This week hasn’t been one of the best. Lots of migraine kept me down most of the week. Such is life. There isn’t much to be done about it except take naps and wait for it to be finished.
Once I was feeling a bit better, I decided to make a few hospital gowns for Amy. Remember last week I posted an update on A Doll Like Me? I mentioned Amy is running low on these sweet gowns she provides to children who are facing a hospital visit.
Each of these gowns take about one fat quarter or similar size scrap. You also need a bit of narrow, double fold bias tape. Check out this tutorial for instructions and a template to cut the pieces. The fun of this project (other than the satisfaction of making something to create a smile for a child) is picking fun fabrics to use.
I had a bit of this Disney princess fabric in a scrap bag given to me by a friend. I was just able to squeak a gown out of it. It is a 1/2″ shorter than the others but I don’t think that will be an issue. Luckily I was able to center Cinderella on the front of the gown. I hope there is a princess-loving girl out there who needs this gown for her doll.
I also used a bit of this vintage red print. Last year, after Valentine’s Day, I saw several rolls of ribbon in a clearance bin at Michaels and snapped them up. It was fun to use some to create the ties on the back of the gown.
Also, thinking it would be fun to play with those decorative stitches on my machine again, I used a heart motif to finish the edges of the back side of the gown. The hearts aren’t the best, but it was fun.
I packed these up and hope to take them to the post office. I have heard from a number of you who are making gowns for A Doll Like Me. This is awesome and I really appreciate your time and creativity! If you want to give it a try and feel unsure or have questions, I am happy to help!!
Linking up with several fun link parties, including the DrEAMI event over at Sandra’s blog!
Last year I had the immense pleasure to start a friendship with Amy Jandrisevits, owner and creator at A Doll Like Me.
You might remember the Share the Love Campaign hosted here. Many, many quilters joined in to make special doll quilts to be sent with the lovely dolls Amy makes for children with physical differences.
So many sweet doll quilts were donated!
The campaign resulted in well over 300 doll quilts and I still receive emails now and then from quilters who want to send one to Amy.
I wanted to provide a brief update for readers as it has been nearly a year since the campaign. Of course the need for these amazing dolls is on-going and Amy continues to sew constantly in an effort to keep up with the demand. The amazing thing is Amy’s work has been noticed! Not just by us and the families she works with. Lately, she has experienced a surge of interest by the media as they are made aware of the important work she does.
Media exposure is a wonderful thing as it helps to spread the idea that all children want/need/deserve representation. They need to see themselves as ‘normal’, to know that their differences are not to be hidden or embarrassed by. Receiving a doll that reflects them and looks like them helps them to do this. Having the media spread the word as they have been doing over the past weeks is going to teach a huge lesson in acceptance for readers who haven’t necessarily thought in these terms or been exposed to this idea.
One of the ways this media excitement started was due to an honor bestowed upon A Doll Like Me by the Go Fund Me organization. Amy has had a campaign running on Go Fund Me for quite some time. Last December the organization really took notice of Amy by giving her the Hero of the Month award in December. Each month Go Fund Me does a story on a campaign they feel is worthy in the hopes of spreading the word even further. When they gave this award to A Doll Like Me in December Amy’s campaign spread like crazy and donations in excess of $20,000 poured in. The donations continue as does the exposure for this cause.
Largely due to the Go Fund Me award, many media outlets became aware of the work Amy does. The story was picked up by the local CBS station in Wisconsin, providing great publicity for this important work. Click through to see the five minute video segment – it is fantastic!
Photo from an article in Highlights Magazine’s blog.
Amy’s work was also featured in a blog post for Highlights Magazine – remember that magazine from when we were young?
I am so happy to see the increase in exposure for A Doll Like Me and the fantastic financial support Amy is garnering with the Go Fund Me campaign. She will be able to continue to work on these special dolls and with the funding, provide them to families who might not be able to afford them.
