Vests for Afghanistan

This is my 300th post! I thought I'd use it to share some of what's been going on with the Afghanistan project at school....

These are just some of the vests (and socks) that have been made for the grade 7 knitting project. Each of the vests has a tag on it, saying who made it...many are made by the students, many are made by community members who, finding out about our project, wanted to participate.

Beautiful, aren't they?





Our classroom goal is 100 vests from the community and class. There are quite a few vests in the classroom waiting to go up, so the teacher/co-ordinator is going to set up another hallway banner. Pretty cool.

There are 20+ vests on this wall, and around that many in the classroom (plus what some of the kids still have on their needles).

I have another baby one on the needles, and am looking forward to getting it done to add to the new wall.

More Kool-Aid dying with them today, too!

:)
Lisa

The news is out....

This is the class and teacher that I've been privileged to work with since the Christmas break - and look! We're in the newspaper! As the students' final project, they'll each be knitting a vest for a needy child in Afghanistan. Our teacher has put out a call to the community to match us, vest for vest, or at least to join in the fun by donating some wool or money to buy wool. The paper came out this morning and we've already got 18 community members signed up to help by knitting, and several skeins of yarn have already popped up in community drop boxes that have been placed around town.

Exciting stuff!

I first read about this charity while reading Debra's blog last fall...and had it in the back of my mind, thinking it would be a great one to contribute to. Our classroom teacher thought it was a great idea, and it ties into other parts of the class curriculum around citizenship, global issues and other things. I'm so excited to be part of this project! Normally our family tend to volunteer for things closer to home (Christmas boxes, charity quilts, local fund raising). I think this will be the first really large contribution to an international charity that I've been part of, and it's so exciting. I'm glad that these kids will have the chance to participate in making a difference. What a great experience for them at this young age.

More to report soon on life, the universe, and everything....

Lisa

Another week in review - Heartstrings

I promise I'll break this review into smaller posts...but I thought you might like to see the kind of quilty mayhem my room has been this week.

This photo was taken at what was by no means the peak, but it was at a good point. It was a point at which I felt like, "hey, I DO get stuff done around here!"

The photo of my space is taken from behind my quilting machine...a vantage point that I often have, but most visitors here never get.


I spent some time this week outside of my regular work doing some charity quilts for an organiziation that's close to my heart, the Heartstrings Quilt Project. I was sent three quilt tops earlier this year from one of the other members, Sue, and they have been waiting for me to quilt them...at long last they are done! This first one was quilted with a pattern called 'popcorn' by Jodi Beamish. Look at how Sue carefully placed these blocks to give make two hearts...so pretty, so subtle. This quilt will be donated to the Support Services area of the Kelowna Cancer Clinic.


In that same package Sue sent two other quilt tops (pieced by Sue and Joan) that are destined for the Canadian Quilts of Valour program. Both are wonderful, aren't they? This is another charity that has spoken so deeply to me. With family in the military it's often present in my mind the real danger that our soldiers are in. Quilts from this project go both to wounded soldiers and to families of fallen soldiers.

At what point do I mention that Sue and Joan are in the US? It takes generous hearts to give over such a distance.


The pattern I used to quilt these is 'Maple Syrup' by Jodi Beamish...she generously donated the pattern for this purpose.

It was a bit of a blue week for me. I was a bit lonely, feeling like our move is never going to happen, like I'm not getting anything done. Working on these quilts made me feel so much better! I hope they will bring joy to someone. Someone who can feel that there are legions of caring people out there, some who took the time to make something just for them.

Happy stitching,

Lisa