Hello Dear Reader,
I have defeated the UFOs! All four of the previously half finished, or just cut and not even started, or promised and not even started, have all been finished. The pile above were all finished in my six week summer break and I’m ashamed to say, that two of them were finished in the last week. Procrastination, really is the thief of time!
Below, is the quilt I made from scratch yesterday. I say scratch as I had a few 5″ blocks of pyjama fabric already cut………….from last summer! I didn’t have enough and after a rallying cry, you stepped in to help and sent me lots of brushed cotton to help me out. I couldn’t have finished this without you. A big, big thank you to ‘Mummyhen’ who sent me lots of this and you really were my angel who stepped in to help me xxxxxxxxxxxxx
My final quilt, is a cot quilt for Romania and will head out on the next truck consignment to an orphanage that a local church supports. I have enough scraps for another and I’ll get on with making that as soon as I can so I can keep using my odds and ends to make them as many quilts as I can.
This is quick to make as I quilted it on the diagonal to make it as strong as I could for washing.
You can see all the donated fabric here. I hope you don’t mind that I’ve made this to give away but it’s a really good cause. If any of you know of any charities that could benefit from quilts, then please let me know as I’m happy to make quilts and love the thought of them going to families and children who need them.
The back is also made of brushed cotton or ‘flannelette’ and it’s a very warm cot quilt. I can not thank you all enough for the support and encouragement you’ve all given me with my quilting. I’ve only been doing this for a few years and this kind of quilting, ‘scrappy quilting’ really is my favourite way to quilt.
I’ve got lots of challenges over the next few weeks. I’ve received bags of upholstery and curtain fabric which will be great for cushion covers and bag making. I’ll keep you up to date with some ‘how to’ and ‘tutorials’ as well as telling you what I will be doing with all of them.
A massive thank you to everyone who sends me fabric, old shirts and the bits and bobs that you don’t need or have time to use. Without your support, these quilts would never have been made.
I’ve been cooking away over the last few days and the recipes and photos will be up later.
Over to you, does anyone know of any charities who distribute quilts? Does anyone else make hats, blankets, dresses, quilts for charities? I hate the thought of any fabric, textiles or wool being wasted and I’m sure I can create a page of addresses of charities who could benefit from our crafting and thrifting. I’m sure we can quilt, make school bags, clothes, knitted hats and mittens for a whole range of charities.
As ever, I look forward to hearing from you.
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxxx
Just Google Linus Quilts UK. My quilting group make for Linus. All of ours (just over 500) go to our local hospital.
Well done.
Dianne - Hereford
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Well done. Got a feeling a huge number of quilts and thrifty menus are going to be needed by many in this coming winter. How on earth you get across to those who need it the cheap beneficial recipes of you, Shirley Goode, a Girl called Jack and so on I have no idea. Long ago a lovely lady called Bernadine Lawrence wrote the 'Feed your Family on £5 a day'. Life saver but when she suggested that her recipes and menus were given to the needy by 'helpful' charities she was turned down flat as the charity thought that the government and other worthy bodies would you it as an excuse to say that benefits were more than adequate. I still have my chin on the floor at that one.
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Project Linus, there is a link on the net somewhere, you will probably find there is a local co-ordinater who collects and distributes them.
Rules are nothing larger than a metre square and cotton batting as they are frequently washed.
Ask at your local hospital if they use quilts to cover the cots in the prem unit or contact a local hospice, you could dontae quilts to children there. Even an adult hospice might be glad of lap quilts for patients.
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What lovely quilts, & how heartening to see such response from your readers and followers. I like to knit and generally give to local charities. Best advice –find out what they want and then knit it, there’s bound to be someone who wants the kind of things you love to make. As a knitter I occasionally get the challenge of finding good homes for existing knitting, always more challenging! Most charities like acrylic yarn as it washes well, doesn’t shed & is non –allergenic. Cheaper too, so good news for the knitter. As you have found with your quilting when people know that you knit for charity they are keen to give you odds and ends and even large quantities of yarn. Keeps it out of landfill, keeps knitters happy and a charity benefits. It’s win, win all round.
Some suggestions for charity knitters, I’m sure other folk know of more:-
Afghans, or lap blankets, useful at your local Women’s Aid refuge, as women can arrive with only what they are wearing. An Afghan shows someone cared enough to make it, it’s warm & comforting& size isn’t an issue as it would be for clothing. Local old people’s homes may like them too. Many patterns can be made using 2 strands of double knit wool, a good way of using up colours which go well together, it gives a tweedy look rather than just a stripy effect, which can be very effective.