Three of the quilts I made for Amy last year.
I chatted on-line with Amy this morning to check in. She has sent out in excess of 200 quilts since last year!! She still has a supply to work with but it makes her so happy to have shared so many. The quilts are such a special addition to the dolls and both child and family seem to value them greatly.
Doll clothes and hospital gowns donated to A Doll Like Me.
In addition to the doll quilts, several of us made tiny hospital gowns for Amy. She requested these because many of the children experience a high number of hospitalizations. The gowns make the experience even more relatable as they can dress their doll in one when they are going to have another stay. Pretend play and working through the anxiety of each hospital stay is made a bit more relevant with these gowns. When Amy sends one to a child she knows needs it, she gets marvelous feedback. The parents have told her it makes the doll a complete ‘mini-me’ for the child. Some moms have told Amy the hospital gown brought tears to their eyes (and to one father’s eyes as well). These tiny gestures are incredibly valuable.
It turns out Amy is just about out of the gowns. She has asked me to let you know this in the hope some of you would like to spend an hour and make one or two for her. They are so simple to make. See this post for details! It only takes a fat quarter, some bias tape and about an hour of your time to make one. If you could, please do spend a little time on this! I am happy to provide the mailing info for A Doll Like Me. Just email me – I don’t want to post the mailing information publicly on this post. My email is needleandfoot@gmail.com. There is no time limit on this – she would love to receive them whenever someone is inclined to make one. Questions about this can be left in the comments and I will get back to you.
That’s it for now. I am so happy to see the word spread about A Doll Like Me. Thank you so much for taking part in this earlier and for helping out as time goes forward. Amy is humbled by and grateful for your support.
Linking up with a few favorites. See the list at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
This year I have decided to participate in the monthly goal setting link up hosted by Patty over at Elm Street Quilts. Each month Patty has a fun link up for quilters to share what they plan to finish during the month. Doing this should encourage me to actually look at what I want to get done and set some priorities. So, now that you are just dying to know….. here is the goal for this month!
I completed the Fireburst Mystery QAL top in October. But with holiday sewing I never got it finished up. However I am trying to stay on top of things. So, this one will be finished and bound in January. Of course there are another five billion things I want to finish or make this month but darn it, this one is at the top of the list.
If you are a planner/list maker like me, check out the link up at Elm Street Quilts. I think today is the last day to link up. Patty has great sponsors though – so if prizes motivate you, that is another good reason to think about what you need to finish up this month.
While we are chatting, I want to let you know (or maybe remind you?) about the quilt drive happening for the victims of the recent Hurricane Florence in North Carolina. I am sure you are aware of the devastation that resulted from this disaster. As always, quilters from all over are helping families by making quilts for them. Carole, of From My Carolina Home, is the organizer of this drive. She has been working diligently to collect bed size quilts for families as they rebuild their homes and replace belongings that were destroyed. Over 4500 quilts are needed but, not to worry – the drive will continue into summer of 2019. Carole is kindly facilitating long armers with quilters who want to donate quilt tops. As long as they are bed size, she would love to have them. For more information, read her posts here. She plans to keep updated information available for quilters wanting to help with this drive.
OK – that’s it for today. Hope all of you have a wonderful week!
I have a quick, cute, feel-good finish to share today. I know I am a bit late to the party but I (finally) made a little dress to donate to the Dress a Girl Around the World program. I have read lots of posts over the years about others making these sweet dresses. I am happy to finally have joined in and made one too!
Dress a Girl Around the World is a campaign under the non-profit called Hope 4 Women International. They hope to bring dignity to girls and women throughout the world. It is such a simple thing – wanting a girl to have a dress to wear. They are sent to many different third world countries. While this organization has many goals they are trying to fulfill with the program, it is their basic mission to make girls and women of all ages feel worthy that moves me the most. In so many of these countries, females are undervalued or even not valued at all. While one dress isn’t going to correct the problem, it will bring a smile to the sweet face of a girl who has never had her own dress. Also, many of the people working in these countries and delivering the dresses have said that dressing a girl in a clean dress with the Dress a Girl label attached on the outside, shows this child is being cared for. Sometimes this is enough to ward of predators (criminals involved in human trafficking.) If these little dresses can have this sort of impact even a couple of times over, that is enough reason for me to make one.
