Minki Returns

Delivering the Quilts

2008-06-17T16:36:00.002+10:00

Yesterday was a wonderful day for our group. We Care-Quilts for kids. We delivered 27 quilts to Ronald Mc Donald House.

We set off from Myrtleford on our journey bound for Melbourne at 8am, not as sharp as hubby the driver wanted as one lady was a little late.It was a cold and foggy morning but the feeling in the bus was warm and happy. There were 10 of us including Hubby the driver and the hubby of an elderly lady as she was worried about leaving him home alone so we took him along.

Hubby said about two hours along the Hume highway on our way to Melbourne there was a Mc Donalds and he thought that was a good place to stop for our morning cuppa,he of course was thinking of the sausage mc muffin he could have. We all tried telling him he was wrong but you know men. Well when we arrived at where he thought the Mc Donalds was he realised he was wrong. But never mind we all had some lovely goodies to share with him and he didn't go hungry.

After a short break we were off again, and before long we were on the outskirts of Melbourne. Despite a few nearly wrong turns we found the street with not too many hassles. The staff were waiting for us with a lovely light lunch and a very welcome attitude. We were treated to lunch and two DVDs about the house and then a tour of the houses. It is a series of terrace houses two turned into accommodation which hold 37 rooms and 2 isolation rooms. They all are well equipped with everything you would need in a home away from home.

We presented them with the quilts and then we gave them a wall hanging to hang where they would like. And soon (almost 3 hours later) it was time to head for home we had a 3 1/2 hour journey ahead of us. Loaded up with our smiles and two huge platters of left overs we waved goodbye boarded our little bus and we headed for home.

We arrived home happy and tired after a wonderful day. I will share some photos with you all. There is one that looks like a tree. They call it the tree of life. It is absolutely beautiful. It is some beautiful polished wood for the trunk with gold leaves each one engraved with the name of someone or some company that has donated something to the houses and we were told we would be added.

So now our work begins all over again. We have 5 children locally who are suffering serious or life threatening diseases and we have promised them quilts then we will begin some more for Ronald Mc Donald house as we told them we will be bringing more soon.

Unfortunately there will be no end to the need for our quilts as long as there are sick children.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing part of our journey over the past ten months and I will be keeping you informed of our progress.

Finallyl!!!! An End to Our Hard Work

2008-06-15T14:48:00.003+10:00

Well at last we are reaching an end to the last 10 months hard work. As most readers know I have been co ordinating a small group of willing workers and we have been making quilts for seriously ill children. We have been working hard making quilts to be distributed through Ronald Mc Donald house in Melbourne. At last we have reached that goal.

Wednesday June 11th 2008 we held and afternoon tea in the local church hall to display the quilts we have made, to present two quilts to families and draw a raffle we were running for a fund raiser. It was a wonderful day enjoyed by all who attended.

Also on Monday June 16th we have a bus trip planned to Ronald Mc Donald house to present the quilts. Hubby and I have just collected the community bus ready for tomorrow, hubby is driving and quietly looking forward to it I think.

I have made some mosaics of the the photos I took on Wednesday there is some shots of the quilts on display and the other one is of the quilts singularly you can check a previous post for the rest of the quilts.

So watch this space for the photos of our fun day in Melbourne.....

And what is next we start all over again making more quilts unfortunately there are still sick children out there....

A Gift from my friend

2008-05-27T17:02:00.002+10:00

Received a wonderful surprise from my friend who by the way is in her 80s and never ceases to amaze me with her creativeness. She has been for want of a better word decorating shopping bags with panels, applique and cross stitch. And here is the one she gave me I just love it...

WE Care...Quilts for Kids update

2008-05-02T20:55:00.003+10:00

I haven't posted here about the We Care quilts for kids for a while so thought better bring you all up to date.

