community service Archive

Peachtree Presbyterian is a church in Atlanta. Seventeen stitchers got together to stitch this charming 23-piece needlepoint nativity, seen here. A lovely article from the Atlanta Constitution and available here tells the story behind this lovely and enduring legacy to the church. The pieces use 58 different stitches, 20 kinds of threads, and 129 colors. Not only is it a gift to the church, it was part of an initiative to raise money for My Sister’s House, a transitional home for homeless women and children. It took about eight months to stitch, with many of the stitchers meeting together to stitch twice a month. It was completed in 2010 and has a display that includes a stable made of wood from the Holy Land. This is such a lovely project and a real testament to the faith of the stitchers. My thanks to my friend William Swords for letting me

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Originally posted 2007-06-16 11:02:27. Republished by Blog Post Promoter Sandy Grossman-Morris has launched a wonderful opportunity to do good while stitching. It’s her Stitch to Cure Diabetes program. The program benefits the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and they benefit at every step in the challenge. You purchase the canvas “Rufus and the Sunbrella,” (pictured above) from your local shop Sandy donates all her profits to JDRF. Stitchers sign up and get sponsors to pledge. The shops donate threads and finishing. The pledges go to your local JDRF chapter and the shop finishes the canvas and donates it to the chapter to be used for findraising. You can get the details on Sandy’s site and there is a list there is the participating shops. This is a fantastic project and a wonderful way to help this worthy cause

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I’m afraid it’s not often that we as needlepointers can help out on charitable drives. Projects from knitters and quilters get lots more publicity. But you can help teach a new generation to stitch through the Helping Hands Foundation. The Needlearts Mentoring Program is designed to encourage children to learn needlarts. Their mission “is to create community partnerships that promote and encourage relationships between adults and youth, fostering curiosity, creativity and a feeling of achievement through the teaching of needle arts.” You can help by becoming a leader to a group in your community (the Leadership Guide is a PDF linked from their site. Or you can donate, through a form on the site. They will also accept in kind donations, although you need to contact them first. THere are a number of other useful and inspirational links on the left side of the site

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Remember how in Rudolph there was an Island of Unwanted Toys? The toys there were unloved or missing something. We have unwanted projects too. Maybe it was a class and we learned what we wanted to and never finished the project. Maybe your taste or decor changed. Maybe it’s too late to give that gift. Whatever the reason we all have projects that have been started but won’t ever be finished. Marlene asked about what to do with them. Here are some ides: Do you have stitching friends? Arrange a “needlepoint swap.” Everyone bring 5 items to trade. The hostess should arrange for food and maybe goodie bags to entice people to come. This is like a pot luck, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Are you in a guild chapter? Donate these projects to your guild for a chapter auction. My chapter has funded our education auction with these

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Recently there has been lots of discussion on various needlepoint lists about ways to help those in need. It’s mostly focused around helping those struck by disasters. But, as the saying goes, need never takes a holiday. That’s why I’m so excited about Rittenhouse Needlepoint’s wonderful charity program. They are doing something about the needs in their community and could use you help. The shop teaches a free weekly beginners class in needlepoint and provides materials to those in need from the materials donated by people like you and me. I wrote to them and they are hoping to have a website devoted to this up in the next couple of months. Rittenhouse, a full-service needlepoint shop located in downtown Philadelphia and on the Internet, is working with several area charities, including Project Home, JEVS (Jewish Educational Vocational Services), and Pennsylvania Prison Society (PPS), specifically half way houses of women

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Something I read recently got me thinking. The idea was that the best way to learn a craft was to teach the basics and then immediately give folks a chance to try it out. In other words, have them put some stitches into a cooperative project. It needs to be something large and divided into smaller sections as well so that many people working on small areas won’t matter as much. A piece which has a focal point and a background divided into squares or a large patchwork design is perfect. In my case, I want people to try out Bargello, so I’m designing a Bargello patchwork tote. It’s going to fit into this Stirling tote and each patch will be a different Bargello pattern. I’m planning on stitching either the outline or the first line of each patch. Then each person can take a few stitches to work on

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