We’re in the process of developing our next full project. But meanwhile, we are happy to extend indefinitely part of our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project from Autumn 2011. The need for softies to comfort kids going to new homes goes on year-round. From now until further notice (that is, indefinitely), we are accepting soft toys for children in foster care in Washington State’s Skagit and Island Counties. Please see our revised project specifications and patterns list.
CUDDLIES FOR FOSTER KIDS PROJECT FINISHED: WOW!
January 29, 2012 By
Just a few of the crafts for local foster children
We’ve got the final count!
Wow! Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause has gathered 200 stuffed toys and scarves to give to foster children! Specifically, we have 23 hats, 52 stuffed toys, and 125 scarves (split about 45/55 girls/boys). They are constructed of fleece, woven cotton, and yarn of all types (sock, eyelash, and bulky included). Decorations are of fleece, cotton, felt, embroidery, buttons, pockets, bows, fringe, tassels, and oh, so much more. What heart and creativity! Many, many huge thank yous to all those wonderful individuals who contributed time and talent to this worthy cause. We sincerely hope that each handcrafted cuddly item eases a child’s difficult transition into foster care.
This cat is ready to go
Secretly, we wanted to provide enough cuddlies to last a year, an ambitious goal for a first project. We are delighted to exceed that goal in cuddly cold weather gear. Even though the project is officially finished, we will continue accepting soft toys only (not scarves) for foster kids until further notice. So feel free to keep the softies coming.
Stay tuned for coming attractions
Meetings continue in February as we plan for our next project. Join us to work on your own crafts and listen to our progress in lining up our next worthwhile (and fun) craft-in. Or sign up for our RSS feed (“subscribe” at right) and we’ll let you know what opportunity comes up next.
Meanwhile, the blog will be filled up with crafty lessons learned. Tune in for a series on creative ways to make and adorn fleece scarves.
WRAPPING UP CUDDLIES FOR FOSTER KIDS
January 18, 2012 By
We’re finishing up!
Just a quick note to say that our final two meetings for our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project will be Monday, January 23rd (7-9PM, no child care) and Wednesday, January 25th (4-6PM, child care; rescheduled from the 18th, which was canceled due to snow). Come one, come all: Join us in prettifying fleece scarves by adding trimming. No crafting skills required–if you can tie a knot, use scissors, or sew on a button, you are more than welcome.
Update on finishing up
Many thanks to those who showed up Monday to help trim scarves, and especially to Olivia (age 11) and Bergen (Age 9) for fabulous creative work!
And moving on to February…
By the way, if you’re wondering whether meetings continue after this project is finished, yes, they do. Feel free to join us at our February craft circle meetings as we plan our next project. See our meetings tab for February meeting dates.
MRS. BAUGHMAN’S 3RD GRADE CLASS, CLAYTON, NORTH CAROLINA
January 9, 2012 By
Just before Christmas we received a most charming and useful present. A third grade class hand-made twenty-two fleece hats and then decided to send them 2, 935 miles to foster children in Skagit County. To Mrs. Baughman, and to you marvelous children: Thank you so much. You’re the best. [See the letter.]
NEW YEARS’ MEETINGS; BEARS, BEARS, BEARS
January 2, 2012 By
January Craft Circle Meetings
After a few weeks’ hiatus for a lovely Christmas holiday, our craft circle meetings start up again Wednesday, January 4th, 4-6 PM (child care provided). Specific meeting dates are now listed monthly on our meetings page. Join us! We’re on our final month–our last push–for our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project.
Thank you, Bea, for the bears!
What a lovely bagful of bears we received from Bea! She has been industriously churning out fluffy fleece softies with crocheted scarves and hand-embroidered faces, using Salia’s care bear pattern (found on our free pattern links page for this project). We like to think about the twenty-seven foster children who will be warmed by the gift of these easy but charming toys.
Hosanna in Excelsis
December 22, 2011 By
Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause is taking a break for our favorite holiday, Christmas. We wanted to take a moment to wish you the best of all holidays–bubbling, peaceful, exciting, reassuring, new, old, or full of variety–whatever will make the holiday joyful and meaningful. We’ll be back after Christmas to resume our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project.
NEW PATTERN: How to knit toy balls
December 12, 2011 By
Judy, one of our yarn experts, has adapted a pattern to make these charming toy balls from leftover self-striping sock yarn. They make lovely Christmas tree ornaments–and are also just the right size for chubby little hands. Find the pattern here. Consider it an early Christmas present to you from Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause.
And just as a reminder, we are continuing our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project through January, when the glow of the Christmas season is over and more children tend to be taken into foster care. We aim to fill the shortfall of donated goods that sometimes happens after the holidays have ended. In your spare moments, or in the Phew! after the shopping and giving frenzy, consider creating a simple gift for a child in troubled circumstances.
THANK YOU, SCARF LADY; FREE MONSTER SOFTIE PATTERNS
November 29, 2011 By
In this, the week after Thanksgiving, it seems appropriate to say thanks to those of you who have been working on scarves (knitted, crocheted, sewn, and tied) and small stuffed toys (yarn or fabric). And I can’t leave this topic without a special mention of our angel in Anacortes, Washington. A self-confessed yarn junkie, she dropped off a garbage bag full of scarves for our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project. Thank you, thank you! They’re beautiful. I understand she’s now moving on to make some charming stuffed bears for the foster children.