Samaritan’s Purse send shoe boxes of gifts to children aged 2 to 14 in war torn or impoverished countries under the Operation Christmas Child banner, they have patterns on their website @ http://www.samaritanspurse.org. They welcome scarves, hats, and gloves, also some knitted toys which don’t have any stuffing. Local organisers always need an extra stash of these items to top up existing boxes, so don’t feel you have to provide a full box. However don’t include stuffed homemade toys, all toys must have the CE mark to ensure safety, and as homemade stuffed toys may be flammable or used to smuggle drugs they will be removed from the boxes to ensure that there are no hold ups at customs for an entire lorry load of Xmas boxes.
Special Care Baby Units at local hospitals usually welcome knitted preemie garments, Google Ray of Hope & pick out the BBC Stoke & Staffordshire page for lots of free knitting patterns including burial gowns, which are sadly sometimes needed. Baby caps are welcome, but not bonnets with ribbons on health & safety grounds. They welcome baby blankets, & I’m sure quilts would be welcome too. Check out the sizes needed.
Children’s wards sometimes give knitted teddies to patients as comforters. Look at the Teddies for tragedies website for a safe and child friendly knitting pattern. This pattern has also been used by Police Family Protection Units to give to child victims and witnesses, your local police station should know if your area are using this scheme.
Check out Great Balls of Wool blog @ bagsofwool.blogspot for more ideas for charity knitting, although Una does like to post her knitting. Look at Loving Hands site for more ideas to knit, sew and crochet for charity @ http://www.lovinghands.org.uk., and of course Ravelry is a fund of ideas too.
Keep up the great blog, it’s lovely to hear of all you do. Hope work goes well when you step up a gear & get back into work mode to start again after the summer break.
Happy quilting, xx
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i did a quick google search on knitting for charity but a lot of the links were old. However I found this FB page https://www.facebook.com/Knitasquare . You can knit blanket squares, and hats etc., to send to Aids orphans in S. Africa, you do have to personally cover the cost of postage to S. Africa which for a small packet weighing 50 grams would cost £2.60.
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I run a charity crafting group through my church where everything we make goes to charity. We do the Christmas boxes thing, hats for people on the street, homeless and refuges. Children's clothing for the Children's Society working with refugees in our next city. We have made many knitted and crocheted blankets and baby clothes for the local special care baby unit. We have some blankets to go to Linus as above and some to go to the local domestic violence refuge. This month we will be knitting hats for Smoothie bottles for Age UK. We usually do a few knitted hats for soldiers too - the wool for these has to be pure wool so the money for that can come out of our kitty.
Our local foodbank also has a clothes rail of knitted and pre-loved children's clothing so we can knit for them.
As you google crafting for charity you end up finding so so many good causes that need our help. T shape jumpers for Africa and pillow case dresses caught my eye but we haven't done those yet.
Nearly all our materials have been donated by other crafters. We also put money in a pot each week to pay for toiletries and toys for the shoe boxes and any materials we might need. A local wool shop donated loads of odd balls of wool and gives us a discount on bought stuff.
We meet fortnightly and drink tea and eat cake as we craft:)
I have got so much out of this group and made some good friends.
You have inspired me to make better quilts (mine are still a bit wonky!)
Lynn.x.
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The craft club ladies at the chapel are knitting hats and scarves to put in the Operation Christmas Child boxes, and we use all sorts of ends of wool so we make good use of bits and pieces!
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About 15 or so of us here in our town meet on Tuesdays at the local Methodist church and do assembly line scrappy quilts and they are donated to Childrens Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. I have to admit that I haven't been in a while as I took a knitting class and have been doing some baby sitting with my great granddaughter. All the fabric is donations and we all pick up threads and throw in when necessary.
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Beautifully done! Lovely that you are paying forward, and donating to an orphanage in Romania. I have 2 Romanian co-workers, and they have shared many stories of the conditions that remain there. : (
Do check with the oncology clinics (assume that you also have them in the UK) where patients go for their infusions of chemo. Since it's a hospital setting, it's often overly air conditioned, these patients are often skin and bones and very sensitive to cold. Many here donate blankets, quilts etc to these patients.
What a blessing! Great work, Froogs.