We are currently running a raffle for a beautiful quilt it is 54 inches by 54 inches in soft pastel shades and beautifully quilted. Tickets can be obtained if you contact me. The raffle will be drawn on June 11th 2008. We are having an afternoon tea and displaying all the quilts we have finished in the past six months. Yes we have been going six months now. We are also having displays from the local quilt shop and scrapbooking shop as well as other items.

We are planning a trip to Ronald Mc Donald house in Melbourne on June 18th and we hope to deliver 30 quilts. We also have made a special quilt for the house to display to brighten their surroundings. As we are a non profit group we asked one of the local social clubs for assistance for our trip and we amazed they gave us a donation of $500 which is more than enough to for our trip there will be a large chunk left over to purchase more supplies. Of course the local paper covered the presentation of the donation and we made the front page of the paper and here we are they even have us on the Internet. I am the one accepting the cheque.

http://www.nenews.com.au/Stories/maStory02n.htm

So as you can see although I have been quiet we have been busy and we are enjoying our work as much now as when we started and we have grown to eight very hard workers.I have included a photo of the quilt we are raffling but it is not a good photo but does show you the beautiful quilting.

Scatterday I am finally here

2008-04-26T20:37:00.002+10:00

Well better late than never they say so here I am.

The letter M. Easy for me, working on an initial quilt for a little boy Matthew so found all the categories there.

this quilt is being made through my Quilts for Kids Group we approached Matthew and asked him would he like a quilt. He said yes and decided on an initial quilt. Sent us a list of 12 things he wanted that started with M here are three of them

Music well that is self exploratory.

Dangerous. well most boys would deny it but they can be dangerous.

Cold Things. had to be a milkshake

Scatterday!! Again!1

2008-04-05T12:10:00.002+11:00

My goodness Scattterday comes around quickly. I really thought I would have trouble with today's letter However once I started it all fell into place.

Resturant....Now this was a hard one, no resturants in Myrtlefird that start with A. So we went to Albury yesterday (now that starts with A) alas I forgot my camera. Not to be beaten we found a resturant beginning with A and went in for a coffee thought they might have a postcard. No, no postcard but they had a flyer okay that will do I took it scanned and here it is....
Something you find in the dark....This was easy, granddaughter Amy blowing out her birthday candle. She turned 6 on Wednesday and as brother Sam and Daddy were away at Cubaroo she came for tea at grandma's and wanted a chocolate cup cake so I made a circle of 6 chocolate cupcakes with a large candle in the middle. Turned the light out (in the dark) and took her photo.
Turqouise....Was always going to be hard, I thought and looked all week. Had almost given up this morning when I had a shower and applied my moisturiser. "Aqua Depot" in a glass jar with a turqouise lid. Voila! I got it.

So looking forward to next week being a little easier.

Scatterday. I am cheating!!!!!

2008-03-29T09:50:00.002+11:00

I am cheating today because I couldn't find any XRays, xylphone or any Xs at all for that matter. So it was opt out or cheat and I thought I'd cheat. This is what I decided.
Xcellent......I know it is spelt wrong but that is all I could think of.
XCELLENT Quilts.....made by XCELLent workers....for an XCELLent cause. Three Xs

These are just some of the 20+ quilts out group called "We Care" have made for Ronald Mc Donald house in Melbouren. We hope to deliver them real soon.

Hope I don't get Xited for cheating.......

Scatterday I am Early

2008-03-21T22:57:00.002+11:00

I am early for Scatterday but have a busy morning tomorrow so thought I would post before going to bed.

This week the letter was N and N is for
Little.....Necklace...And this is a special necklace, a healing stone "moonstone" helps with panic and anxiety. It was bought for me by my husband and he didn't know what it was and until I realised for some reason I was able to leave the house without the panic neither did I. When I looked into what this stone was I realised it was the reason my panic had eased and now I wear it whenever I leave the house..
Human....Nanna....Nanna Kuhne almost 90 years old and wonderful Mother, Nanna and Great Nanna as this photo shows. She is my mother in law and a wonderful one at that. Four generations here. My Husband(son) my Daughter ( granddaughter) my Grand daughter(Great Grand daughter)
Mineral.....Natrojarrosite...Okay I cheated, googled mineral starting with N and this is one of the many that came up.. Natrojarosite (Sodium Iron Sulphate) is a Selenite_Crystal. Yellow-brown to brown-light yellow streak. Occurs in tiny crystals which are hexagon. It is translucent.
Look forward to seeing all the posts tomorrow and learning what we are working on this week.

