5 Things for Charity

I'm so glad I'm doing this, I even got my own blog: SuLovesPink

Two More Things

Two scarves I made that are going to a local shelter for battered or abused women and children.

Christmas on the Coast

We adopted a family of 6 in Bay St Louis, MS. for Christmas through our church. In addition to several purchased items I crocheted a little something for each of them, Mom, Dad, 3 girls, ages 14, 8, & 5 and 5 YO boy. These are my items 4 - 9. This is fun.
Terrybb

Operation Shoebox

My son, Max (age 7), turned in his shoebox for Operation Shoebox. I am very proud of him. He spent his own allowance money on it and made the selections himself. The shoeboxes are, I believe, headed for Indonesia. Inside he included a flute, a padded toy/bath mitten, soap, toothbrush & toothpaste, a keychain with a horse on it, a little book, a little notebook with pencil & eraser, and a few other small things. He decorated it himself (with a tiny bit of help from mom) with a 'magic' theme - that's a wizard on the top.

Lisa with the Red Scarf Project

Lisa sold scarves earlier this year to benefit an orphanage in China. I sent her two scarves [I know a few of you also sent her items]. Well, the children need our help. Lisa is calling for warm items to take to the kids. All items are needed: hats, scarves, mittens, etc.

For more details - click here.

Welcome to another new member!!

Auntbubbels has joined our group!

Wow, 4 new members today. We are on a roll!

Pillow Case Quilt?

This idea popped into my head today. Perhaps this has been done many times before, but I've never seen it. I was thinking about all the many extra pillowcases I seem to have in my linen closet and was wondering how hard it would be to cut them apart at the sides, cut the tops of the cases off, sew many of the pillow cases together at the seams, stuff them w/ batting, and use the "tops" to run along as borders. Has anyone seen anything like this? I can see it being kind of wacky looking (if your assortment of spare pillowcases is anything like mine--plaid, floral, striped, solid in every color family). But forget all those squares and triangles! Just keep the cases as they are. Anyone see a problem w/ my logic? (Most people spot flaws quickly in my logic, so don't be shy.)Seems it would make a quilt in quick time.

Welcome to 3 new members

Welcome to:

Jacky (itch2stitch), Pink, and 32mermaids.

I have sent a request for your e-mail addresses. Once I receive these I will
send you an invite to join the blog.

86 More Bags!

No, I didn't make them, I received them today in the mail. This is in addition to the 40 that I got yesterday from France. Wow, I wish you all could see every single one of them. They will be sponsored, Lord willing, filled with toiletries and toys and be sent with love to Texas where there is still great need for them by the Katrina evacuees.

Talented, talented seamstresses. It's hard to believe these are being sponsored for only $5 each. All of the bags are worth much more in materials and time alone! Some have pockets, others have lace, while still others have drawstrings with heavy bead closures. My kids and I have been gawking "ooh, ah" and "how aDORable!" I'm very impressed AND very blessed to be part of a network of such caring "strangers" whom I now consider friends.

Soon I'll try to take pix and upload them for your pleasure!

In the same vein as Ro's post...

Hello everyone!

My friend Zoanna, who is also a member of this group, finally received the first box of French-made bags that will serve as toiletry bags for Katrina victims. What a huge relief! Another box of 86 bags is still on its way. I thank God that the first box finally made its way to Zoanna's!

Now Zoanna will need to find sponsors to fill them with toiletry items... Then she'll send them to the shelter in Texas, where they are still needed...

News from South Africa

Hi everybody, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

I got exciting news from Helen at Sunbeam Kids Foundation in Ficksburg! She said that my blankets arrived safely and that she was happy that they would be given out at the Christmas party that they plan to have for the children of Angel's house on the fifteenth of December. She said she would send pictures...I cannot wait to see!

I just finished the HUGE gift I was working on for christmas for my husband's grandmother and so should be getting back into the charity swing, I've missed it! I'm working on a blanket for myself (that's a first!) and so that will be in progress at the same time but I hope to be able to come up with some goodies for my list here soon.

hugs
Ro

snowflake hats

I've been knitting hats and tube socks for The Preemie Project. I've still got one pair of socks to go, but thought I'd go ahead and post a picture.

Hello everyone! Sorry, I haven't been around much lately. I have enjoyed looking at everyone's projects. I am in the middle of trying to finish a gift for someone. After that, I plan to work on my 25 things.

