Twelve quilts and rugs received 30th April

This year I've received a few emails from ladies who have offered to make quilts for the PNG babies, and Lorraine Squires in NSW sent 12 from her group of quilters who meet every Monday.  I took some photos but they didn't turn out well enough to post here, so I will try again later this week.  In the meantime, many thanks to Lorraine and her quilting friends - this is their second lot of donations!  They are very kind.

Edited a week later to include photos of the 12.  Only two or three are quilted, the rest are bunny rugs, which are just as acceptable to the PNG mothers, as they are perfect for the newborns.

March 1st. Three quilts finished today.

My friend Cheryl in Hurstbridge, Vic. made these three colourful quilts last year, but couldn't finish them because her sewing machine broke down. All I had to do was quilt and bind them, and I finally finished them today! Thanks for doing the first and most important bits, Cheryl!

February 28th. Two quilts from NSW.

These two quilts arrived from Steph Hateley in NSW - thank you very much, Steph - they will be very much appreciated by our PNG babies and their mothers!

The backing fabric is delightful!

Wonderful publicity for us!

Quilters Companion magazine (an Australian publication) has a full page article about the PNG Quilt Collective in the current issue. which is No.65 - Vol.13 No.1.   This is the cover, if you want to look for a copy in your newsagent.

The article is on Page 107.  I'd like to reproduce the article here, but I don't think the publishers would be too pleased!

Explanation for photographs.

Tonight I received the following email from Yaso, in reply to my query about her photos.  Before she left, she said she was going to try to photograph each baby with its mother and the quilt they received.  This explains why that did not happen, and I know all our quilt donors will understand!

Gina, it was not possible to photograph each person with the quilt. Sorry. So many people came and then the Elders called out to those who were going to receive the quilts.  And I had thought that  I could photograph each person, but it was raining.  And so many people around, more than 500 - and then everyone wanting to talk to me and so forth. It took me so much effort to get everyone back together to get the group photo. 

Another 30 quilts - still in another village and they took it up by walking. But I could not get there as the bridge was swept away by landslide and rain. It would have meant walking for 15 hours.  So will do so next visit. The quilts will wait there until I get there. Hopefully, I will be able to photograph each one.

First lot of quilts delivered safely.

Yaso arrived home in Melbourne last Monday, exhausted, sick, but happy that she had achieved her mission of distributing our quilts to the natives of the PNG Patea tribe.  She has emailed me these photos, and a brief explanation, but I don't know if there will be any more to come.
Some of you might be able to recognise your quilts if you enlarge the photos.

Hi Gina,

I am sending though some photos and hope they don't take up too much space. Will try sending in a couple of emails.

I gave out the quilts in three remote villages - Oiwa, Akwanje and Yakepa (Morobe Province) . We could not travel up to Yakepa as the road had fallen away or what were the remnants of a road ) and we could not take the risk.  But a few people walked down (took them 9 hours) and then they carried one box of the quilts back. It will remain the box until I get there next time as they want me to be there when we give it to the babies.

We picked up the quilts in Lae (small town) and then drove 4 hours to Wau and then from there nearly 16 hours to get into the two villages.

The quilts were well received and people were so happy. But need to chat with you after the challenges of getting them up. The boxes took up space in the truck and we had great difficulty with trying to carry them in plastics - as the drive is too rough. But will chat soon and talk through some ideas. 

Love,

Yaso

First lot of quilts on their way.

I received an email today from Yaso and am printing it here for the benefit of the quilt donors who wish to keep track of what is happening:

Gina,

the quilts are on-board the ship and on their way to PNG. Brilliant.

I will collect them on the 9th January 2014 - when I get there and take them up to the villagers.

regards
yaso



Dr. Yaso Nadarajah
Senior Research Fellow ( Globalism Research Center) & Lecturer
School of Global, Urban and Social Studies