Michelle C. is collecting donations for a middle school after-school craft club. She’sna member of a Virginia chapter of ANG and one member there runs the club at the school she works at. She told me she has around 50 members, both boys and girls. They are always looking for donations. If anyone looks through their stash and finds anything they don’t want anymore that might appeal to a middle schooler, let Michelle know and she will pick it up. She is going to Virginia at the end of the month and will personally deliver the donations. Michelle is flying Southwest so that second suitcase is free!

We have received our first four ornaments for the victims of the Spring 2014 San Diego wildfires.  Our goal is to have a handmade ornament for each of the 63 families who lost a home by our October meeting.  You can check out our photo album on Facebook with all the ornaments.

Aren’t they lovely?  All four were made by Susan.

Damage assessments have been published in the UT — 63 families have lost homes in total (23 in the Poinsettia Fire, 40 in the Cocos Fire). I have contacted the Carlsbad, San Marcos, and the county governments asking how we can get the ornaments to the affected families.

While this number is higher than we originally thought, we can still do it! We are going for floral or geometric themed ornaments so that they can be enjoyed by all families. To have time to distribute the ornaments to the families before the holidays, we will need to collect them by the end of October.

Soldier Kissing PillowsWe are trying to send as many Kissing Pillows as we have completed to PA the day after our September meeting. Please bring whatever you have stitched to the meeting on the 20th. The PA call has been raised from 1800 to 2400. They have a little over a thousand at this point with everyone working feverishly to fill this request.

Heather

As discussed in several meetings this year we will be making bookmarks for  donation to literacy programs in the San Diego area for the year 2012.  It’s not too early to start. We have patterns and evenweave ribband available to help get started.

Charlie the Tree

This year we will be making ornaments for a tree to be given to the nursing section of St Paul’s Senior Homes. The Activities Director, Chris, was quite excited when I first contacted her in February. Apparently no one has done this for them before! Right now, the tree is rather empty looking like something Charlie Brown selected. So I’ve named it “Charlie”.

As this is a community outreach project for Muchas Manos and because many visitors will be passing it while calling on friends and relations, we should make it the best ever. You’ll remember that last year the tree made $700 for the Model Railroad Museum’s educational programs. So our efforts are worthwhile.

Charlie needs a lot more ornaments, especially those that are 3″-3.5″ in size. I’ve been working on it too and have completed 30 of the smaller sizes. I’ve asked that each of our members contribute at least two. If you can make more it would be wonderful. Currently I’m stitching a red skirt and and am trying to think of a topper that would reflect the theme. Please remember that the theme is “a garden”. If any of you are stuck please ask – I’m not short of ideas and have prepared some designs that are ready to be stitched.  Ornaments need to be completed by the November meeting.

Margaret B.

Our bookmark outreach program was mentioned in the September 2006 edition of NeedleArts!  We donated our bookmarks to the summer reading program at the Carmel Valley Library.

A couple of our members have designed bookmarks for your stitching enjoyment: