Thank you KCMQG!

Thank you so much for letting me talk to you! What a thrill. I was so very nervous that I forgot some pretty important things in my little presentation.

• First of all I didn't even say anything about the process of making these bags of mine. It is such second nature to me that I really don't even think of it, kinda like answering the question "How do you breathe?" So....here is a little bit about the bags. Almost 99% of the bags I make are custom made. Ladies contact me wanting a bag and if I am able I take their order. I send them an order form (really just a big list of questions) and they send me their uniform and patches. They select the style bag from my website and they also select the fabric they would like to have the bag made with. Normally They pick one or two fabrics and I select a couple ones that tie the whole thing together and then I make their bag. It takes a long time. Lots of communication and quite a few emails.

That is all I wanted to add about the bags.

1. This is that other thing I wanted to add about the Bush Fire Quilt Project. After I was overwhelmed with quilt blocks and I joined the Alice Springs Quilt Club, we had 2 big Quiltathons. During the first quiltathon Apples had her quilt frame set up and quilted several quilts. The rest of us were piecing batting, stacking quilts and preparing binding. On the second and biggest quiltathon I think there were 8 of us quilting quilts, there were new quilters (or ladies who claimed not to know how to sew) who were basting quilts on the floor with safety pins and others who were still piecing tops and ladies sitting off to the side hand stitching the bindings. There is no way on Earth this project would have come together without the mighty skills of the Alice Springs Quilting Club. A wonderful aspect of this quilting project was that ladies took home pieces of the quilt that they liked to do. Some were lovers of bindings, and took several quilts home to stitch on the bindings by hand in the evenings, others (like myself) loved to do the actual quilting, so we quilted numerous quilts. One right after the other.
2. My advice for people who are starting to quilt for charity

• it is easier to join in a group already in action.
• if you do decide to start your own, get yourself organized first!
• be prepared to have about 300% more participation than you first anticipated
• have an understanding of who will be getting the quilts and the process for which they will be distributed.
• keep track of as much as you can!
• make sure you have some wonderful strong friends to help you out.

That is about it. Thank you again KCMQG! What an honor to share my love of sewing with you.

**as a side note....I put some of the bags I had at the meeting in my Etsy.com shop. They had been at the shop here on base, but I wanted to have something to show so I took them out of the shop....but now I have more zippy wallets and bags and baby quilts than I need!