Alabama crocheters and knitters call for help

 Hello ladies! I was so glad to see most of you at the last meeting, it turned out to be a beautiful day and a relaxing time! It was nice to see what everyone's been working on and wonderful to see that Bea and Edith have been filling up the donation totes already! I have several baby blankets in the works that I'll be adding to our stash soon as well.

Last week I received an email that I had meant to print to share at the meeting, but, you know me! I forgot all about it! I'll share it here in hopes of reaching other crafty people who may be able to help. You can contact the sender at the address following the letter to ask questions about how to send items over.

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I hope this e-mail finds our fellow crafters in Pennsylvania are doing well.  The reason I am contacting you is this….  I live in Tuscaloosa, Ala. which was recently devastated by a tornado.  A group of my friends and I are crocheting and knitting blankets for children that were displaced and affected by the tornado.  

As you may or may not have heard more than 5,000 homes here were either destroyed or severely damaged.  Three elementary school were hit – two completely demolished.  There are so many children here that have lost so much.  What we are trying to do is use our skills and hobbies to help bring a small bit of comfort to as many of these children as possible.  

                Our main store for purchasing yarn was destroyed and we have been told it will be more than a year until they are able to reopen.  We are reaching out to our fellow crafters across the nation asking for help.  If you would be willing or able to donate yarn or finished blankets they would be greatly appreciated by all of the young children that have been affected.  

                I am attaching a couple of photos of some of the blankets we have distributed so far to give you an idea of what we are doing.  Thank you so much for your time and consideration. 

Olivia Arnold

oarnold @ ua . edu  (remove spaces)

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The Knotty Stitchers Field trip Highlights

Well, we finally took our long awaited Knotty field trip on April 5th. It was such a good time! We have to give a big thank you to our driver, Lee, for putting up with a van load of gabbing women all day! Love you lots! We made a big round trip picking up and dropping off all along the way!

The first stop after all of us were finally aboard, was to Thurston House in Meadville. Thurston House is a Pregnant and Parenting Teen program that benefits six northwestern PA counties, so we thought it  would be a great place to donate to! Two lovely ladies invited us in and we had a nice chat before heading out to our next stop. It was wonderful meeting you both and we hope the program's participants enjoy the gifts!

Next was Jo-Ann Fabrics! Everyone's favorite fabric and craft store :) Especially when you have coupons... which we did! We spent a good hour browsing, talking, giggling, fabric feeling, and just overtaking the store in general. I love our line at the fabric cutting counter :). Sadly I am never in any pictures! Next time someone is taking a picture of me so I exist darn it!

I think a few of the ladies snuck over to the Thrify Store next door while some of us were still in line, sneaky ladies!

It was an exhausting day but so much fun! I hope we can do something like this again someday! Maybe to a quilt show. I have been looking so if you hear of anything fun let's get the ideas going for summer!

Here's my bounty from the day. There just might be a little something in there that I used for my Spring Thing! {p.s. is yours done yet?} I have to say that the Walking Foot I purchased is the best thing ever! I don't know what I did without it! I'm going back to get the Ruffle Maker attachment very soon :)

Donate to Charity for a chance to win

 Here is a really fun giveaway that I found over on the Inchworm Fabric blog. I planned on taking photos of the items we're taking to donate on Tuesday so will submit one for our group post the images to Facebook for you to grab if you like! I encourage you to all submit your own photos as well, it sounds fun!

I'm copy/pasting the info from the original giveaway details page found on Martingale & Company's website.

Charitable-Giving Campaign Takes Off

As part of our 35th anniversary celebration, we’re happy  to announce that Martingale & Company®, home of  That Patchwork Place®, has launched a charitable-giving  campaign called Share the Warmth. Our goal is to encourage  quilters, knitters, and crafters around the world to join us in creating at least 3,500 quilts, blankets, afghans, and throws for donating to local charities.

Details

• You’re encouraged to give your donation to any charity of your choice.
• Quilts, blankets, and throws may be of any size and for any age.
• We’ll keep a running tally on our website to show the number of projects donated. To be counted in our tally, email a photo of your project(s) to sharethewarmth@martingale-pub.com . Include your name, location, charity, and the number of donated items per photo. (Photos of projects completed but not yet given to charity before the campaign began are also welcome and eligible for prizes.)
• Multiple donations may be included in one photo. We’ll post all submitted project photos in our Share the Warmth gallery on Flickr.

Prizes
Of course the joy of giving is the best reason to participate, but here’s another good reason to share your photos: we’re offering prizes!

• We’ll randomly select 35 individual participants to receive a free craft book of their choice.
• We encourage quilting guilds to participate. One guild will be randomly selected to receive a free 35-book library.
• The random drawings will be held Thursday, December 1, 2011, or when the tally reaches 3,500 donations, whichever comes first.

Spread the Word

Help us spread the word by promoting the program through your blog or on Facebook. To grab the logo or a blog button, click here.

Join us on Facebook!

Questions? Call 800-426-3126. 

Sounds like fun right! Since we're already donating items I thought it would be fun to participate! 

A Free Donation

I got a call tonight! >>"Have Something For You" Just come down, have very nice light blue fabric for to make boy shirts, for your shoe-boxes. Ok, I'll be right down! Yippy Fabric! Oh< Ya<...But, didn't dream of getting this much! Oh, Ya!!..got a box & three bags! that I pick up for FREE!! I will be using alot of this fabric to make clothes for the shoe boxes for little girls & boys all over the world! Thank-YOU!!:) so much for the great donation, of Fabrics. God Bless YOU! Aimee :) We can always use FABRIC Donations!

I got the whole outfit done today! Was able to show it to the girls at our knottystichers group today! I'm pleased with it!I excited to make more outfits! And, Yes!!..Aimee I willing take any pretty small printed fabric to make some more cute outfits for girls..also looking for some fabrics for boys clothes too! And if anyone has any elastic 3/4 "..I could use some. thank-you, Bea.

"Monkey Shine!" Quilt

I started another monkey quilt for a baby boy! This blue sky fabric with Monkey swinging with bananas,was donated to me from my daughter, Henrietta. The bright banana yellow fabric was donated to me from my step-daughter, Aimee. I bought the white fabric with the blue and yellow daisies along with the blue fabric for the back of quilt from a discount store! The brown fabric with the colorful butterfly I bought from, Joann fabrics!

 

I named this baby quilt.." Monkey Shine" Thanks to both my daughters, I was able to put a quilt together for a dear family friend of mine.This quilt is for their first grand-son!

Welcome to the Knotty Stitchers Blog!

   Hi! Henrietta here doing the inaugural post on our blog :) This is our little spot for members of The Knotty Stitchers to share what they've made, fun resources, and ideas with each other. Our most recent project was to fill two totes with knitted, sewn, and crocheted items for the NICU and maternity ward at one of our local hospitals. 

   Our original plan had been to make items for preemie babies but after speaking with a very nice lady at the hospital we were told that they have a need for more than just preemie items. She said that there are many many young single mothers who come in, they do not have much and would be so appreciativeve of anything we could donate. So with that information in mind, we set out to make as many blankets, hats, and booties as we could in a variety of sizes and colors. 

So proud of you ladies for all your hard work!

   Leann took a final tally and I believe we have 33 various blankets with just as many hats and booties to take in. We have tentative plans to take a group field trip to the hospital to donate the items then go out for a ladies lunch. This will be scheduled at our next meeting, which is tomorrow!