Hello everyone,
Do you love crafts? Are your walls full of your makes? Do your friends and family have no more room for your wonderful creations? Do you want to make people smile with your creations? Then this is a small list to help my fellow UK crafting friends to donate your craft work. Some of these charities accept international donations but please be aware of postage costs to UK headquarters.
Love Quilts UK
Crafts: Cross stitch, quiltingWebsite: http://www.lovequiltsuk.com/
This charity makes quilts for children in hospital or have lifelong illnesses. They aim to make special personalised quilts to brighten their beds. Cross stitchers make up designs based on a childs interests and a amazing team of quilters put them together into an amazing quilt with matching fabric.
This group also has a awesome Facebook group which is so welcoming and supportive of new members (find a link to the page on the website) so new stitchers and quilters can join a lively community of crafters all wanting to make children's lives happier.
The little Yellow Duck project
Crafts: All
Website: https://thelittleyellowduckproject.org/
The Little Yellow Duck project is a really fun cause to support. The idea is to craft a Little yellow duck and leave it somewhere in your community with a label from the webpage. The label encourages the finders to pass along a kindness. They also suggest that a kindness can be donating blood or signing up for organ donation and gives information on how to do so in each country.
Leaving a little gift not knowing who will find it is like giving a blood donation and not knowing who it will help. It is a fun way to share this concept.
There are loads of designs available on the website to use or make your own duck if you like. Im finding it very fun to hide little ducks. I have so far hidden some small duck bookmarks in books in my local library.
I have created some cross stitch designs for use for the little yellow duck project for my cross stitching friends. You can find those here: https://thelittleyellowduckproject.org/patterns/cross-stitch-patterns/
Knit for nowt
Crafts: Knitting, Crochet, SewingWebsite: https://www.knitfornowt.org/
Knit for Nowt focuses on creating therapy toys for therapists who work with troubled children. These toys are very useful to carry out therapy through play, break the ice and give children new means to express themselves. More information on how the toys are used can be found on the website.
There are loads of patterns on the website to get you started from easier finger puppets to larger worry monsters so there's something for all skill levels.
Making the toys is loads of fun, the worry monsters can be customised in many ways. In fact the brighter and more interesting the monster the more it will appeal to the children so let your imagination run wild.
The Innocent Big Knit
Crafts: Crochet, KnittingWebsite: http://www.thebigknit.co.uk/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/4835073916
The Big Knit takes place every two years, crafters create cute little hats made to fit on the top of Innocent smoothie bottles. When those bottles are sold in stores a donation is made by innocent for each hatted smoothie. The donations go to Age UK who aid older members of the community get the help and information they need.
The hats are small and generally quick to make. The Big Knit website has a selection of patterns for all skill levels so even a beginner can join in. Also the Facebook page is a lovely friendly place to get advice on hat making or see other peoples creations. Its always nice to take a scroll through the lovely makes.
Theres also a great community making even more hat designs for you to try with all these resources it'll be hard to run out of new things to try. I have personally been able to use these small projects to practice advanced knitting skills before I use them on larger projects.
For a large collection of these community designed hats check them out here: http://www.thebigknit.devonartist.co.uk/patterns.html
I hope you all enjoy looking though these wonderful charities. I have made items for each of the charities mentioned on this page. So if you like to craft but don't know who to craft for why not give one of these charities a try and use your skills to help others. :)
Much love and happy stitching
Gemma xx
For a few more links to crafty musings and other craft related articles here are some links:
Index of Crafty Musings
Index of Craft book reviews
Index of Artist/ Product spotlights
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