Finished seams are a requirement for making these dresses.
There are lots of guidelines for making these dresses. While they originally began by making the dressed with pillow cases, this is no longer the method. Quality cotton fabric is longer lasting and this is what they ask be used in the dresses. If you are interested, you can read about this requirement and others here. The biggest thing is coordinating with an ambassador in your area. There are many available and their contact info can be found here.
This label is sewn to the outside of each dress.
As for me, our local Soroptomist club held a drive to have dresses made by locals who enjoy sewing. I was referred to them and happily made a dress. It was a very simple project and took maybe a couple of hours at most. The little dress looks to be about a size three so for a little one. I hope she loves the fun pink and purple colors and the little heart on the pocket. As you likely already know, I love these sorts of projects – they just have satisfaction and purpose written all over them.
Linking up for the last time with Finish it Up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts. Sniff, sniff. I will surely miss reading Amanda Jean’s blog posts and wish her well in her next adventure. Other links ups are found at the top of the page under Link Ups.
Did you happen to read about the series of Quilting Cozy mystery novels in yesterday’s post? If not, go and take a peek. You can enter to win the books in a giveaway too!
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The quilts are arriving and I am overjoyed!!! I want to share the stack that have accumulated thus far. They will be picked up by my friend Patty in a few days to bring to Mercy Hospital and I want to journal this event on the blog before the quilts are gone. So far I have received thirteen quilts!! Amazing, right? Patty has been sharing the progress of this quilt drive with her co-workers at the hospital and they are stunned by the generosity of our community. It is very satisfying to call myself a part of this on-line quilting tribe. I couldn’t ask for a sweeter group of people to inspire me to be a kinder person and better quilter!
Axel’s Quilt, Pieced & Quilted by Preeti Harris
The quilt above was the very first quilt to arrive. This is Axel’s Quilt from Preeti who blogs at Sew Preeti Quilts and lives in Washington DC. Thank you Preeti!! Fantastic color, I love the combination of gray and yellow. This is a gorgeous quilt.
Three beauties, pieced and quilted by Shirley Bruner.
Above you see three gorgeous quilts. Each one was sent to me by my friend Shirley Bruner from Missouri. Her blog is called The World According to Me and she pieced and quilted each of these. The blue and green quilt in the middle is flannel backed making it extra cozy.
A few things of note – I love the outlined hummingbirds, they appear to be in flight and did you notice she constructed the flower baskets with selvages? Very creative!! Thank you so much Shirley!
Two colorful quilts, pieced and quilted by Adele, @bayougirlquilts
These two quilts came all the way from Metairie, Louisiana! Adele D. sent them to me. I don’t know Adele very well (yet!) but I did peek at her Flickr account, @bayougirlquilts and she is very talented!! There is so much color and lots of fun patterns to be seen on her page!! Both of these color combinations are wonderful. I love red with aqua and the green with cheddar yellow is so pretty!
Black, White & Brights, Pieced & Quilted by Sophia Day.
This bright, cheerful quilt was made by my friend Sophia. She used a black, white and brights combination to make this wonky triangle quilt. I love that she echo quilted some straight lines within each of the triangles. Sophia and I have been friends for over twenty years and belong to the same guild, of which she is president this year. Thank you Sophia!!
Jelly Roll Quilt Top, Pieced by Jill M.
