Sewing Hands has Volunteer Spirit

WVLT TV Video Clip


Click on the blue link above and it will take you to the video clip that was made about Sewing Hands and the students of South College


WVLT TV article

Click on the blue link above and it will take you to an article written about Sewing Hands and the students of South College


We are expecting a newspaper article to come from the Tomahawk - a local paper that covered the delivery to Laurel Elementary School.  We will add it as soon as we receive it.

Delivery to Laurel Elementary School



                                                                                                                     

                            



9 am Monday October 1st we set out for Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee.  We had been experiencing cooler temperatures as Fall is approaching.  This morning was no different.  After a three hour drive through the changing leaf colors we arrived.

It took two trips with the dolly to get everything in the school.

Principal Betty Brown receives her quilt

 When we first came into the school all of the students were in their classrooms.  The halls were quiet except for one little boy.  He looked at us and said "I know who you are".   Sharon said "You do?"  He said
                                                                                               "Yes you are bringing us blankets".

For the next hour we visited each classroom and handed every child their fleece blanket or quilt.

 

Kindergarten

The First Graders were so excited to receive their     blankets.  One little boy asked "Do we get to take it home?"  The smile on his face was huge when we told him "Yes, it's yours ".  

Second Grade

Third Graders and their quilts

The 4th & 5th Graders were very happy !

6th Grade

      

We wish you all could have been there to share the joy.  This was a fantastic project and it couldn't have been done without all of your help.  We will be adding a new posting shortly with links to newspaper articles and television video clip.     Now, take a break and enjoy the holidays.  We will begin sewing again in January for a new project.

Sharon and Deborah                         

                                               



Final Count

We reached our goal of 78 blankets/quilts !    Thank you to those of you who sent in your work during this last month.  These are the Sewing Hands that were not listed on our previous "count" blog:

Barbara              1  (quilt)
Charlene             7 (fleece blankets)
Irene                   1 (quilt)
Karen                 2  (quilt)
Evelyn                 3 (quilts)
South College    18 (fleece blankets)

We delivered everything on October 1st.  I wish you all could have been there.  Read the next posting for our story and pictures.

Thanks,
Sharon and Deborah

South College Day of Caring

Yesterday was a very busy day at South College!  The students, staff and faculty all came together to tie fleece blankets for Laurel Elementary School.  The music was jumping, everyone was talking and laughing (and tying!).  Shortly after lunch - all of the blankets were done !!!  Here are some great pictures of their hard work.

And that is not all....... WVLT was there to do a segment called Volunteer Spirit.  I'll post the link after it has aired.

Happy Sewing,

Sharon

Hello Alice

I wanted to introduce you all to the most hard working member of Sewing Hands.   

Alice is a sit-down, Sweet 16 Handi Quilter.  She has been tirelessly quilting all of the beautiful tops.  Occassionally she complains but after a bit of oil and a new needle she's ready to go again!

Here are some examples of her work.....

Fund Raisers at South College, Knoxville, TN

South College Student Advisory Council, Community Service Club and Criminal Justice majors all had lunches to benefit Sewing Hands.  For three Tuesdays in August students and faculty ate wonderful lunches - chili dogs, meatball subs and pizza.

Many individuals gave donations on top of their lunch purchases.  The tremendous amount of support enabled us to purchase batting and muslin for our guilts.

THANK YOU students, faculty and staff !

Project Laurel Elementary in Full Swing!

Can you believe it is almost September?  While I'm looking forward to cooler weather I'm also realizing that we only have 4 more weeks till our delivery to Laurel Elementary School.

As you can see from the picture everyone has been very hard at work - and this isn't all of them....Mom just got tired of carting it all out of her closet!

We had some wonderful things happening for Sewing Hands - donations of money and fabric, new sewers that will be participating in our future projects and helpers who will be tying the remaining fleece blankets (see next post).

THANK YOU Terry for your donation!

THANK YOU Mary for your donation!

THANK YOU Patsy - she volunteered to bind all of the quilts



Irene from South Carolina





Clara from South Carolina

Our latest count is as follows:

Evelyn                          5
Irene                            1
Clara                            1
Larissa                         1
Aliza                            3
Lois                             3
Kathy                           4
Kathy (fleece)               5
Pam (fleece)                 5
Super Girls (fleece)       4

Total Scrappy Quilts Completed:  43 !!!   Needed:  54

Don't forget - if you have blocks or tops to send us we must have them by September 5th in order to quilt, bind, label and package them by our deadline.