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Mumsnet have a group of knitters and crocheters who make squares that get joined together for bereaved parents. We also make whole blankets that get sent to various projects - mainly poorly children in hospital, white 'angel' blankets for children who have passed away, and also blankets to be sent to children suffering from cancer in low income and developing countries, through World Child Cancer.
My favourite bit about this project is that anyone can take part - non-crafters can donate money and/or send wool to knitters who make the blankets and squares.
If you search on Mumsnet for Woolly hugs then you'll find loads of information on how to take part.
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What a lovely idea to make quilts for charity.
This quilt is so nice Froogs.
Looking forward to seeing your makes and reading your recipes.
Have a lovely weekend dear lady and db.
Rw
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Great job on the quilts, Froogs!
I knit on my lunch hour for the grandkids and for charity. Mostly hats and scarves and occaisionaly mittens.
I do some quilts for charity and our business (long arm quilting) does about 12 tops a year at half price if the quilt is for charity. Sometimes I will even do some for free if I can fit it in.
Our quilters guild does community quilts- premmie ward at the hospital, quilts for low income moms and some for Victims Services (RCMP carry stuffed animals and quilts in their cruisers for handing out as appropriate).
There are many small groups in town that do quilts for various charities and good causes. I often get gifted fabric- more that I can use, so I pass it on to them.
Take care and happy quilting!!
Barb
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Sorry if you're seeing this twice, my profile was rejected for some reason.
I love cerise pinks and lime green - I used to wear it in another life!
The Great Syria Knitting Appeal on FB is looking for ALL sorts of things to keep children warm in refugee camps this winter. They say, “It's not just knitting I'm after! If you can crochet, knit, sew, make duvets, donate wool or toys (no military or planes these kids have seen enough of that) anything to keep kids warm!” https://www.facebook.com/syriaknitathon?fref=ts
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At one of my groups we've made them for our local Women's Refuge as often families arrive there with only the clothes they've escaped in - also sometimes the local Fire Brigade have an associated charity organisation who will try and gather together things for people whose home has been lost in a fire (we had a local one of these in Gloucester) I should imagine people in either circumstances would welcome a fabric hug and at least if it's a local charity there isn't an issue about shipping/postage of a large and potentially heavy item
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Not sure what the similar agencies would be in the UK, but here in my county in the US, we have a group of quilters who have committed to make children's quilts to keep in every police car. Every officer keeps these quilts in his trunk and then when there is a fire, or a family has to be evicted from their home, or even worse, when children have to be removed from the home due to abuse or neglect, the officers wrap the child in the quilt and that child gets to keep the quilt to take with them to whatever hospitals, offices, hotels, or foster homes they have visit before then can return home. This is also helpful when the weather is cold in the winter and the child lacks a coat or warm clothes. Local counselors & therapists have mentioned how helpful this has been. Not being a quilter, I have not been able to participate, but it is a lovely thing to do.
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My son was given a gorgeous Linus Baby Quilt after his second heart operation. Our health visitor gave it to us. Now he is ten it is too small to be a blanket for him but he will lay it down to sit on and play lego etc now. We feel so grateful that someone we don't know stitched this gorgeous quilt with love for us. I should blog about it actually! He was also given a little knitted blanket after his first heart op. His baby sister is currently using it. xxx
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As someone who has received a “Blanket of Love” when my daughter was born still, I would like to thank everyone who so kindly crafts on behalf of these charities. We received a pretty little cot quilt which we wrapped her in to take photos and is now one of my most treasured possessions. Such acts of kindness are overwhelming during such a sad time. A few months later I learned the same charity was appealing for old wedding dresses to make tiny burial clothes and “angel pockets” for even tinier souls, and happily gave over my dress. So, you could contact your local SANDS branch, I'm sure they would be able to point you in the direction of charities who accept such kindnesses to be distributed at your local hospitals.
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This is a very inspirational post and comments … our craft group has just decided to make items for charity during our meetings; I'm happy to find so many have gone before us, so to speak. Thanks Froogs for having this forum for both your projects and your recipes.
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Linus take crocheted and knitted blankets, too. My WI craft group are currently knitting and crocheting premature baby blankets for Linus.
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I would be so happy if my quilts could be used that way! What a wonderful idea.
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Margaret we are a crochet and knitting group, and have put together some nice cot blankets for Syria . Just need a contact for more information , thank you marion
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