Sew For Hope Kids

Hello Dear Friends,

This month, most of the Sew for Hope group will be attending Quiltfest in Jacksonville, so we’ll only meet on September 7. We’ll be at Timberlane Church of Christ from 10 – 3, with a brown bag lunch from 11:30 – 12:30. The address is 3569 Timberlane School Road and we hope to see you there. If you’re able to join us on this day, please bring your own philanthropic project to work on if possible.

We ARE NOT meeting on September 21.

This is only our second meeting at Timberlane, but our first was great. We have an enormous room in which to spread out and work. There are lots of tables and chairs and the aroma coming from the kitchen was delightful. Anyway, at our first meeting we pulled back and simply made some small fleece throws for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. Speaking of . . . last month we delivered blankets to this organization after they did a bunk bed build. I just love making blankets to keep kids warm and secure at night. It warms MY heart.

We’re still looking for a home where we can work and store our things in the same premises. We presently have our belongings in an upstairs bedroom of one of our volunteers. Our meeting place is five miles away at the church. I recently received a call from a volunteer who needs more fabric to finish a blanket she started for us. Unfortunately all our fabric is packed away so it’s going to be a challenge finding the right box.

Please pass this info along to anyone who may be interested in sewing for children in need, or anyone who may have a lead on possible work/storage space for a well established philanthropic sewing group.

Thanks for all you do,

The Sew for Hope Sisters

Dear Friends,

First of all, thank you all for your rapid offers of packing assistance. We put out the call for help and you responded. The immediate and strong offers to help us through this change have been really heartening. Thanks to all the help we had on July 20^th, we’ve pared down our fabric and sent much to new homes where it’ll be used to help other sewing/quilting groups. Everything else is neatly packed and stored in our closet at ARTS and ready to be moved on Saturday, August 3^rd. We do NOT need additional help with the move as we’ve determined we have enough trucks and SUVs in our core group to handle this. We have the offer of one of our member’s home where we can temporarily store everything in one place. We deeply appreciate this offer and did accept, but we really need a new home. Imagine how challenging it’ll be to have all our things in one place and yet have to work across town in another place.

If you have any ideas or leads, we’d really appreciate your input. It should have about 800 – 1,000 square feet of work space in one or two adjacent rooms for our twice-a-month work sessions, and a permanent, approximately 8’ x 10’ storage closet in the same place. It should be free or very low cost. If you have ideas or information, please advise us using the contact form on our web site (https://sewforhopenow.com/?page_id=2356)

Sew for Hope was founded in 2008. Since our inception we’ve made and donated almost 2,700 hand-made quilts and blankets. We began by making quilts for kids who’ve stayed at Hope Community Homeless shelter. We expanded to include making naptime coverlets for kids in the PAEC Migrant Farm Worker Summer Day Care Program in Quincy. For a period of time we made weighted-therapy blankets for kids with autism or trauma. We’ve donated blankets to various agencies in and around Tallahassee. Now we’re discussing expanding our services to include making blankets for Sleep in Heavenly Peace. This organization makes bunk beds for kids who are currently sleeping on the floor. Their motto is “No Kid Sleeps on the Floor in Our Town”.

The mission of Sew for Hope is actually three fold. There’s the obvious aspect of making quilts and blankets for kids in need. The secondary benefit of SfH is to keep fabric and sewing supplies out of our landfills. The garment and sewing industry generates an incredible amount of waste. We’re helping Mother Earth by using or sharing fabric and supplies no longer wanted by the original purchaser. Lastly, we give fabric to women who love to sew and who have a philanthropic soul. Making quilts from bits of usable fabric has a rich history that goes back countless generations.

Calendar

Saturday, August 3, 9 a.m. , core group meets at ARTS After School. We’ll begin with a 15 – 20 minute logistics meeting. Then we’ll load our vehicles and head out.

Saturday, August 17th from 10 – 3 we’ll meet at Timberlane Church of Christ, 3569 Timberlane School Road. This is a temporary work space and unsuitable for long-term use. Anyone is welcome to join us and the day will be more of a sit and stitch. Please bring your sewing machine and any SfH project you’re currently working on. If you don’t have a S4H project, I’m sure one of our volunteers would love to have some assistance. Brown bag lunch from 11:30 – 12:30.

Thanks for all you do,

The Sew for Hope Sisters

Please forward this message on to anyone, or any organization you think could possibly help find us a new home.

Dear friends,

Much to our surprise, ARTS After School, who very generously provided Sew for Hope free work space and storage room for the last 4 years, has asked us to move out in three weeks because of its own space needs. We put out the call for help and you responded.  First of all, thank you all for your rapid offers of assistance. The immediate and strong offers to help us through this change have been really heartening.

The good news is, thanks to all the help we had last Saturday, July 20^th, we have pared down our fabric and sent much to new homes where it will be used to help other sewing/quilting groups. Everything else is neatly packed and stored in our closet at ARTS ready to be moved on Saturday, August 3^rd. We do NOT need help with the move as we have determined we have enough trucks and SUVs in our core group to handle this. We have the offer of one of our member’s home where we can store everything in one place if needed.

But we need a new home. It should have about 800 – 1,000 square feet of work space in one or two adjacent rooms for our twice-a-month work sessions and a permanent, approximately 8’ x 10’ storage closet in the same place. And it should be free or very low cost. If you have ideas or contacts, please contact using the contact form on our web site (https://sewforhopenow.com/?page_id=2356)

Thank you again for all your help and kind words. May the force be with us!

Hi There,

It’s your friendly reminder that we’ll be sewing and having fun at ARTS After School from 10 – 3 on Saturdays 7/6 and 7/20.

Yes! We continue to meet during the Summer even though our group is sometimes smaller — what with several of us traveling about. Fun aside, our mission is to make and give blankets to children who are homeless and/or impoverished. That’s serious business so we could use your help. We appreciate all our volunteers and supporters. We’d be nothing without you.

We’re currently accepting donations of UFO’s. If you have left-over quilt blocks or quilt tops, that you know you’ll never finish, we’d love to have them. That’s one of our specialties. We take those UFO’s, finish them, and get them into the hands of kids in need. But it’s not enough just to give us unfinished sewing projects. We also need stitchers to finish those projects. Sometimes we receive a stack of quilt blocks and have so much fun arranging them and figuring out what to do. This is a fun charity for people who have imagination and/or are good with their hands. We also need folks to take fabric that’s been donated to us and make charity quilts to return to us when finished. If you’re newly retired and now have extra time, please consider joining us. We’re a helpful and friendly bunch.

Last month I mentioned that we’re accepting 12 1/2″ unfinished log cabin and 9-Patch eye-spy novelty blocks. We’ll continue to accept those. The eye-spy blocks should have a different fabric in each square.

We’re also in the business of keeping fabric out of our landfills. People who love to sew buy so much fabric that they never use. Yes, we take that fabric and make quilts, but several of our members also make pet beds. We make cases out of heavier-weight fabric then stuff them with our snippets of thread, fabric and batting so those tiny bits don’t get thrown away. Many a shelter animal has received a comfy pet bed from a local quilter.

That’s all for now.

Thanks for all you do,

Cynthia and her Sew for Hope Sisters