17 Sunshine 4 All quilts Pieced - Yahoo

Robbie and I have now pieced seventeen Sunshine for all Quilts! Yahoo!! We are constantly amazed how beautiful these blocks are and thank everyone who contributed to this project. The overall precision in cutting out the blocks to an exact 8 1/2in makes our job so much easier.

The quilt tops are flat, smooth and beautifully square. It is interesting to note, that orange, yellow and hot pink are not color combinations we usually work in, however we are really getting on well with these colors now and how well they have been coordinated.

We would love to hear from you to see which quilt top is your favourite, so please email me:
jenny@jennyhaskins.com and we will then tell you which one comes out on top - so to speak!

Here come the 17 quilts tops we have done so far (you will have to keep scrolling down to see all the quilts):

Two ladies did enough gorgeous kids embroidery designs for us to make four quilts. Ladies, your work is spectacular. I had to almost stop Robbie from taking one home - just for her!

Now here are the 13 larger quilts: 

This is the end. Hope you have enjoyed looking at these quilt tops and to everyone who recognizes their blocks, we trust you live what we have done.

So What's up Doc?

Just when we thought we were getting to the bottom of our pile of Sunshine 4 All (www.sunshin4all.com) blocks, in come more!!! I just love helping Simon open the packages and look at all the blocks.

Thank you so much to Jill's students (from Western Australia) and Erica's Students (Erica's Craft and Sewing Center USA). The blocks are really gorgeous and Robbie (who doesn't know the pile is getting bigger rather than smaller as we piece these into quilts) will love working with them as much as me.

For two people who do not particularly work in these colors, our pallet is opening up and we find ourselves having so much fun with these colors. So thank you for opening up and broadening our color pallets.

Simon is slowly coming back to work, little by little. He is still tired, but managing to work for a few hours everyday. Cannot wait to see what he is working on. I have a clue, but all will be revealed soon.
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My personal trainer - who shares the same birth date as Simon, nearly killed me today, up until now, I have worked hard, but always had something left in the tank - today I was almost running on empty. I am doing things he told me heI would never ask me to do, but now he is pushing me so hard. I am doing things I did not even think of doing when I was young, let alone now at my age!!

I am going to keep you all  up with my progress and try and get some pictures so you can see how I am going!! If you do not exercise on a regular basis, you are missing out on the best of time, it is just another challenge, and we just love challenges don't we, it reminds us that we are still alive and breathing - and breath one does!

So off to piece another quilt now, and will post some more pictures this week.

Exciting News - New Website coming soon

This seemed appropriate today!

Well 2014 is well on it's way and life is slowly changing once more. I was about to say normal, but for me there is no such thing, life is either exciting, amazing, and changing or nothing. I definitely do not wish life to be boring!!

Simon is slowly coming back into work mode, so this is good and he is excited about new things he has planned. All will be disclosed in the next few weeks.

I am back at the gym, yoga and personal trainer, boy did I miss all this on holidays. I am working on my muscles memory at present so hope they hurry up and get back into form. Muscles and I are getting there!

Tomorrow Robbie and I will be working on piecing the Sunshine for all quilts, so this should be fun, to finally see them come to life and pieced. I will post pictures as soon as I can. In the meantime here is another picture of ones I have laid out.

I really love these bright colors, how could you feel anything but happy looking at these. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in a block or several blocks, they come together as one.

Welcome 2014, An encounter with Courage

Welcome 2014, I am so grateful that 2013 is over and that we can move into 2014 with confidence and great news. Simon is officially in remission and life is getting some semblance of normality - well my life is never normal, but at least it is leveling out a bit.

For those of you who don't follow Facebook, I started posting the pictures of the blocks I had to piece for Simon's Sunshine 4 All blocks/quilts, the task seem daunting, and I commented that I had to practise what I preached with the saying: 'The journey of 1,000 miles starts with the first step - well these quilts - (still to be pieced) are my first three steps!!

Speaking of steps, I want to share a story with you today. For those of you who know me and follow me on Facebook: Jenny.Gray Haskins, I walk every morning with my faithful little puppy Honey. On these walks, usually in my favourite park, (The Heritage Park), I meet so many people, who all have a story to tell. Well this morning for some unknown reason, I did not got for my usual walk, rather chose to walk in the opposite direction - this was not by chance.

As I was walking down the hill on the foot path, I noticed a lady ahead of me, who was walking funny, sort of walking with a shuffling gate and immediately in my mind, classified her as a certain race thinking, why don't these people learn to walk properly - God always takes me back when ever I make such quick judgements.

As the lady was walking very slowly, I started catching up with her, and noticed that she was swinging one leg, rather than shuffling - how quick I was to judge. As Honey and I walked past I greeted her with, 'Good Morning" to which she replied 'What a Cutie' (this of course was referring to Honey), I thanked her and kept going.

They are  rather long  hills, up and down and very steep, but as I am used to walking hills, I soon reached the top of the hill and started walking back down it, the way I had come. As I was walking up the next hill, the lady I had passed previously came into view, and I soon was up to her again. As I passed I commented to her that she was doing well and what a special person she was walking such a long distance with her obviously damaged leg. (I did not mention the leg.)

She thanked me, and especially for the encouragement and then told me her story:

This amazing woman (who was not old) told me she was from Persia and had worked at a large Hospital in Sydney's west as an interpreter (as we have many nationalities who frequent this hospital especially as part of it is a major Children's Hospital). She had had a brain hemorrhage which left her paralyzed down her left side, being told she would never walk again and would be confined to a wheel chair. Her husband was of no support and told her to give up, but give up she did not.

Here was this amazing woman walking and not a short distance, she told me she was determined to go back to work, and was walking up to the local shopping center, at least another two kilometers away, again up and down hills. She was going to the local library to study online to improve her already many skills - she spoke five languages. Her goal was to get back to work, and continue helping migrants in the hospital who could not read or speak English.We spoke for some time, and she mentioned that God always sent someone special to her when she was struggling and that she needed the encouragement that morning.

I did not know why I chose to go in the opposite direction this morning for my walk, Honey seemed to not want to go in the usual way, so I just said, 'OK let's go this way'. Now I know why!

If this amazingly courageous lady can learn to walk again and not just walk, but walk up and down hills for over three kilometers, then I surely can get these quilts done. She encouraged me also and did not know how, but she did.

We said good bye and wished each other well - we are always so busy in this life, and sometimes we just need to stop, look around and breath, who knows who we will meet and what joy can be transferred.