We need your help!!!

 Over at  Among the Gum Trees  

An appeal has been issued to help crafters in  Australia who have lost everything in the horrible floods that are going on  over there.

I thought you all might be interested in helping and maybe did not know about this chance.   I did not know until today when it was passed on to me by a friend.

So read about it below and see how you might help.

For all links and to contact Jenny go to

Among The Gum Trees

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Tuesday, January 11, 2011

We need your help!!!

A large part of our country is under water...the devastating floods have destroyed town upon town, and there is no end in sight for the next month or more. The water is still flooding towns as it makes its way down the country, and more rain is till bucketing down. This is indeed "Queensland's darkest hour" as our state Premier has described it.

The inland tsunami that hit Toowoomba yesterday has left the nation reeling, but no more than the people of Toowoomba with the deaths of children and still over 70 people missing. 

The list of towns affected is long. The area of flooding is larger than Texas.

The Gum Tree Designers are asking for your help.

There will be many hundreds of crafters who have lost what is their joy, their hobby. 

In our own small way we want to help, and we need you to come along side with us.

We want to collect, and then distribute, a 'New Beginnings' sewing kit for those who need to start over with their craft. We will be posting the kits in bulk to the various quilting groups in each town.

This is what we'd like in each kit:

1. A handmade sewing caddy, complete with needlebook and pincushion.

2. A pack of embroidery scissors with a scissor keep.

3. Six individual skeins of stranded embroidery threads.

4. Embroidery needles.

5. 1 fat quarter of fabric.

If you can help, please email Jenny at -

 jennyofelefantz AT yahoo DOT com DOT au 
OR
purpleflowerpatch AT gmail DOT com

for the address in Australia to post these kits to. 

PLEASE post by the first week of February.

Fee is going to make some drawstring bags to put the kits in, but if you can put your kit inside one you have made that will be even better. 

Please share this appeal on your blogs and link back to this post! 

Some free online patterns for sewing caddies can be found at  -

Helen's blog HERE 

About.com HERE

Maureen's blog HERE

Marcus Brothers HERE...

If you know of more free caddy patterns online, please leave a comment with the link and we'll add it to the list.

~~~~~

Jenny is also auctioning two of her original handmade Shabby Roses quilts to raise funds for the Flood Appeal. You can see the details HERE on her blog.

Joy is auctioning a kit for one of her beautiful patterns HERE.

Fee is auctioning a pretty fat quarter bundle of Sugar Pop HERE.

Our recently retired Gum Tree Designer, Vikki, is also auctioning a set of 'Springtime' patterns HERE.

We will keep you posted on other ways we intend helping as the weeks progress. The effects of the flooding as it continues to rage on will be felt for a long time to come, as it is not looking like ending for many weeks, perhaps months. 

Your help is appreciated more than you know.

We are also asking for donations to raise the funds for the postage costs to all the quilt groups, so if you can help out with that we are most appreciative! We have put a DONATE button on our sidebar for easy Paypal payments. 
Any money remaining after postage will be given to the Queensland Government Flood Appeal. 
 'll set up a button in our sidebar later this week to contribute. 

Thanks,

the Gum Tree Designers

xxx

Posted by Jenny of Elefantz at 12:31 PM