My 50th time around the sun and how I plan to spend it

I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog yet so my apologies if this is a repeat.

I've recently turned 50 and since it is such a big year, like all zero years,  I've decided to do something just as big. I've decided to make and donate 50 items to charity. Pretty big huh? If you think about it though 50 items is just one item a week with a two week buffer built in just in case. 

This little preemie diaper shirt is one of the things I will be donating. You can find out more information about the organization and ways to donate on their Twenty-five and Four website.  I've recently been certified so now I can start assembly line sewing these little shirts. 

I've also decided to make 50 or 52 baby quilts this year. I have no immediate plans but they will most likely be donated to Project Linus. 

The greens is this top are a bit darker. My craftroom doesn't always have the best light.

These greens are muted also. This top turned out beautifully. Perfect for a sweet little princess.

This top was donated to me and I added the blue borders to make it a bit wider.   

I've been having fun not only making the quilt tops but also finding fun and quick patterns to try. Sometimes I just wing it and I'm always surprised to see the finished quilt top. 

Robin

First Charity Quilt Flimsy of 2019

 

I stitched together my first flimsy of 2019. Following the suggested layout for The Road Trip Quilt  by Cluck Cluck Sew I randomly chose fabrics for my first charity quilt top of 2019. As I was choosing fabrics to use in this quilt top I noticed that I was choosing fabrics geared towards a younger boy so I tried to avoid the fabrics for the older boys. A five year old may not want skulls on his quilt. Or at least his parents might not appreciate the skulls. ;)

While cutting the fabrics I was too excited to get started that I didn't pay close attention to the directional fabrics. That's okay because this quilt finishes at 36" x 40" so it's not too big of a deal to just turn the quilt so the fabrics are pointing all the same way. Once I realized my little slip (there are no mistakes, just creative challenges right?) I just made sure I flip flopped some of the fabrics so they point in a variety of directions. 

I was chatting over on RsIslandCrafts, my YouTube channel, about binding. I would like to buy a yard or two of a couple different fabrics to use on as many quilts as I can. I know white is a good neutral but it isn't necessarily good for kids' quilts. Then I thought maybe grey? I had a couple suggestions to use some stripe fabric for the bindings. Brilliant! I think I'll do a little window shopping and see what I can find online. I have several yards of solid to semi-solid fabric in a couple different colors for the backs so I should be fine for a bit with backing fabrics. JoAnn's has batting on sale quite often so I'll just grab it as I go. I used to buy one of those giant rolls of batting every few years but I don't think that is in my budget this year. 

Now I just need to come up with a fun and simple hashtag for Instagram. While I'm the only crazy person who wants to make 50 quilts this year there are a few others who would like to join me in my charity sewing.  

Are you planning any charity quilts for 2019?

Rare Bear Charity Sewing

One of my charity projects for this year has been making unstuffed bears for Rare Science. I found this charity while watching videos from Rob Appell  aka Man Sewing on YouTube. In his Rare Bear tutorial video he mentioned that Rare Science prefers that we don't stuff our cute little bears. I figured that was perfect because an unstuffed bear is easier to make and less expensive to ship. Perfect.

This is a picture of my next 8/10 bear heads. I giggle whenever I take pictures like this. When sewing these bears you completely stitch the heads before moving on to the rest of their body parts. I've mailed and donated several of these bears so far but I've decided that I won't be making more next year. I've decided I'm really not a sewn stuffie maker. Too many pieces and it's not difficult to sew the heads to their bodies but it is a bit trying and fiddly. 

Charity Hat Knitting

I have more yarn than I feel comfortable having in my stash. It's only about four cloth shopping tote bags but for me that's too much. I don't like having yarn or fabric just sitting in my stash and not being used. I know. I'm weird. Anyways...There are many generous people collecting hats for kids, cancer patients, homeless, and so many other people in need. I've made hats for a few of these collections but I never really felt drawn to them. Clare, from The Big Family Homestead  is collecting hats for Vets in her area of Wisconsin. I felt drawn to this hat collection so I'm going through my stash and knitting some hats.

My go to hat pattern is the Bankhead . It was originally and adult hat but the designer has updated it so it fits baby to XL adult heads. I like that it has a little ribbing so it does have some stretch but mostly it's just a fun knit. Because I don't knit steadily on these hats it takes me about a week or two to make one hat. Depending on how much time and motivation I have for these hats. 

I've gone ahead and cast on my second hat using the discontinued Bernat Mosaics yarn. I really enjoy knitting with this yarn but this is my last skein. I'm going to have to mix it up a bit and alternate some plain hats with the fun to knit colorful hats. Otherwise I may never make any simple one color hats. 

Do you do any charity knitting?