Scatterday here I am again

2008-03-15T10:13:00.002+11:00

So good to back in the land of cyberspace. After our move in january I wasn't able to get broadband internet here so had to go back to dial up till they were abale to install satellite broadband which they did a couple of weeks ago. Now I am finally organised again and can participate in the fun of Scatterday.

Today's letter L is an easy one for me to start back with.

Household Items ....Loo, we always call it the loo in our house this one is in the laundry and my goodness look at the cobwebs when I loaded the photo I went straight away and cleaned them shows I don't look behind the loo doesn't it.

Things that are round...... Lid, I found the lid to my crayons sitting on my desk so was easy to photograph it..

Tools....Spirit level had to go and find it in hubby's shed and take a photo he had three hanging neatly on the wall so was easy also

Looking forward to next week hope it is just as easy.

My Goodness!! A whole month

2008-03-14T10:28:00.002+11:00

I cannot believe it has been a whole month, but finally I am back in the land of bloggers. I couldn't be bothered when I was on dial up everything was so slow, but now I am on satellite it seems things have returned to normal and I can return to blogger land.

I will be participating in Scatter day again tomorrow.

Also I would love you to visit this blog and see the give away quilt, and tell them I sent you as I would love the quilt to add to the stash I am accumulating to deliver to Ronald Mc Donald house in April.
http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Watch this space as I will participate more now.

Christina

Back Again & Scatterday

2008-02-01T20:20:00.000+11:00

Here I am back again sort of. After moving and waiting three weeks for the broadband connection, then to be told broadband is not available here I am now on Dial up.... so slow... I have made enquiries about Satellite and am awaiting the replies.
I haven't had a chance to catch up on the past three weeks but when I read the letter Z a feeling of dread washed over me. However Dear Hubby came to the rescue again and we were able to find three catergories without any trouble here they are.
Zebra....My favaourite tea mug with a funny looking Zebra on it.
Zantac.....The favourite remedy for indigestion, but doesn't work for heart attack as my hubby found out after he had pushed himself too far after we moved. Yes he is okay thank goodness but at least it has slowed him down
Zippers.....And here are two on a favourite winter jumper of mine nice and warm and sloppy covers all the bits
Look forward to seeing what everyone else has done and sending this early as with dial up I don't get on too early in the morning now wait till all the housework is done and then can sit and relax

Will be Missing In Action

2008-01-11T21:03:00.000+11:00

Will be missing in action for the next three weeks. We are moving and they tell me it takes that long for the broadband transfer.
So no Scatterdays till further notice, will look forward to catching up when I return
Christina

Scatterday ...... The letter Y

2007-12-29T09:06:00.000+11:00

Well the letter Y didn't prove to be as hard as I expected once I thought about it. Here is what I came up with

Green........Yuletide means Christmas season which we are just heading out of, so naturally what is green and associated with Yuletide. Christmas tree, now I could have just photographed the Christmas tree but that was too easy so I photographed two ornaments that are Christmas tree and green, one a beaded one which you need to look hard to see and another was given to me in a swap.......

School Days...... a little harder till I drove past the school yard the other day and saw it. A yellow slide in the school yard. So I asked Hubby to go back and photograph it for after all he likes playing this game too. He said I will get him locked up but he didn't and got the photo.

Animals....... We are a little short on animals starting with Y and I thought of Yabbies but hubby said enough was enough he was not going looking for yabbies in 30+ deg heat so I cheated and googled this one.......

So until next week that is it for us. Hubby and I.