Here are a few calls for items that have appeared recently on Volunteermatch:

USO of Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, Inc.
Need quilts, lap robes and pillows for our men and women in the military.
Address:
Philadelphia International Airport
Terminal D
Philadelphia, PA 19153
(I've contacted them to verify the address.)

Mercer County Binky Patrol
Need blankets from fabric or yarn for children.
Address:
Melissa Davidson
870 S. Buhl Farm Drive
Hermitage, PA 16148
(Address has been verified. Thanks Melissa!)


I had a great Thanksgiving Day. I hope you did too.

Cindy

Crochet the Blues Away

I hope you all are having a happy and safe Thanksgiving day..
i have spent the day crocheting and loving it...

six santa sacks

Today I made 6 more Santa Sacks for the nursing home. Tomorrow (which is not a holiday here in Holland), I'll shop for the goodies to fill them up. They will be handed out to residents on December 5th, the date on which gifts are anonymously exchanged here in Holland.

Number 15

Click the hat to see more WTW items.

This Jiffy Clearwater hat knitted on US 11 needles in the simple hat patterns makes item number 15 for charity. This hat along with my other items are all going to Warm the World.

Happy Crafting Everyone!
Amanda

hey - a picture!

Today the postman brought my fat quarters of Christmas material for the nursing home Santa Sacks and I decided that no time was like the present! Here are my first two bags.



Thanks to Isabelle's excellent instructions, I didn't waste any fabric making 'trial' bags. I'd assumed I would lose at least one fat quarter to this process because I'm pretty hopeless on the sewing machine (seen in the background) so a very big thank you goes to Isabelle.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful weekend!

Number 14!

Click the hat to see more WTW items

Here is number 14 for WTW! It is made from the same yarn that square hat was made from knitted on US 7 circulars. It is so comfy and warm I hope whoever ends up with it likes it.

sniffle

Hi all. Last night I took two big bags of the best newborn clothes to the home for unwed mothers. It was a strange experience, seeing these girls pregnant with babies they didn't want when I would gladly have signed up to take any of them home with me! One girl was very curious about me and why I had three kids and why I wanted to bring clothes to them, etc. Neither of us are native Dutch speakers so it was hard to answer her questions the way I would've liked to. Anyway, the baby clothes are now out of the house. The Next Step domestic violence shelter in Maine will receive theirs in time for Christmas, and the others were distributed to shelters in the area where I live.

Contact has been made with the nursing home for "secret Santa" bags, but the nursing home administrator is still thinking over what the bags should contain. She wants to get together for coffee next week and discuss it in person.

Still no pictures...!

Square hat...

Click the hat to see my other WTW projects...

Here is item #12 for WTW, it is a hat made out of single crochet 5 inch squares crocheted together. It is woolease and virgin wool. Fun and simple to make!

Amanda

Four Drawstring Bags for Katrina Folks

My digital camera has disappeared in the ruck of stuff around here, so no pics available.

As for a count, I'll say this is #4 since joining the blog. I have made more bags than that, but in order to motivate myself to keep it up, I will count just what has made it to charity since my joining. If all goes well, I will ship 25 completed bags via FedEx tomorrow night.

If you go scroll down to a previous post of mine here, there are pictures. Many bags were made by my 16 year old daughter, and others by friends at church. The ones I've made in that stack that are finished are:
*Bright Dots
*Cell Phones
*Butterflies, Bees, & Ladybugs
*Blue-green plaid

Isabelle sponsored the Cell Phones and 4 others to date (which will get finished barring more mechanical problems, I promise, Isabelle!). In the picture you'll see Precious Moments. That's one of them, though I didn't make it. A friend, Rose, handpainted the figure on the bag she pieced and sewed.

item 4

This next item was actually added to my donations by my mother. We went to Michael's Yarn Event yesterday...and she won a knifty knitter! Here is her first project...a child's brimmed hat.

7 Scarves

trying one more time to post this pic..At first it was too large, now i think its too small..
Here is my 7 scarves for  charity...I enjoyed doing them..

no pictutes again, but an update

Hello everyone. Here I am again, once more without pictures. I've been busily planning a Sinterklaas (the Dutch gift-giving celebration on Dec. 5th) surprise for local nursing home residents, and finally ordered the fabric I need from a very nice eBay seller. My oldest son, Max, is busily filling his shoebox for Operation Shoebox. I will put a picture of this in when it's done - he's decorated it beautifully and spent his own allowance money to buy the supplies. But it's today's chore that has me sitting at the keyboard.