Happy Sewing,

Sharon and Deborah





Angels Among Us

We have all heard of there being angels among us…..well, Sewing Hands has its very own angel!  A wonderful donation was given to us recently.  This donation will enable us to buy the remaining fleece needed for the fleece blankets AND buy some batting or muslin for the scrappy quilts.  I know the angel does not want any attention for his gift but if everyone can say a prayer of thanks for all of the blessings God brings us it will include the angels among us.  Thank you to our special one!  

Updates

A few updates.....
The Star of the Sea schooner is safely home.  Captain Bob had a great trip and will be forwarding us pictures of the Ile a Vache children shortly.

Nikki Ramsey of Tazewell, TN donated some great John Deere fabric for our Laurel Elementary project.  The little boys are going to love that!  Thank you Nikki.

Aliza Sparkman in Indiana mailed in three scrappy quilt tops!  Sounds like she got a lot of assistance from her daughters.  We'll upload pictures as soon as they are quilted.  Isn't is wonderful how little girls in Indiana are helping little girls in Tennessee.  Our world really isn't that large after all. 

Plans are being made for Sharon's students to put together a meatball sub lunch at the school to raise funds for supplies.  The community service club at the college has adopted us as their "day of caring" event and will be tying fleece blankets for us in September.

Deborah (mom) will be in Tennessee in another week and our project will be in full swing for the rest of the summer.  Please mail any blocks or tops or fleece blankets to Sharon as soon as you have them done.  If you don't have my address send an email to handmadebysewinghands@gmail.com and I'll email it to you.

Thank you everyone - and Happy Sewing,
Sharon


 

Scrappy Quilts

Quilts for Sixth Graders Delivered May, 2012

Can you hear it???  That's the sound of sewing machines from Florida to Indiana.  Everyone is coming together again to put a smile on the face of a child.  Our October delivery date for Laurel Elementary is going to arrive quicker than we can imagine.

We have heard from Larissa and Aliza in Indiana - they are busy making the blocks for the scrappy quilts.  Even Aliza's daughters - Madison and Lillian - have gotten involved and are officially "designers".

Kathy in Florida has been designing and sewing scrappy blocks along with Deborah but she has also been tying the fleece blankets that we will be giving the younger students.  Kathy's workplace has just told us that they would like to tie a few blankets too!

Lois, in Florida, has returned to her summer home in Michigan and will be continuing her blocks there.

Tracy in Tennessee is on board to make some blocks.

Jan and Connie in South Carolina, along with Jan's daugher Karen in Indiana, are all busy starting their blocks.

Evelyn has emailed us from her summer home up north and has her 92 year old mother helping make blocks.  Evelyn says she has 3 quilts completed so far!!

South College Community Service Club along with the Criminal Justice students will be having a fund raiser for Sewing Hands this summer and will be tying fleece blankets.

Sharon is quilting everything that has been made so far.  

If you are helping us and are not listed here please send an email so we can include you.

Delivery to Old Bight Orphanage

Hello Sewing Hands Sewers and Helpers !  Captain Bob and crew made it safely to his first stop at Old Bight Orphanage on Cat Island in the Bahamas.  As you can see from these pictures, the children were very happy with their new dresses and shorts.

Please check out the trip's blogspot at http://schoonerstarofthesea.blogspot.com/

Arrival at Ile a Vache, Haiti should be by the end of next week.  Check back then for more pictures.

                                                                    

Safe Journey Star of the Sea

Captain Bob, First Mate wife Ellen and the crew of Zach and Javier left yesterday for their journey to the Bahamas and Ile a Vache, Haiti.  They will be delivering food, medical supplies and all of the beautiful dresses and shorts that Sewing Hands made this past year.

Please keep them in your prayers.  I'll post pictures and updates as soon as we know more.  You can also follow their trip on their blog: http://schoonerstarofthesea.blogspot.com/

Happy Sailing Brother - Be Safe,

Sharon

Mountain Stitches

If any of you live in the area of Knoxville or are vacationing in East Tennessee you must go by Mountain Stitches.  This is a fantastic quilt shop in the Gatlinburg arts & crafts loop.  Susan Dudley is the owner and besides being an extremely talented quilter and a lovely lady, she has been a great supporter of Sewing Hands.

This past week Susan donated 43 1/2 yards of fabric that we are going to be able to use for quilts, backing and strips for our blocks.   

Susan's shop has a great variety of civil war, reproduction and contemporary fabrics.  She has fat quarter bundles made up so all you need to do is pick a pattern, pair it with a bundle and get sewing!  There are beautiful quilts adorning the walls that are not only great for inspiration but are also for sale.

From the bottom of our hearts - Thank you Susan !!!!