I am off to do some more packing we are moving house in a little under two weeks

Scatterday The letter S

2007-12-22T09:29:00.000+11:00

Well here we are Saturday again, and it is Scatterday, I found today quite easy and took all but one photo this morning.

Christmas... Was easy as already had this photo, Sam with Santa and of course Amy is there also. Two of my beautiful grandchildren and look at the magic of Christmas in their eyes.

Medical Things..... Our local Dr's surgery such as it is taken this morning in the midst of the storm. Don't get me started on this surgery, we have one to service the town here and they are not very dedicated Drs. Took Hubby there this week, he has emphysema and his breathing is getting much worse, he has pain in his lung and a bronchial cough. Dr practically ignored hubby all he did was ask if he was still smoking and when hubby said yes he said I can't help you till you give up. Now I know their policy but hubby suffers PTSD and he has tried every way known to give up and not succeeded, so I do think the Drs should be a little more understanding. Well guess we now find a Dr in another town.

Beverages....... Soft Drink and this was all I had in the fridge, Lemonade for Amy as she likes upside down lemonade and cordial.(that is where you put the lemonade in first) Coke for Hubby and Ginger beer for me.

Okay Merry Christmas to all the fellow Scatterdaisies and looking forward to next week

Two More Quilts go to Children

2007-12-17T20:24:00.000+11:00

Today we had our monthly GTG of our group Quilts for Kids. And we prepared blocks for three more quilts, two of which are already promised to children.

We were also able to share in the joy of presenting two more quilts.

Firstly we gave one to Maddie's brother Liam. You may remember we gave Maddie a quilt a little while ago. She is progressing well with her treatment for Leukemia. Well we like to give quilts to siblings in some cases and we believed in this case it was apt. So we made Liam a Pokemon quilt one of his favourite characters. We presented it to Liam's Aunt Nikki.

Then we gave little Blakey who is three and has Perthy's disease a degenerative disease affecting the hip. He was delighted and asked us could he keep it and we said of course and he said "good I am not letting the doctors or the hospital have it,I will tell them you said it is mine." A delightful little boy who may face two years of plaster casts.

So our supply of quilts is depleting so we will have to get busy and make more.....

Scatterday the letter D

2007-12-15T09:25:00.000+11:00

Scatterday again and I found this week difficult.Never the less I have managed to take some photos with the help of hubby as you will see

Sewing.... Was hard till I thought about it and founds some Dragon blocks that I have ready for a quilt for the quilt for kids group.

Vehicle.....Now this may be a cheater. DH's( Darling Hubby) car and he is a darling he drove all around town last night looking for a car that started with D and even went out to a mate's to take a photo of his Dodge truck but it wasn't there. So we had to settle for his car. Which technically isn't his car as it is registered in my name but he drives it the most.

Touchy Feely ........... Firstly our Dog Ebony she is definitely touchy feely and here she is begging for a scratch. Secondly two of my Darling grandchildren Amy and Sam, enjoying the wonderment of Christmas. Amy with the Advent Calender her clever mum my daughter ( Michelle ) made and then meeting Santa.

Onward to next week will go check what we have.

No Scatterday again.

2007-12-08T17:24:00.000+11:00

There is no Scatterday this week as I am afraid I have not had enough time, where the time has gone I do not know. Will make sure I get on the ball for next week.

My day so far......Firstly a quick tidy up as had the Quilt for Kids group was coming this morning to see two quilts presented. Then SIL arrived early crying help. She had forgotten how I told her to make the carry bag for one of the quilts so I quickly whipped that up giving me time to quickly wash the brekkie dishes and we even had time for a cuppa. Ladies arrived followed at 11 am by the mother of one of the babies and the great gran of the other. One baby is 12 weeks old and has a hole in the heart, had a stroke last week and is blind in one eye. She has an operation this coming Friday so keep her in your prayers. The other baby in Brisbane was born 3 months too early weighs about 600 grams and is not doing so well. Both were overwhelmed with the quilts and very grateful.