For most of us, Christmas is a wonderful time filled with family love. Sadly, around the holiday season, domestic violence can see a sharp increase - women are forced to flee with their children, appearing at shelters with little more than the clothes on their backs. It's a shocking thought.

I've been putting off what to do with our baby clothes for awhile now. We have three wonderful children, but our days of having babies are over ... which is a bit of a sad thought for me. I contacted The Next Step shelter, in my former hometown, to ask about making a donation of baby clothes and was told there would be a need for them with the holidays approaching. So today I spent about three hours going through baby clothes and making choices for different charities depending on need. Those for The Next Step will go out in tomorrow's mail, arriving in plenty of time for Christmas. Another 6 bags will go to local Dutch charities.

Rice Bags for Heat Therapy

You've probably seen the malls trying to sell therapy bags at Christmastime. My sister-in-law made pairs of them as gifts. It's a rice bag that you put in the microwave for 30-45 seconds, pull out and put it where you need heat therapy.

You can use scraps Ideally a thick cotton works well or drapery material. You can make small square or rectangles to go into each pant pocket, a long rectangular one to drape around the neck, medium size ones with Velcro attaches for elbow or ankles. Think of the possibilties! You fill these with UNCOOKED, LONGRAIN RICE ONLY. (I put instant rice in one time, not thinking. Ended up cooking the rice inside the bag. How embarrassing. Thankfully it was just for me!)

A quick seamstress could whip up 25 of these in a weekend!

New member here

Thanks Cindy for setting me up so quickly. I am thrilled to be here after reading about this group on Barbara´s weblog. My idea is to stitch 25 scissor fobs over the next year (some of them are already stitched but not finished) and put them up for a silent auction on my website in November 2006. The money will go to a charity, probably one for children.
I have seen some of the things that people stitched or sewed and am in awe of all the wonderful things you come up with.

Annemiek

Welcome a New Member

A big welcome to Annemiek!

Annemiek owns a cross stitch store in the Netherlands. She plans to sell items and donate the proceeds to a Dutch charity.

I'm here, Thanks to Isabelle

Sounds like my kind of group. I love the rules. Looking forward to keeping my sewing machine humming. I think I will make mostly drawstring bags like we did for Katrina. Isabelle has shown pictures of bags she and other seamstresses have made for this cause. Here are some that my friends, daughter, and I have sewn. Thanks for letting me join the group.

Welcome a New Member

Everyone say, "Hello" to Zoanna!

Thrilled to join

Thank you for inviting me to join. I read about this in Crochetville, which I've belonged to only a short time. This is a wonderful idea and I'm very comfortable with the rules. I've never blogged before so this is new.
Last October I decided to spend the next year making a few things for my church's Fall Festival - we raise money to build our parsonage, which was way off in the future. I figured an afghan or two. Well, the first afghan took 2 weeks and I still had the whole year to fill up so I just kept on. I made afghans, hats, bags, scarves, stoles, shawls, ponchos, Christmas stockings, thingamajigs and doodads. This October we sold about half my stuff for $900 at the Fall Festival. We broke gound on the parsonage last week so I'm thrilled to contribute so much. I'm definitely hooked on crochet and need a good reason to keep at it and this inspires me.
My first 3 projects are 3 hats I will send to the Veteran's Home of California. My folks live there with about 1000 others. The mornings can get very nippy and most everyone needs a warm hat while they zip around on their scooters or wheelchairs to the dining room, hospital, activities, etc. Mom will use them as bingo prizes or give them to someone she knows needs one. I'm going to make more for this group.
terrybb

Welcome to Three New Members!!!

I want to welcome three new members: Isabelle, Tammy, and Terrybb. Also a welcome back to Veronica!

Isabelle and Veronica have already posted their wonderful projects. Tammy and Terrybb - your invites to join the blog are in your e-mail boxes.

Hello and Thanks!

I joined this group awhile back, but computer trouble and my own bad memory ( I have way to many passwords) kept me from being able to post anything. With the help of the wonderful Cindy (thank you!) I am finally able to participate in this great group. I'm so happy so many people have joined, and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone.

My first items are going to the Squares for Survivors group to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. My parents live in southern Mississippi and were hit by the storm. Their house suffered a lot of damage, but it is still standing. I think this makes them one of the lucky ones. As soon as I heard about the effort to make blankets for the victims I knew it was something I wanted to be involved in. So far I've only been able to make a lapghan and a few squares, but I hope to make more soon.