Here is a quilt top that arrived from Jill M, a blog reader who splits her year between Canada and Arizona each year. She was about to leave on a month long trip and wanted to contribute so I told her I would finish the quilt for her. I will keep you posted on this one. It is a lovely jelly roll race quilt using stunning fabrics in jewel tones. I look forward to working on it! She even made a scrappy binding for it which is wonderful.
Blue Rain, Fletched, and You & Me; designed, pieced and quilted by Yvonne Fuch.
Finally, there are six quilts donated by Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl This clean, modern style is uniquely her own. I posted a video yesterday on Facebook taken of me while I unboxed these beauties. If you missed it, click here! I was thrilled to see these in person after having read about many of them on her blog.
Pulsing Plus, Layered Diamonds; designed, pieced and quilted by Yvonne Fuch.
One of the quilts above was made by another quilter. Yvonne won it at a silent auction in support of a fundraiser that happened on Instagram last summer. This is the quilt is on the far right. (If one of Yvonne’s quilts intrigues you, I just want to let you know that the patterns for several of them are available in her shop.)
All of these quilts are spectacular and I know the nurses and patients at Mercy Hospital will be comforted by these gifts. These quilts will be taken to the hospital on Monday. Thank you so much for all who donated or are in the process of making a Mercyful Quilt. You are bringing comfort to a family when they need it most. When I talked with my friend Patty she estimated that they use 8 – 10 quilts each month. At this time, I have about 35 quilts promised for this drive so that means we are fulfilling the need for three to four months. Amazing!!! There are a few quilters who have said they would like to contribute more over time which is awesome.
I will share more of the Mercyful Quilts as they arrive. There is quite a bit of sharing going on over on Instagram. If you share your donations or your work in process for Mercy, please tag it #mercyfulquilts and tag me @needleandfoot so I can find it! Thanks everyone! Have a wonderful day and be sure to find time to enjoy a bit of stitching.
Last but not least, have you entered the giveaway that is happening for the November Blogger Bundle? If you are in the US, please click here to enter. For international readers, head on over to Sandra’s blog to enter!
Newsletter!
Have you signed up for my newsletter? It is published every month or so and is full of information about my shop, new arrivals, sales, and events. Click here to sign up!
About a week ago, I received a note from my friend Patty. She is a nurse at Mercy Hospital in Sacramento, CA. She is also the mother of a sweet girl that Julia has been friends with since middle school. Patty told me about the quilts they use at Mercy to comfort dying patients. They ask the family of the patient if they would like to wrap their loved one in a quilt to bring comfort and security as the person goes through the dying process. After the person passes away, the family keeps the quilt along with memories of comforting their loved one until the end. Unfortunately the community service group that was providing quilts for Mercy has become unable to do so. She wondered if I might know of quilters who would want to make quilts for the hospital. There are several organizations who do this sort of project; Covered in Love being a very popular one. I have contributed blocks once or twice for CIL and think their work is amazing. Becoming aware of a similar need right in my backyard was eye-opening.
In less than a blink of an eye, I replied to Patty telling her I am happy to help as much as I can. Hoping to finish a few quilts quickly, I decided to pull two WIPs and focus on finishing them. I had a box of large 10″ HST’s that I created about two years ago. I had intended to make a twin size quilt with them for the spare bed up in our little house in Downieville. Like so many projects, it was put aside and left unfinished. But I am glad this happened because there were enough blocks to make a comfortable lap-size quilt. I love the shades of purple, green and tan I used and feel it would be great for both male or female recipients.
I played around with the layout several times before deciding on this pattern. Once I made that decision, I spent a quick session squaring up the blocks. They went together in no time and I had a quilt top. It is very motivating to me to make a quilt for a cause that is so near and dear to my heart.
Mercy Hospital is renowned for their cardiac care. In 2015 my mother received incredible care at Mercy as she underwent a completely unexpected triple bypass and mitral valve replacement. She was in CCICU for two weeks and my family was (and still is) so very grateful for the care and support she received. Actually we all received care and support as they go the extra mile at Mercy to assure the patient’s family fully understands what is going on with their loved one. We always felt we could ask questions and get help at any time. It is no surprise to me that they have this quilt gifting program.
