean that things have stopped.  I have had several visits of Linus Quilter's to pick up fabric and supplies (all suitably socially distanced and not invited in for tea!) and I have also delivered supplies to one or two local people.  I'm sure there will be plenty of quilts arriving once things settle down.  

So, keep safe, happy sewing and I'll look forward to seeing you soon. 

Nearly at the end of the year!

Here we are, with Christmas nearly upon us, so I thought I'd update the blog as to progress.  In November, Andrea from Platform Childcare contacted me to request quilts for her looked after children.  She initially asked for five quilts, 'so as not to seem greedy' but when I found out she has twenty children, I insisted she take twenty. We couldn't leave anyone out!

 

 She sent me some gorgeous pictures of one youngster choosing her quilt.  First she's taking it all in.

 Then she's having a proper look to narrow it down.

 And now the final choice!  Good decision.
Then in early December, Chavni from Ward 27 of the LRI contacted me to say they had nearly run out of quilts, and was there any chance of more?   If I have some in my cupboard, I'm always delighted to take them to their forever homes, so on a filthy wet afternoon, Julie and I braved the Christmas traffic and took fifty quilts to be shared out between the children's wards and PICU.

As ever, the staff were thrilled to see the variety of designs, and quickly earmarked several for children they knew.  So far, we have donated 476 quilts here in Leicestershire this year, and we still have another week to go!

October

This month we have had great fun at Project Linus.  First Paula, Maria and I had a little run out to Doncaster.  I know that's a bit out of our area, but we met up with Judy Flanagan, who, while having moved to Hornsea, still works for Fostering Futures.  She was intending to hand over the Linus contact to someone else, but we so enjoy our get togethers (seldom though they are) that we decided to keep things as they are.

It was tipping it down, but Judy managed to choose a quilt, and we sheltered under her boot lid for a photo.  We meet at the Lakeside Outlet Park, which is roughly halfway between us, has plenty of free parking and a nice Costa.  It also has a M&S Outlet Store, so after we had caught up with each others' news and handed over the quilts, we headed over to M&S to bag a few bargains!  

Then a couple of days later we were at The Big Textile Show in Leicester.  We are very grateful to the organisers of this show to allow us to have a free stall, to spread the word about Project Linus.  Julie and I were there on Saturday, and Paula and Maria on Sunday.  It was lovely to meet old friends and make new, and to be able to network with Quilter's and organisations in the locality.  

Some people brought quilts for us, tops and fabric.  So generous.  Well look forward to a slightly quieter November! 

By the way, the current total for this year is 420 - and there are still two more months to go! 

Cooler weather.

While the weather has been so hot, I haven't been contacting people to take quilts.  I know the quilts are only snuggle quilts rather than bed quilts, but still, when the temperature is over 30C, it's not really the time to think about quilts!  So once September came, I was on the phone! 

First stop was Rainbows Children's Hospice, where they were delighted to take some quilts. 

Next was to contact Rosemary from the Diana Service to get some hugs for her very poorly children. She had some thank you cards for me too.  I especially like the one with Santa and a snowman on it!  Very appropriate!  

Then I contacted Asha, who works in the Highfield area of Leicester as a Health Visitor.  She has recently been promoted to head of three teams, so she took quilts to share around.  

Her teams were so pleased to get the quilts (a first in their area) that they sent more photos for me! 

Love the fact that the photos are all taken in staff rooms! 

Thank you so much busy people for taking the time to show your appreciation.  

Getting up to date

I was shocked when I saw that I last updated the blog in February!  Google has decided not to update Blogger, so it makes it quite complicated to post these days, so I have let it slip.  Sorry about that.  Things have been proceeding very wel on the receiving and donating fronts.
In March Jay Fostering rang me to say they were so delighted at how well the quilts had been received by their looked after children, that they'd like more!  No problem.

,

We had had a request from the RLI to make some 'wiggly bags' .  Apparently the Hickman lines which are used to administer drugs to poorly people are called wiggles, and sometimes they snag on clothes or objects and cause pain.  If they are in a little bag, they are more contained.  Local sewers made over 100 of these vital little bags. 

Here are more quilts going into the LRI. 

I went over to Shepshed to collect the quilts that 'Quilting Together' have made over the year.  They are a lovely group of ladies and had 88 lovely quilts for us!  One of their Quilter's had sad,y died, so her quilts are yet to come.  What a generous and talented group! 

Pat O'Reilly came to bring some quilts she had made.  Her sister (Lynda Hill!) came with her and it was great to meet them both. She had some gorgeous quilts to donate. 

In June I went back to Ward 10 of the LRI dto take some quilts to the poorly youngsters there.  Pip is in the middle of the photo and a doctor agreed to add his thanks to the quilters too! I love quilts coming in, but best of all are quilts going to their forever homes!