Trip to Laurel Elementary

On Monday, May 7th, Deborah and Sharon traveled to Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee.  It was a gorgeous three hour drive through the lush mountains.  We actually had to venture into Virginia and then backtrack to the little mountain town of Laurel Bloomery. 

 The assembly started at 1pm.  All of the students were ushered into the cafeteria/gym.  They remembered Sharon from her visit in March...."Oh, you're the lady that is making our quilts!".  The principal, Betty Brown, introduced us and presented us with our own "shining star" volunteer trophy.  (The school's motto is the shining star panthers).

The current sixth graders were graduating this week and heading off to middle school in the Fall.  They were not expecting to receive a quilt.  Boy, were they surprised!

We will returning to the school in the beginning of October to present the fleece blankets and quilts to the remaining students.  They are most appreciative - this is a great project !

First Scrappy Quilt Top Done !

THANK YOU LOIS !!!  The first scrappy quilt top for Laurel Elementary is done.  As you can all see we added more than 7 solid blocks (as previously said in the instructions).  We found that it was too busy and hard on the eyes so we used 12 solid blocks to break up the strips.  Also all of the strips are going in the same directions.  Doesn't it look great?

One more request - when you are sewing the solid fabric onto the muslin backing square please use less than 1/4 inch seam.  That way when the top is put together we will be able to hide your seam in the standard 1/4 inch.

5 Fleece Blankets

Pam Drummer, one of our Sewers from Tennessee, completed five (!) fleece blankets.  They are all beautiful.....Thank You Pam.

14 Quilts for Sixth Graders

I visited Laurel Bloomery Elementary School in March and met the fantastic principal, Betty Brown and the wonderful teachers and students.  Betty had me go to each class and tell the students about our project for them.  They were excited to say the least.

Unfortunately we did not realize it at the time but the 6th graders would be going on to Middle School and would not be at Laurel Bloomery in the Fall when we are planning on delivering the quilts.  They were very disappointed.  When Betty mentioned this I told her we would just have to crank up the sewing machines and get those quilts to them by the end of this school year!

So, Deborah (mom) and I are scheduled to deliver 14 quilts for the graduating sixth graders at Laurel Bloomery on May 7th. (Yes, Mom is flying up to Tennessee to be a part of this!) Betty is putting together a school assembly in the gym and we will be handing them out in front of everyone!

I will put up pictures when we return and I'm sure to have some great stories to relay.

Happy Sewing,
Sharon

Super Kids Have Done It Again !!

On Friday, April 20th Deborah taught 9 young ladies from the Super Kids Club in Bonita Springs, Florida how to make the fleece blankets for our Laurel Bloomery Project.  The girls completed four fleece blankets within one hour !!!  Thank you to Evelyn, Sally, and Lou for helping the girls with this project.  These super girls are:

Ana        Angie        Susana       Angela      Litzy L.       Norma       Litzy Z.     Emily       Eulalia  

NEW PROJECT

Hello Everyone:

First let me give you the news about our Ile a Vache project.  Our Final Count was 224 dresses and 210 shorts.  We surpassed our goal !!!!  Here are the specific contributions from our sewers.  Thank you to everyone.

Dresses

Patsy  35             Peggy  20         Lois  3           Ashley  6       Barb & Lisa  14        Evelyn 11
Susan   7             Kathleen  10     Larissa  23    Christy  4       Eileen & Ellen  5      Deborah  59
Jan & Connie  15                        Super Kids  12

Shorts

Sharon   38            Larissa 65       Eileen & Ellen  22           Judi  20        Deborah 17

Evelyn   24            Susan     8        Kathleen 16






I will be  posting new pictures after Robert returns from the Haiti delivery so you can see the children and their new clothes.

We are now starting on our NEW PROJECT.  And if you have made it to this blog you already know that we have dropped the "ile a vache" from our name and are now simply Sewing Hands.  Business cards with our email, blog and facebook addresses have been made up.  Please ask Sharon or Deborah if you would like one.

For the 2012-2013 year we will be helping the children in a small elementary school in the Appalachian region of Tennessee.  The name of the school is Laurel Bloomery Elementary School.  We will be making fleece blankets for Kindergarten, First and Second grade  and quilts for Third - Sixth Grade.  Please check out the details under the "Pages" section of this blog.  Our delivery date is October 5th.  Please get everything to Sharon by September 21st so we can label and package them.  We have obtained some iron on labels that have a heart and say Handmade With Love by Sewing Hands.  If you need Sharon's address please send her an email and she will respond to you directly.  The email is  handmadebysewinghands@gmail.com

As time allows I will be posting new pictures of completed blankets and quilts as well as new pictures of those who are helping us with the new project.  Feel free to email pictures that  you want included.