The Merriam-Webster definition of Mercy includes ‘compassionate care of those in distress’. So many of us have provided quilts for compassionate reasons, to help those in need or distress. I want to support this program at Mercy Hospital. Currently I have two quilts in process for them. The other quilt is my Twisted quilt top which is a cheerful floral quilt that looks much like lattice work in a garden. This project was already pin-basted and ready for quilting. Since I was further along with that project, I decided to begin quilting it several days ago. I am making swift progress with that one. I would love to have it finished and bound asap because they are out of quilts at this point in time. Once that is completed, I will baste and quilt this HST quilt.
If you feel called to support Mercy Hospital, I would love to hear from you. Do you have a quilt top that is not yet intended for anyone? Might you finish it up and mail it off? I would be happy to bring it to Mercy. California readers, local readers? Would you be able to help out? I plan to mention this at my guild meeting next week to see if there are others who might be able to contribute. If anyone has any ideas with regard to programs like this, please leave a comment. I would really like to gather support for Mercy Hospital and provide them with quilts.
I hope you all have a beautiful weekend! Be sure to grab a few minutes with your sewing machine. 🙂
Linking with Crazy Mom Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict! There links are at the top of the page, under Link Ups.
Today is the beginning of a Quilt Blogger Meet & Greet event hosted by Benita Skinner of Benita Skinner’s Creative Place. After designing quilt patterns for a number of years, Benita decided to begin a blog. She has been posting for a couple of months now and wanted to host an event for quilt bloggers to meet each other and for readers to find new blogs to enjoy.
For those of you who are new to Needle & Foot, welcome! It is always fun to meet new readers as well as new bloggers. I definitely plan to grab a cup of coffee and head over to Benita’s and check out the other blogger’s posts! But first here is a little bit about me and my blog.
I started this blog in June of 2014 and it is crazy to think I have enjoyed over four years of blogging, writing and interacting with our on-line quilting community. This post is number 458 which is a whole lot of writing! The first post I wrote explains why I chose to call my blog Needle and Foot. If you have a minute, you can read it by clicking here.
Five of us, circa 1965 (one more sister came along the following year.)
I grew up in the Bay Area, Northern California, with my five sisters. My father owned a fabric store and as a teenager, I spent many Saturdays working there with him. Growing up with five sisters and one sewing machine in the house meant someone was always sewing. With a lot of guidance from my mother, I made my first project in seventh grade, a baby doll nightgown and matching panties.
My first quilt was a queen size log cabin.
The first quilt I made was started in 1978, during my senior year of high school. It was a log cabin and I really had no idea what I was doing. Read the details on that project here.
My first quilt needs some careful restoration. It has been well loved over the years!
We used that quilt for many years and it is in desperate need of repairs. I look at it all the time, thinking I should work on it, but other projects always seem more fun!
The first bed size quilt I quilted on my domestic machine. So much pebbling!
Jumping ahead by about 40 years, I am still sewing and quilting. There was a long period of time where sewing happened infrequently as I raised four children and worked outside the home for a number of years. When I retired from my work as a manager of a Human Resources department, I started quilting again. Above is a quilt I made for my daughter’s bed. She chose the pattern. It was the first large quilt I ever free motion quilted. It took FOREVER to do all the pebbling. But it turned out nicely and I love looking back at this, my first attempt, to see how far I have come.
For me, sewing is very cyclical. Sometimes I am more focused on quilts and other times on smaller projects such as clothing. But one way or another, I spend a lot of time in the sewing room. I tend to like basic patterns that don’t require tons of piecing. I am not a patient quilter and fussy patterns are not my thing. I love lots of color, would not define myself as either strictly traditional or modern in style, and my projects seem to develop based on what sounds interesting at the time.