Then after all left Hubby arrived home and SIL stayed and had lunch with us. After she left I decided to make the Christmas puddings three in all. All Gluten free, they are cooking as I type, five hours cooking. Have to make three as we have Christmas dinner as a family Christmas Eve, then we go to SIL for Christmas lunch so that takes care of two and I give the third to a niece of my daughter's who is Coeliac also.

So now to decide what is for tea.....

No Scatterday this week

2007-11-29T21:53:00.000+11:00

We are going away Friday for the weekend and will return home on Monday. I will publish my photos when I return home because I know my sister has a hobby which starts with M and I am sure she will have some weapons that start with M also.
See you all next week
Christina

The quilts and the circus

2007-08-23T19:42:00.001+10:00

My progress with the "Quilts for Kids" program is progressing nicely. In the last couple of days I have received two lots of fabric donated. Which I quickly put to good use, Have a cot quilt on the way with fabric donated by Kali Neel. and plans for a single bed quilt using some pre cut blocks donated by Chocolate Coated.

Sister in Law is also working hard. Today we went fabric shopping and she has enough pale blue homespun for 24 blocks and she is going to embroider some pokemon characters and make 2 single bed quilts.

Tuesday August 28th is our coffee morning for interested people and although my letter wasn't published in this week's local paper I think we have at least 12 people interested. My plan is to have some blocks organised to distribute for visofixing and sewing and when they come back we will have enough blocks hopefully to assemble 1 cot quilt 1 boys quilt and 1 girls quilt. So we are well on our way to having our first quilts finished soon. My concern now is where to get the wadding from but I am letting it all take care of itself. When we need the wadding I am sure it will become available.

The circus has come to town. My granddaughter Amy was so excited she rang me to tell me there are elephants at the showgrounds. My favourite animal is an elephant. Then she made her mum ( my daughter) come pick me up and I had to be driven pretending I had no idea where I was going, to the showgrounds so she could show me the elephants We are going to the circus tomorrow night and the kids are all very excited . So is Grandma just quietly I have never been to a circus.

Quilts for Kids Update

2007-11-20T18:44:00.000+11:00

While I haven't been writing of our progress with the Quilts For Kids, it doesn't mean we haven't been busy. I have a band of willing sewers and I have to work hard to keep in front of them.

We have finished five quilts, four cot quilts and one single bed quilt. We have three single bed quilts almost ready to quilt and we have7 other quilts in block stage some almost finished and some still a little way to go.

I have made a mosaic of the quilts we have finished. The bag is for the Southern Belle Lady quilt. Recently we heard of a local family who has a niece in the Royal Children's Hospital, she is three years old and just diagnosed with Leukemia. She faces years of frequent trips to hospital so we decided to present her Aunt with a quilt and ask her to pass it on to her niece. The only single bed one we had finished was this one so we hope she likes it. I made the bag and added the soft toy so that mum just has to grab the bag when she heads off to hospital.

Coffee Morning was a great success

2007-08-28T14:50:00.001+10:00

We had our GTG today the first meeting of our group to make the quilts for the Quilts for Kidss program. I believe it was a huge success, we had 12 people attend three from the local church group who although are not sewers donated $150 to us. We quickly decided to purchase a roll of wadding and a roll of visofix with this money

Much coffee and tea were drank. Jodie the muffins were a huge success everyone loved them and I have posted a photo as you requested. Happy to pass on the recipe if anyone wants it just email me. One of the ladies ( not a quilter I might add ) was amazed and said 'she even has a quilt on her table lol'. I told her that was because my table got cold. lol

People were more than keen to take fabric and begin making the blocks so we now have enough blocks distributed for a boys single bed a girls single bed and a cot quilt. One lady took fabric to copy the cot quilt I made and another lady took some blocks to assemble into a single bed quilt. I did a quick demo on how to apply applique and the ladies were all very enthused. Much laughter and chatting.

