Sunday 9 March 2014

We are over 700!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not going to keep you in suspense. At the last post we were at 672 quilts. Since then we have finished or received another 87 quilts (not counting the wallhangings), so we are at 759!

The quilts can be seen in the new gallery page, Photo Gallery 2.

Here is a sneak peak:






Now this quilt is something special. It is huge! And is very heavy. It is a king sized, double sided quilt. Of course, all quilts have two sides, but this quilt has a stand alone design on each side. One side is completed with English paper pieced hexagons which form a traditional pattern called Grandmothers Flower Garden. And the other side is a more modern Tumbler Block pattern - one shape like a tumbler glass that is repeated all over the quilt. Now, the most amazing thing about this quilt is something that can't be seen on these photos. Every fabric used in this quilt, except for the few cream hexagons, has bees on it or is bee related, like honey or beehives. Fabric with bees is not all that common, and you can see from the variety of colours and fabrics that the make of this quilt has been collecting them for quite some time. The dedication to make a quilt entirely out of bee fabric is amazing. Whoever chooses this quilt will be getting a very special one of a kind quilt. And if they are a Kiwi, they will recognise the Buzzy Bee fabric in the border!




Aren't these wallhangings adorable? Irene Lightowler donated 19 wallhanging like these last week. Irene will be looking after the wallhanging display on both days, so you can ask her all about these beauties.







Only 12 days to go to the Public Open Day when all of the quilts will be on display. At this stage we are starting to wrap up all of the quilting so we have time to get the binding on. Last Thursday we pinned the last quilt top that we think we will be able to finish in time. The remaining quilt tops will be finished later in the year to be given away to one of our community projects.

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I would explain what happens each week and now that we are coming to the end of this Appeal, it probably would be a good time to do that now.

On Wednesday night we set up the back of the hall with:

  • two tables for the quilt tops and backs and wadding and binding
  • three tables on risers pushed together to make a large pinning table
  • four tables in a long row for people who are sewing down the binding, and those who are working on their own projects
  • a table or two for sewing machines
  • some chairs for the finished quilts
  • the iron and ironing board
  • the whiteboard

We seem to have a good system worked out with different people looking after different areas, although we have always needed more quilters. A few of the ladies have spent hours and hours quilting and finishing the donated tops we have received, and it is a testament to their hard-working, generous natures.

When we have finished on Wednesday, we leave it all set up so we can walk in on Thursday morning and get started straight away. It saves a lot of time in packing and unpacking.

When donated items come in, we sort them into the right places. Finished quilts get stacked with a note attached with the maker and number of quilts. A list is started with the makers names and number of quilts. The quilt maker's name is written on the Thank You section of the whiteboard. The quilts are put in order ready for photographing so that when the photos are downloaded and tuned to a much smaller size, they are easy to match to the order on the list. Once quilts have been photographed a laminated tag is pinned to a corner. These can be used to attach labels for those who aren't able to come to collect a quilt on the day. Then then are packed into bags and taken to one of our quilt sitters to mind until the big day.

On Thursdays we have a lot more helpers, and it is basically pin, pin, pin! We try to get as many quilts backed and sandwiched with wadding as we can, and then we find people willing to take them home to quilt them. I did say early on that there was no way that we would have all of the tops done, and while there are still a few left to go, it is nowhere near the number we thought we would have left unfinished and we are really pleased.

This week, we will be working on getting bindings finished, tagging the quilts we didn't finish tagging last week, and sorting out the setting up and running of the two days. This Saturday we are having a working bee to get the hall looking spick and span for the big day. And it will probably take us a couple of days to get it all up and ready, particularly as there are some timber frames to be built, so it looks like it will be a big week after this Thursday.

Registrations are coming in and it is very exciting to see. If you know of someone who has lost their home, please make sure you pass the information on. Any help we can get to get the word out there, would be appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tracey.

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