Former ABC executive producer Teena Girdis came into my life six years ago and now she is gone. Although we didn’t spend a lot of time together, it always felt good to be in her beautiful, calm, capable company whenever our circles overlapped.

Teena and I had things in common – we each have three children, a sense of social justice, and we both had a brush with breast cancer.  We came together for Rural Press Club events and relevant news stories from the rural and health sectors.

I knew things were not sounding so good for Teena this year because we talked several times and she cancelled a planned meeting in April due to medical complications. I thought of her often, hoping to catch up when her health improved, only to learn that opportunity will never come. I will miss you my friend. Thank you for the buttons you bought me in New York, I will put them to good use before this Sew it Again year is out.  View the ABC 730 tribute to Teena 

It is fitting that Sew 271 of 365 is an upcycle by my sister Joanne of a T-shirt from last year’s The Weekend to End Women’s Cancers, raising funds for the Queensland Berghofer Institute for Medical Research and the Royal Brisbane Women’s Hospital.

Jo was on the support crew, and being fair-skinned wanted to add a sun-protection element to this T-shirt. To do that, she added a roll collar and long-sleeves cut from another shirt she wasn’t wearing.

The rest of the other shirt she then sewed together with a third shirt, in what can only be described as a zero-textile waste strategy. When you have sewing skills and make a little time available, upcycling makes anything possible.