Preemies of the Carolinas

I made a Bunch of Hearts for Preemies of the Carolinas.   

What is it for? From their website: "Inspirational Hearts are given to mothers whose newborn infants have been admitted to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. The fabric heart is worn against the mother’s skin so that the fabric absorbs the scent of the parents. The heart is placed with the baby in the isolate or crib so the mother is always with her child."

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Bat Faux Foilage

In May of 2023, I made some Faux Foilage for bats to play in for Relief Crafters of America.  It was sent to Bat Conservation and Rescue of Virginia.

" Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia was created to raise awareness of white-nose syndrome and its devastating impact on North American bats. Bat Conservation & Rescue of Virginia strives to conserve native bat species in Virginia and beyond by engaging, empowering, and educating people of all ages and abilities to ensure the future of Virginia’s bats and preserve their habitats.

The group wanted something without wires.  So, I did a sketch of what I was thinking

I drew out some leaves onto polar fleece and cut them out.

Pinching the leaves, I sewed them onto a long curved strip of polar fleece.

     

This is what it looked like, but I decided it needed more, so I made a few "magnolias"

It was madeso it could be tied onto poles for the garlands to be hung.  The final measures on the 3 garlands were between 5 and 6 feet

 I gave it a wash and mailed it out.

Surgical Bonnets 2020

 Here is a selection of surgical bonnets I made between April and June of 2020

Bucket of bonnets

Bird feeders, revisited

In Nov of 2020, I was so moved by the story of Rocky the Owl, that I reached out to Ravensbeard Wildlife Center and made them some bird feeders, mostly owls.

Knit for A Unique Fit

I'm really proud to have worked on this!

Hat From Recycled T-shirts.

During this time, I have been making sewing/crafting videos for Youtube. This is a tutorial for making a hat from old t-shirts. I had a lot of fun making it and my video editing skills are improving. Something that I enjoy doing is teaching people how to make things.

 
This is a prototype that I made before the video.  It was a little tight, so I knew what to fix for the video.  I'm very pleased with the final product.

 This is the view of the top.

This is a hat that I made with Jersey knit that I had purchased years ago for another project.

This is the inside:  The edges are cleaned up with a serger.

Here I am with my cat, in my hat.

Edit:  9-6-2020

I have made a few more with bows

The fabric was a little girl's dress that I bought at the thrift store.

 

These T-shirts were also purchased at the thrift store.  The lavender t-shirt was also used to make a bag for Una Vida, a group helping Californians during the wildfires.

Bird feeder puppets

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This month, I worked on painted birds for Raven Ridge Wildlife Center.  The project was thru Relief Crafters of America.  I was very excited to figure out the project, so I made my first tutorial.

One thing that I realized is that the beak might need to be a bit more opened.  If so, please take a small triangle nick at the bottom.  Also, a slightly more liquid acrylic is better than a thick one for the base layer.

This is a quick video of the final project with the research. Socks were donated by Bratenders.

The Story Forge Podcast

On March 27th, I was interviewed for The Story Forge about how Broadway is shut down for the Covid-19 Pandemic, my career and craftivism.  The day the interview came out was the day that we officially found out that (currently) we are dark until June 7th.

This has been where I have been spending a lot of time lately--my home studio.  I have made a lot of masks,both for the medical field and civilians, who were kind enough to donate to Relief Crafters.   I have pivoted back to making blankets for Project Linus, which will be a separate post.  Be forewarned: It will be very picture heavy!

Me in a mask.