As with most of you, I have such a love of fabric. So much so that I started an on-line fabric shop in January 2017. This adventure has been nothing but rewarding. I love every facet of my job from researching new fabric lines, figuring out what my customers enjoy creating and what fabrics they want to use as well as planning events, promotions and sales to keep everyone entertained!
In addition to selling fabric on-line, I also have a booth at several of quilt shows for guilds in my area. I hope you will take a minute and browse the shop just a bit. If you would like to receive an occasional newsletter about new fabrics, sales or events at the shop, sign up here.
I am really looking forward to meeting more readers as well as new bloggers! Please leave a comment to tell me a bit about yourself so I can get to know you too. If you’d like to follow me, there are links at the top of the page on the right for Instagram, Facebook, and Bloglovin. Or, you can provide your email address and sign up to receive posts via email. It’s all up to you.
Lastly, I want to be sure and let you know there is a wonderful giveaway happening over at Benita’s site. Be sure to click over and take a look. Good luck with the giveaway!!
Have a great day and be sure to take a few minutes to sew.
Hands 2 Help is a very popular on-line quilting event hosted by Sarah of Confessions of a Fabric Addict. This event was first held in 2011 and seems to grow in popularity each year. The “rules of the game” are simple. Make a quilt and donate it. Sarah always rounds up several worthy organizations who love receiving handmade quilts. The quilter is also free to choose to donate to an organization close to her heart. I participated in 2016 but not 2017. This year I signed up again. My plan was to donate the Postage Plus quilt I made for the Modern Plus Quilt blog hop a few months back. One thing after another has gotten in the way of any attempt I made to get the quilt top finished up. At this point, it is clearly apparent it won’t be done by the end of the week (when the event concludes.). This doesn’t mean I can’t finish it and donate it still, it just means I need another way to fulfill this particular commitment.
I thought about it and decided to donate two baby quilts I made last year. Both of these were made as samples for fabric I carried in my shop. I think they are adorable and will be loved by a child somewhere. Rather than send them both out of the area, I want to donate one to Little Lambs in Utah and the other to my local chapter of Project Linus.
This is the quilt I will send to Little Lambs Foundation. It was made with a panel from a fabric line called Shine.
If you want to read more about this project, click here. I think this one is really sweet. I had a lot of fun quilting it and used it as a display in my booth at several quilt shows. The fabric is so sweet with the cats and owls, sunshine and clouds.
The second quilt will be donated to Project Linus, Featuring bold colors in black, white and rainbow, the quilt was made with a panel from Sweet Tweets.
For more details on this quilt, click here. This line was really fun and sold out incredibly fast. While I had it, I used the quilt as a sample in my booth. I think the birds and critters are so much fun for children of any age. It is a bright, cheerful quilt. This fabric is, unfortunately, not printed any longer or I would still stock it. I just love it.
It is such a challenge to get everything done that one wants to. I can’t kick myself for not finishing things as I had planned. It is a constant battle fto figure out the best way to stay organized and do as much as I can. The Postage Plus quilt will get finished and it will also go off to a good cause, just not this week! Thank you Sarah for your wonderful work organizing this huge event. I know it takes so much of your time and you reach many people as a result. You are such a generous soul. There are so many gorgeous quilts being donated this year. If you want to see some, click here and be inspired!
It has been a while since the culmination of my Spread the Love event that happened in February this year. (If this is the first you heard of it, you can read more here and here.) I wanted to share an update with you.
First of all, Amy, owner and creator of A Doll Like Me, continues to receive quilts regularly. She is grateful beyond words for all of the quilts, doll clothes and financial contributions she has received because of all of you quilters! The unique creativity and incredible energies put into the quilts is really wonderful. The notes sent by some of you with the quilts and other donations have been really special. Many of you relate to Amy’s work in a special way due to situations in your family. Others have expressed deep joy and gratitude to have such a special cause to sew for. It has added meaning to the process of quilting for for many of you which makes quilting even more special!