And so everybody knows:
We’re extending this project of providing foster children ages 4-17 with scarves and stuffed toys. It now goes through January 2012. And also for your information, our last two craft circle meetings for 2011 are Wednesday, December 7th, 4-6 PM (with childcare) and Monday, December 12th, 7-9 PM (no childcare). Join us for our last two meetings before the holiday break. We will resume in January. Happy Crafting!
Free monster softie patterns
We’ve just compiled what may be the web’s most comprehensive list of free monster softie patterns and design/construction tutorials. Check it out! Available here and on our links page.
LOVING THE IMPERFECT, or How to Make a Monster Softie
November 19, 2011 By
Handcrafted monsters are so popular they are rarely confined to Halloween, which goes to show how enduringly endearing are the weird and the oddball. And what a good thing that is. For how many of us could stand to be loved only when we are perfect? So here’s to continuing to find the charm in the misshapen and the misplaced.
About Foster Kids
Before going further on our crafting topic, a few quick foster children facts from Cuddlies for Foster Kids: Having had a rough start in life, children in foster care often have trouble keeping up with their peers. For example, every time foster kids move to a new home, they tend to fall further behind in school. In Washington State, only 32-44% of foster children graduate from High School—and this is an improvement from what it used to be. Some of these kids might appreciate a stuffed toy that’s a bit off the beaten path, hence the upcoming discussion on how to design a monster softie. [Statistics sources 1, 2]
Designing a Monster Softie
If you couldn’t attend Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause‘s workshop on designing monster softies, you can still pick up the basic principles. Here are some ideas to spur you on to the adventure of designing your own softie. You can also get the pattern for Querk, the friendly monster softie, complete with instructions and pattern pieces, in pdf format, free for noncommercial use.
Monster shapes are blobby, irregular, and asymmetrical. While monsters can be any old shape, here are three general types to get you started. Once you’ve determined a basic shape, then you can determine other characteristics. [Read more…]
FINGER-KNITTING HOW-TOS ETC.
November 10, 2011 By
We love finger-knitting
We averaged one and a half scarves each in a two-hour period at our finger-knitting workshop! Thanks to June for teaching us and to all who came to learn. For those who couldn’t make the workshop, you can pick up the basics by watching this video or following instructions with photos. It’s easy, fun, and fast!
About our craft circle meetings
Have you been thinking that you need to work on our current project to attend our meetings? Please know that you are welcome to come and work on any crafting project or just sit and commune–we would love your company! And if you would like to walk in and be handed something to work on, shoot us an email ahead of time and we’ll by happy to provide.
We now have an RSS feed!
If you’d like to get notified about workshops and projects, how-tos and patterns, you can now sign up for emails that tell you when something new gets posted on our blog. It’s as simple as clicking on “Subscribe” in the right-hand column and putting in your email address. By the way, don’t worry about signing up for more than you want; we will not give out email addresses, and you can always unsubscribe.
UPCOMING on our blog
Check us out. Our next post will contain a free softie pattern with instructions and full-size pattern pieces!
INTRODUCING OUR FIRST WORKSHOP: Lacie’s choice, or how to design a monster softie
October 31, 2011 By
After an unusual spell of brilliant sun, the Pacific Northwest is enjoying wonderfully windy Halloween weather. Scarves are starting to appeal, and Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause hopes to deliver a load of them in December for our Cuddlies for Foster Kids project. Did you know that of the 1.6 million children living in Washington State, nearly 38,000 meet Child Services’ standards for abuse or neglect? 10,000 of these live in foster homes. We can’t receive too many soft toys and scarves, so if you’re inclined, please help. See our project page for instructions. [Statistics source]
UPCOMING: Free workshop on designing a lovable monster softie
Wednesday, October 28th, at our 4-6 PM craft circle meeting, we’re holding our first free informal workshop. Lacie will bring fabric scraps, and Nancy will help her custom-design a simple stuffed toy, a friendly soft monster. Come with your own craft project or join in the workshop. When Lacie’s design is drafted, we’ll work on other monster softies. And visit our blog again in a week or so, when we will discuss design principles for easy stuffed monsters. Even though Halloween will soon be over, monsters never go out of style!
ADVANCE NOTICE: Free workshop on how to finger-knit a magically fast scarf
At our next Monday night craft circle meeting, November 7th, June will be demonstrating how to finger-knit a charming, simple scarf as shown in the photo above. She can finish two of these in a meeting, so you can bet they’re easy–and they don’t even take knitting needles. Bring your own crafting work and commune. Or bring about 60 yards of bulky-weight yarn and be well on your way to finishing a whole scarf.
Cuddlies for Foster Kids
September 25, 2011 By
Did you know that children going into foster care usually leave their homes with nothing more than the clothes on their backs? “Being a foster child was confusing and scary,” wrote one kid, “because I didn’t know what was going to happen.” Agencies receive donations to help with this difficult transition, but more are always needed. In Washington State’s Skagit, Island, and San Juan counties, children receive coats, but no scarves to keep them warm. They receive care packages of essentials, but no home-made soft toy to love. Made with Love: Crafting for a Cause aims to fill that gap by making cozy scarves and small softies for children ages 4-17.
How can you help? Join our craft circle meetings–or work from home and deliver or mail us your craft. All the specific information for creating appropriate crafts is on our web site. [See data sources for this blog.] Want to help the world one craft at a time? Start with one child’s empty arms.