Happy Sewing,

Sharon and Deborah

Laurel Bloomery Students

The Finish Line!

Sewing Hands and all of our friends:

We are almost to the finish line of our first project (yes, I did say first!, more on that later).  Thank you to everyone for sending in their dresses and shorts.  If you still are working on yours please remember that the deadline to get them to Deborah is April 23rd.  Robert will be loading up the boat and leaving for Haiti in May.

I have updated our list of sewing hands.  We now have "hands" in Minnesota, Illinois, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.  Fantastic!

The Helper page is also updated.  We have had some wonderful "helpers" who have donated fabric and even a gift card.  THANK YOU.  Without all of the Sewers and Helpers this project would not have been so successful.

New pictures are up from Larissa.  She has sewn some beautifully creative dresses.

Lastly, the count.  A lot has been added to the page but we are expecting more.  Keep checking back as we get closer to the 23rd.

As I hinted to in the first paragraph - we are working on the details for a new project.  As soon as Ile a Vache is finished I will be posting all of the information (and even pictures).  In anticipation of many future projects we have changed the blog's address to http://handmadebysewinghands.blogspot.com/   Our new email is handmadebysewinghands@gmail.com   We will now be known simply as Sewing Hands.  I hope that you will continue to support Sewing Hands with your talents, your donations and your encouragement.

Happy Sewing,
Sharon

Handmade with Love

A wonderful article written by Cayla Stanley was in the Bonita Banner last month.  I have just now found it online.  If you have not read it you can go to :
http://bonitabanner.fl.newsmemory.com/   Choose the date 2-18-12 and page A24.

We are getting closer to our April 23rd deadline.  I'll have a new count, new helpers and some great pictures of our dresses and shorts up on the Blog and Facebook this next week.

NEW NEW NEW !!!

Hi everyone - we have a new Count, new Helpers that have donated fabric and new Sewers.  Check out those pages for the updates.

The Super Kids Club girls have finished their dresses (12 total).  They displayed them at a fund raising luncheon for New Horizons.  Everyone thought they were BEAUTIFUL.  The girls also served their sewing mentors a Valentine's spaghetti lunch and made lovely Valentines cards thanking them for showing them how to sew.  Left off of the earlier list were a few names -
Super Girl - Eulalia Zacarias
Mentors - Norma Peeders and Evelyn Fennema

Deborah was interviewed for an article in the Bonita Banner about Sewing Hands.  It should be out very soon.  If I am able to reproduce it or give you an online link I will.

I've added a couple of new pictures below (finally got one of Deborah!)

APRIL 23rd IS THE DEADLINE to get everything in to Deborah.  SEW SEW SEW

and lastly - Thank you everyone for all of your hard work and enthusiasm. 

Sharon

NEW YEAR

Well, we have gotten through the holidays and the beginning of the new year.  I hope 2012 is happy and healthy for all of you.  Now.....let's get down to business!!!  We are only half way to our goal of 200 dresses and the number of shorts we have is pitiful (I get to say that because I'm sewing shorts).  All must be finished and mailed to Deborah Nichols by April 23rd.  The schooner leaves at the beginning of May and everything has to be sorted, packed and labeled before then.  I will be posting some pictures of the children that you are sewing for - use that as inspiration to sew, sew, sew.

Also, please send me pictures and updates so I can share them with everyone.  What are you embellishing your dresses with?  Yo-Yo's (or as Deborah calls them - Yahoos)?, Buttons?, Rick Rack?  We'd love to see what you are doing.  You can email the pictures to sewinghands4ileavache@gmail.com

Sharon

Updates

Please check out our pages.  The Count page has been updated (wait till you see how many dresses we have!).  On the Sewers page we have two new sewers and on the Helpers page we have some fantastic new donations (bet you can't guess what they are...no, not fabric...check it out).

SUPER GIRLS !!!

On Friday January 13th the Super Kids Club starting sewing their dresses for Ile a Vache.  Those helping the girls on the sewing machines are:
Lu Burkell               Jane Chopack                  Carol Knowles                Suzanne Buckler
Sue Price                Pat Huisjen                       Lois Botkin                     Deborah Nichols
Peggy Simmons       Kathleen Morningstar       Sally Ritter

The Super Kids Club girls are:

Angie Arroyo          Ana Uribe                      Yasmin Garcia                   Norma Nieto
Cristina Perez          Emily Duron                   Angela Reyna                    Susana Martinez
Litzy Loma              Hajayra

The girls will be sewing for the rest of January.  They should be able to contribute 19 dresses !!
Pictures will be added to the Blog very soon.