Thank you for having me on board!

Hi everyone!

I found your blog through Barbara from Mainely Stitching and found your action so inspiring that I decided to join too! (Thank you, Barbara!)

My name is Isabelle and I live in Paris, France.

I did a couple of things for charity before this year (dolls), but this year is truly different. Last September, an American lady left me a comment on my blog, asking if I'd like to sew up a few toiletry bags for victims of Katrina that were staying in a shelter. I'd been contemplating a few things to help the Katrina victims; but from France, very few options appeared as practical, other than money... So Zoanna's call was a blessing.

I moderate a French sewing group on Yahoo and asked my buddies if a few would contribute - and soon, many French seamstresses were busy making bags! They sent them to me so I could centralize them all before send them off to the US, where Zoanna will fill them with toiletries. (Zoanna hasn't received the bags yet...).

We've sent 126 bags and the need of the shelter will be covered for sure!

(You can read about it on my blog from September 27th onwards. Here is the link to the September archives, and the link to the bags I made.)

Here's a picture of the 86 bags we sent out in our second "batch":

Now this project has inspired me to start a similar one right here in Paris. I actually have a few surplus bags and plan to make some more, and then buy soft toys and maybe toiletries to fill them. I would like to hand those bags to homeless or destitute people for Christmas. I need to get in touch with a charity association and see what they think about it...

I'm not sure how I should count the "25 things", but never mind. Above all I am hoping that being part of this group and looking at everyone's projects will inspire me to keep sewing for charity. I would love to make blankets as well, but am yet to find cheap fleece in France! It's expensive over here and my research allowance won't allow me to go wild and buy all I would like ;o)

I've kept you more than enough I'm afraid. ;) Once again, thank you Dawn for creating this group, and thank you Cindy for allowing me on board! And thank you all for the inspiration to do more and more for charity... There's so much to do...

Isabelle

My weekend was spent reading Lit Theory and knitting up some wool for WTW.



I think this is item #12...

I am currently working on a green knitted blanket and a crochet wool hat and scarf. I should have pictures of both next Monday.

Happy Knitting and Crocheting!
Amanda

Thanks, Lynn!

Lynn made such a beautiful hat that I had to try one too! This is the Addison Hat made with RH Fiesta Jewel. Truly this hat is quite easy to make and can be done in an evening. I'd love to make several more for our church's donation closet with some of that extra yarn in my stash that's looking for a purpose. Thanks for the link, Lynn!

Items 1-11

Here are pictures of 11 items I knitted and crocheted for charity so far this year. You can see them in my WTW Flickr Photo Album. Each picture will contain project details. The items pictured in the album are kid sizes and I am currently working on wool scarves and hats for adults but I have not taken pictures of those yet.

Happy knitting and crocheting everyone...
Amanda

Item 3

This afternoon I made this Addison Hat by Julie A. Bolduc. It's so pretty! I think I'll have to make a few more of these for personal use because everyone that looks at it gets big greedy eyes...lol.

Things 2 and 3

A vest and cap (still needs to be seamed). I had originally intended to send these items to the Sunbeam Kids Foundation, but I think it would be more productive to send this organization a check. Instead, I will save these for the Dulaan Project.

Happy November

Hello to everyone. Can you believe it is already November? Wow, this year has flown by. We now have 33 people who have decided to craft 25 things for charity. If we each reach our goal that means 825 things going out to people and pets in need. Let's give each other a big pat on the back. Yay!!!!

A chance to enhance your stash!! Afghans for Afghans will be having a drawing on November 30th to give away three YarnMarket.com $50 gift certificates. All you need to do is send your wool items by November 30th and include your email address, name, and mail address on a slip of paper or card. Visit the Web site for details.

Keep up the good work.

Cindy

My next Thing

Hi everybody!

Sorry I haven't been posting it's been a crazy couple of weeks. I finally finished the huge round ripple I was working on which is for charity but doesn't go toward my count here, I also just finished this fleece with crocheted edging and butterfly added which does go toward my count here and is officially "thing #2". I've made a page on the web too where I'll be posting pictures of my "things" as they're finished as well as posting them here.

Next "thing/s" are going to be a Remembrance blanket/s for a mother who lost twins. She said that she didn't have a preference if I made one or two blankets, so I have to decide which I'm going to do.

Hope all your projects are going well!

Ro