SO FULL OF EXCITEMENT FOR MYSELF AND MY VOLUNTEERS

Some exciting news coming soon!! Sew Many Hearts for Giving will be working on some wonderful charity contributions in the coming months. Stay Tuned to see what the wonderful volunteers are working on. 

PILLOW CASES

Another great way to help out is to make pillow cases. They are very easy to make and I have found a great tutorial from Missouri Star quilt on you tube to make them in a fast and easy way. 

Check out all the charities below for the instructions. 

DRESS A GIRL 

Pillowcase Dresses

BELOW ARE SEVERAL LINKS TO THE PILLOW CASE DRESS INSTRUCTIONS

FREE SITES

• Jen Leheny
• Nancy's Notions - Little Dresses for Africa
• Little Big Girl Studio
• Prudent Baby - This is a little bit of a different design "Just Fabulous"
• Everything Sewing

PURCHASE INSTRUCTIONS - have to pay

• Foot Loose Fancy Free 
• Foot Loose Fancy Free - Tiered Pillowcase dress
• Hadley Grace Designs
• Carletto - Etsy Store
• Viola Lee Patterns

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE THESE DRESSES AND DONATE THEM TO CHARITIES BELOW ARE SOME GREAT SITES.

Have a gathering at your house or even your local school and have a sewing party to make dresses to send to the charities below.

LITTLE DRESSES FOR AFRICA

DRESS A GIRL AROUND THE WORLD

TILE QUOTES

Sometimes someone going through cancer just needs a special message to help lift them up. I make a lot of these tiles that are then given to many cancer patients by their loved ones. 

FLEECE NO SEW TIE BLANKETS

These are so soft, warm and cozy and are just perfect to give as donations to the local hospitals, nursing homes and cancer centers. 

There are several sites online to teach you how to make these very simple blankets. I like the DIY I found at Monkey See, Monkey DIY

No-Sew Tie Blanket Tutorial

CLICK HERE to go to tutorial

DONATIONS

 HATS, HATS AND MORE HATS

Sew Many Hearts for Giving is truly blessed to have so many wonderful volunteers that make handmade items to give to their communities. My volunteers are always working hard all year through to make hats for the cold season.

WARM AND COZY BLANKETS 

Rag quilts make the perfect lap quilt for cancer patients going through chemo treatments. There are so many beautiful flannel available now. 

No-Sew Tie blankets are trending right now and are just perfect to give to anyone struggling with an illness. They are cozy and warm and easily washable. We give a lot of these to our local hospitals. 

FISH RIVER RURAL HEALTH - HEALTH FAIR

Sew Many Hearts for Giving was honored to have a table at my employers health fair this year. I am truly blessed to work for such an amazing place. Fish River Rural Health gives back to their community by putting a health fair on every summer. This was my first year attending and I was there representing Sew Many Hearts for Giving with my dear friend Gloria. 

We meet many attendees at the far ho were very interested in signing up to be a volunteer

RAG QUILT GATHERING

Tess Buswell, Ceil Olmstead, Gloria Clair, Barbara Lovley, Judy Nichols, Crystal Parent, Sue Mornault, and Linda Stevens. 

My wonderful volunteers hard at work. 

 

I was truly blessed to have nine wonderful volunteers come to my home yesterday to make rag quilts. These ladies help me to make 27 rag quilts to be donated to our local cancer centers and outreach programs in the Northern Maine Community.

I have had to start using the hubby's garage to set up my sewing gathering as we are growing in numbers. I continue to see new volunteers at my gathering and I am so very grateful and thankful for this BLESSING!!

They donated their time without any hesitation. I just love these ladies. I could not continue to grow my chapter if it wasn't for them.

I try to make it a very easy and relaxed gathering. I have everything prepared for them ahead of time and have 4 sewing machines to share with those who do not have a sewing machine and would like to come to the gathering. 

• I purchase all the material
• Cut all the flannel into 10" squares
• I select the prints that coordinate with each other and put them into piles all ready with the count needed to make an easy design.
• I designed many pattern in microsoft excel of a rag quilt design and then print it off for them to refer to. I print off enough to have at each table. 
• At times I don't put them into stacks of coordinating fabrics so that they can create a more intricate print design as seen in the example below. I created A, B, C, D, E, F etc., 2" squares that they will place on the stack of different fabric prints when they are working with more than two prints. This was they can follow the pattern without having to lay all the blocks out. 

For example the pattern below calls for 5 prints to be used.

They would go up to the table that has the cut stacks of different fabric prints to choose from and pick out their prints.

I will have at least 3 - 4 rag quilt designs I created for them to also choose from.

They can then look at the design and place the letters on the stack of prints to coordinate with the pattern. 

Place a letter on top of the stack of prints you want that coordinates with the Rag Quilt design you are making. This makes it easier for them to complete their rag quilts and lets them keep all their prints in stacks. They can look at the pattern and pull the print from the stack that has the matching letter card to the block in the rag quilt design.

So for the example rag quilt design above they should have five stacks of five different prints. 

Try a gathering at your own home to make rag quilts for your local cancer centers. With the colder season approaching us here in Northern Maine, this makes a perfect gift for a cancer patient. 

 

RAG QUILT DESIGN WORKBOOK

 

I have created a tool in Microsoft excel that helps in calculating the measurements needed to make a rag quilt at any size using any block size. Entering only a few figures and the rest will calculate the rest for you.  

 

I am sharing this workbook with all my fellow quilt makers for free.

 It is very basic. However I have taken out all the work of figuring out what you need for yardage per quilt. I have even created a worksheet that will calculate the yardage for each fabric print in the quilt pattern.

 

Please feel free to offering advise on any way I can enhance this (within my abilities of course).

 

Please be sure to give created where credit is due if you share my workbook.

 

I would love to hear from you by adding a comment or emailing me about what you think of this workbook.

Click on the link below to open the workbook. If you would rather have me email you the file you may request this by emailing me at: northerngirlstamper@yahoo.com



CLICK ON LINK BELOW TO OPEN WORKBOOK
You must have Microsoft excel to use this workbook

 

Rag Quilt Designer workbook.xlsx

A DAY OF SEWING RAG QUILTS

Our wonderful volunteers came over to sew rag quilts to be distributed to our local hospitals. We meet some new volunteers as some of our older volunteers brought their friends. 

This is a very simple creation to make. If you an sew a straight seam, then you can sew a rag quilt. 

I was able to clip all seams (to make the seam rag) wash all their wonderful creation, shave all the pilling off them and finish them off with ribbon, a scripture card, and my little poem in just under three weeks. 

These do take a while to complete, so I am always looking for volunteers to sew them so I can complete everything else. 

If you would like to make a rag quilt to be donated to our local Aroostook County, Maine hospital, please contact me at sewmanyhearts@hotmail.com

Below is a link to my sister site with some general instructions on making a rag quilt. 

I also have some patterns for you to follow below. 

CHILD SIZE LAP RAG QUILT PATTERNS
Finished size is

ADULT SIZE LAP RAG QUILT PATTERN 

Finished size is