Charity Stitching

 

In 2006, I retired from my State of Florida clerical job and began looking for a way to help others.   One of the ways I found was to stitch for charity.  

I was surfing the net one day and came across an article about stitching for charity.    Since I had been stitching for such a long time, family and friends had received so many stitched gifts.   I know they were tired of getting them,   so I decided to enter the cyber-world of stitching by joining two Yahoo groups, World of Charity Stitching and Love Quilts USA.  

Cross Stitching has always been one of my favorite hobbies.  I stitch almost every day, having taught myself to stitch in about 1983.   Most of the time, while I am stitching, I "watch/listen"  to television and I almost always take my stitching with me when I have doctor appointments or any kind of period of waiting.   I even stitch while riding in the car on trips with my husband, at my granddaughters volleyball tournaments, in bowling leagues.

I started bogging about stitching for charity in 2008 and in the first year of record-keeping, I was able to stitch 12 charity squares; year two ended with 33 squares for charity.  (On my blog there is a list of how many squares I've stitched for these groups). 

In 2008, I became the co-owner of World of Charity Stitching.   This has been a challenging part of my life and I've enjoyed it very much.    Our membership of stitchers has varied over the years, but right now we have 285 members.  Not all of the members stitch on a regular basis: most have families that take up a lot of time, some work outside of the home,  and some  stitch when a special theme sparks their interest.  Our group does not put pressure on the members-they can stitch as often as they like.  If they find they don't have time to stitch, they might take a break and then sign up for the next round of quilt themes or they might stitch odd pieces at their leisure.  

Rachel (the other co-owner) and I collaborate on what quilt themes the group will be stitching, but members can make suggestions on quilt themes.   We donate to several different venues, but mainly to elderly care facilities and to a domestic violence shelter.  We also create special quilts for those with debilitating diseases, such as cancer.   We recently donated 3 quilts and one pillow to the Baptist Cancer Institute in Pensacola, Florida, to ladies who are cancer survivors.

If anyone is interested in joining our Yahoo group, World of Charity Stitchers, they can join by clicking here.  If you love to cross stitch, sew, quilt, crochet, tat, or knit, we welcome anyone who wishes to bring their talents to help others.

I am so thankful to have found an outlet for my stitching and sewing.  

Here are a few of my recent finishes:

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