So far Amy has distributed over 50 quilts. This amazes me since it is only April so she hasn’t had the quilts for very long yet. She gave many to children for whom she didn’t have a quilt available when she sent their dolls. It was such a happy surprise for the kids to receive something new for their Doll Like Me.
She sent some quilts to a family in Europe who had adopted a child with limb differences from an orphanage in Romania. This little one is seven years old, yet had no experience with dolls and playing with, or taking care of, them. They taught her to wrap up her baby in her quilt. Isn’t it wonderful to think she is playing with and caring for her baby in a quilt one of you made? I love it!
We never know exactly how a quilt sent to a child will be used. But in this family, their sweet girl sleeps under hers with her dolly next to her. She looks so cozy!
This is the doll that was sent with the patchwork quilt you see covering the child in her crib.
Another child who received a quilt was a boy of about ten years. He suffered a terrible burn and has had many, many surgeries and still has many to endure. He loves sports so Amy made his Doll Like Me to have similar scarring, plus a basketball jersey and shoes. Of course she sent a quilt that was sport themed.
When in the hospital, naturally he brings his doll but for this the doll wears a hospital gown, just like his owner! This provides some comfort, a fun distraction and a great reflection of himself in the doll.
I love that the doll has the necessary wardrobe for being home and feeling good as well as being in the hospital. Isn’t it wonderful?
I was curious about how Amy managed to mimic the scarring on the doll so he could be just like the boy.
She said she uses a mix of paints, both latex and fabric paint., as well as alcohol markers and makeup! Pretty creative.
I am so happy that Amy stays in touch with me. A number of you have volunteered to make a specially themed quilt for a child who might need it. She really appreciates it. I am going to try to make some doll outfits for her soon. She gave me some measurements for the dolls she creates. I think it will be fun to sew a few things for them. Thanks to all of you who made quilts or gowns and who continue to do so. You are a special bunch of people!! Thank you for all of your generosity.
Earlier this week, I shared this picture on Instagram. I haven’t been feeling well thus very little has occurred in the sewing room. Soon after returning from Vermont, I began to feel that sense of doom when you know you are coming down with a bug. Yesterday I had a chest x-ray to confirm I have pneumonia. Yuk. Not a whole lot of fun and way more than a lot of coughing is happening.
Not all is lost though. I have been wanting to make a contribution to the annual event that is happening now at From My Carolina Home. Carole is very supportive of her local domestic violence organization, Safelight. Called Omiyage for Safelight, Carole is asking us to make a set of matching cosmetic bag and sunglass case. She fills the cosmetic bags with some basic necessities and adds sunglasses to the case before donating them to Safelight. I really like the idea of providing a small, pretty gift to women going through a rough time, hopefully letting them know people do care about them.
Carole’s version of the pouch and sunglasses case is a fun and easy make. Even while not feeling well, this came together nicely. I used two coordinating fat quarters from Riley Blake to make this set. I think the pale pink plaid on the exterior is lovely and feminine.
For the interior, I chose the gold raindrops on a creamy off-white background.
She has a document here for you to download with all of the information. Using Velcro instead of a zipper is a great idea. So simple! If you have a free hour or so, I encourage you to make a set. I love sewing for others because it is such an easy way to share the love, right? The only thing I had to purchase was the Velcro because I only had black strips and that wouldn’t look nice now would it?
Carole is really hoping for a few more sets to arrive before the last of April. She wants to fill them and then gift them at the first of May. Please consider supporting her event. She even has a few nice giveaways planned for those who contribute!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Finally, we are going to have a very rainy weekend which is perfect. I will be recuperating and plan to take advantage of this sale over at Craftsy! How about you?
Linking to my favorites – see the tab, Link Ups at the top of the page.
This post contains affiliate links, meaning if a purchase is made while clicking through from my site, I will earn a small stipend.