We have decided to get together the last Tuesday in September to see our progress and assemble any quilts that are ready to assemble. I am so please all in all the day was a big success and donation was much appreciated and very unexpected.

So from small thing may bigger things come I hope.

Monthy GTG of Our Quilts for Kids

2007-10-22T16:53:00.000+10:00

We have had a lovely day together with some of the busy workers of our group and we have achieved a lot today we have 5 quilts sandwiched ready to quilt. And we worked hard tracing a dragon design onto some hand dyed fabric for a stitchery and visofixing some lovely cars ready to be sewn. Again used some hand dye fabric and some beautiful spotted fabric.

Had to take a photo and hubby wanted to be in it as he says he helped which he did he helped sandwich some quilts.... We are so pleased we should have twelve quilts to send in December.

Christina

Quilt delivered and On it way

2007-11-22T21:43:00.000+11:00

Late this afternon I met the Aunt of the little girl, Maddie, who will recieve one of our first finished quilts. Nicki, the Aunt is a lovely lady and was so grateful for all we could do. She loved the quilt and was amazed with how much work had gone into it. Nicki told us Maddie's grandmother will deliver the quilt to Maddie this weekend.

She told us about Maddie, she is just 3 years old. Just on a week ago she had an odd looking rash on her tummy that spread and her mum took her to the local Dr in Shepparton Victoria where they live. within 24 hours Maddie was in Melbourne in the Royal Children's Hopsital and had begun aggressive chemo and other treatment. They have been told she may lose the ability to walk for a while because of the treatment and it is looking like that will be the case as she is tottering over a lot. Maddie faces several weeks of this treatment then chemo once a week for two years, yes I did say two years. She has a98% survival chance so that news is good. Presently Maddie , her mum, dad and baby sister (4 months old) is staying in Ronald Mc Donald house.

MAddie has an older brother who is 10 years old. He is staying with his Grandparents in Shepparton. He is devastated with all that is happening and very confused. So I offered him a quilt also. His Aunt was astounded. I asked her what he would like and she said he likes Pokemon, it jsut so happens we have a pokemon quilt on the go, so a quick ring around tonight and we will finish it off for him tomorrow.

The Photo above is Maddie's Aunt recieving the quilt From me this afternoon.

We have been informed Ronald Mc Donald house in Melbourne would like to recieve quilts to pass on to sick children, so after we send the first batch of quilts to Westmead Hospital we will be sending quilts to Ronald Mc Donald house for a few months.

Scatterday

2007-11-24T07:13:00.000+11:00

Scatterday is here again. this week the letter was T and the categories were

Clothing...I chose a T shirt simple, in fact all my choices today are simple.

Purple... Tye Dyed Fabric, not 100% sure this is Tye Dyed but it looks like it could be.

Hot Things..... Of course had to be my morning pot of Tea could not start the morning without my cup of tea.

Looking forward to next week.

Scatterday The letter H

2007-11-17T07:22:00.000+11:00

Oh dear another week goes by and I have not posted to my blog. Life gets rather busy sometimes....

This week the letter was H and the Categories were

Human... And I thought Human Hair, and my beautiful granddaughter Amy has her ballet concert this weekend she is preforming 5 dances on two nights because the theatre was not big enough to hold everyone . Last night was the first performance and tonight we are going to watch her. It takes hours for my daughter to do her hair and she sits patiently while her mum does it and she is only 5 years old. Doesn't she look lovely.

Toys... Horatio and Hamish Two of my wonderful teddies given to me by my youngest son quite a number of years ago when I had to go to hospital for an operation. Also the letter H in the alphabet train hubby makes. The other H set in a mosaic.

Soft... My beautiful Healing Heart Quillow is so soft and cuddly.The hearts were sent to me from two online Quilting groups in May after my sister died. I had enough to make my quillow and four cushions one for each of my sisters and one for mum. They all love their cushions as much as I love my quillow which lives on my bed.