Sometimes I get rid of fabric.
Shocking, right? Fabric is meant to be hoarded, right? But honestly, though those old pastel celestial prints might be useful for insulating my house or making my fridge run more efficiently, I am so over the stars thing and I am never going to use this stuff.
My local quilt guild takes donations of kid-friendly and soldier-friendly fabrics for various community service projects, but what if you don’t have a guild nearby? And more importantly, is there anything I can do to find a new life for the perfectly good yarn that I often see abandoned in thrift stores and at garage sales?
Here are five organizations that accept donations of craft supplies. Feel free to add more in the comments. I’ve tried to stick to permanent organizations instead of individuals or temporary efforts, and this list contains only organizations where I could confirm they accept donations. (There are hundreds upon hundreds of organizations listed all over the web, and hundreds of websites, but many of them no longer exist.)
If you’re going to donate supplies, please be thoughtful and make sure what you’re donating is appropriate. Someone in our guild once donated vinyl to the baby quilts project… um, ok… thanks, I guess…
The CUREchief Foundation provides scarves to people with cancer, alopecia, and other conditions which may cause hair loss. These CUREchiefs can be worn on the head, or around the neck. They accept donations of cotton, flannel, and polar fleece for their volunteers to use in making CUREchiefs. For their address, see their Volunteer Page.
Care Wear Volunteers has volunteers nationwide who make and donate handmade baby items to hospitals. Founder Bonnie Hagerman sent me this information about what they need:
Care Wear Volunteers appreciates receiving donated yarn, fiberfil, quilt batting, narrow white lace, flannel, broadcloth, and other fabrics suitable for children’s toys, apparel, and blankets/quilts. Donated supplies will be distributed to volunteers who request assistance with their projects that are donated to hospitalized children. Contact: Bonnie Hagerman, Care Wear Volunteers, c/o Hood College, 401 Rosemont Avenue, Frederick, MD 21701
Members of the Charity Craft Volunteer Network in Central Texas craft to help infants, children, breast cancer patients, elders with Alzheimer’s, patients in hospice, and others. They can use fabric, yarn, fiberfill, batting, and thread. You can see the types of items they make. Their Donate Page has the address.
Newborns In Need focuses on helping needy families clothe their babies and keep them warm by providing clothing and blankets to families taking their infants home from the hospital. Appropriate donations of fabric, sewing notions, and patterns are welcome. Donations may be sent to Newborns in Need National Office, 3323 Transou Road, Pfafftown, NC 27040.
You can contact the local chapter coordinator for the Project Linus nearest you to find out whether they need fabric for making kids’ blankets. “Materials must be new, unused and free of contaminants such as mold, mildew and smoke. They should be cotton or cotton/poly blends.”
The Preemie Project has chapters in Iowa and Michigan that make items for the NICU, PICU, and infant bereavement programs. Their Donate Page is up to date with needed supplies, including flannel, fleece, thread, ribbon, and lace.
[Photo by Dominic Morel.] ]]>
After the immense enjoyment I got from Gaia Girls - Enter the Earth, I had some high expectations for the second book in the Gaia Girls series. I’m happy to say that author Lee Welles delivered yet again!
With the first tome based around the element of earth, the second tome is all about water (as the title suggests). Miho’s scientist parents were lost at sea and she now has to move to Japan to live with her uncle. Though she speaks no Japanese and has never met her uncle, she has no other choice but to move in with her only living relative.
While visiting the beach house of her grandparents (who have already passed on), Miho meets the already infamous otter, Gaia. Miho is quickly swept up in the excitement of being able to talk to all the creatures of the sea and makes friends with a large group of dolphins. Of course, her adult uncle thinks she is nuts and simply can’t follow orders when he tells her to be home at a certain time and she continues to come home dripping wet.
Will Miho and her uncle ever connect? Have you ever traveled across the world in the mouth of a whale? What happens when poachers try to capture some of her dolphin friends? I could answer all of those questions for you, but it would take all the fun out of reading the book yourself.
As in the first book, a collection of fun puzzles and intelligent discussion questions follows the story. Welles was also keen enough to add a small Japanese dictionary into the book for the few conversations that occur in the foreign language. Though I neglected to mention them in my last review, the cover and inside art for both books are breathtaking - they really make the story come alive.
Book three, Gaia Girls - Air Apparent, is set to be released later this year. Stay tuned to Eco Child’s Play for updates and reviews of the entire Gaia Girls series!
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We celebrated our child’s birthday with her friends last weekend. At every holiday, inevitably someone asks a child what gift she is wishing for. It’s times like that’s where it becomes abundantly clear that we don’t watch kids TV. My child has no idea what toy she would like; even the concept of directing a purchase is still a bit new.
So, when the inevitable question came during the party, the Kiddo took a moment and thought hard. “Berries,” she said. “Strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.”
It would have been easy enough to go buy them (imported) at the grocery store. And, likely I will do just that. But, I also ordered her the plants for her own “teaching” garden. Perhaps not the usual gift for a three-year-old, but I have a feeling she will love it. She already helps water and plant herbs. This season, we will grow plants from seeds indoors as well.
Teaching gardens are one of the more innovative approaches to hands-on learning and getting kids to embrace real foods again. Personally, I think it would be great if such a tool were a mandatory part of public education, just like PE. But, waiting for schools to catch up and do something innovative in a “No Child Left Behind” system could be a long wait. The teaching garden will have to be our backyard.
What can kids learn from a garden? Quite a bit, if you take a look at the curriculum suggestions that can be tied to a school garden project. Life science questions like “How do plants reproduce? How do seeds work?” can be explored by even the youngest of gardeners. Older gardeners can explore topics like photosynthesis or how plants adapt for survival, or the role of bees in pollination. Earth sciences like weather can be introduced along with food webs.
Math concepts can be used in planting to divide the rows, or measure growth, or determine planting dates. Nutrition and healthy cooking are, of course, part of the process. But even the history of the plants and the cultures of people who grow different varieties are great topics. Art and language can even play a part in the learning. Children can write and illustrate a garden “story” or read books about gardening. Art projects can include seed mosaics or leaf art. The topics are nearly as endless as one’s imagination.
Beyond education, this hands-on approach to growing food and then helping prepare those foods has been shown to increase children’s interest in eating vegetables and in the importance of nutrition.
In addition to strawberries, we’ll plant greens like kale and chard and lettuces, romanesco cauliflower; Roma green beans, shell peas like Crowder and a couple other heirloom varieties; and the stock of various tomatoes, pumpkins and squash seeds I have been saving. And strawberries. Lots and lots of strawberries.
For more information about starting a school or home garden, here are some helpful resources:
School Garden Network
Farm to School Program
Square Foot Gardening (easy kid-friendly gardening)
Oh yeah, you read the subject of this post correctly … shopping, eek. The holiday gift season usually begins the day after Thanksgiving, a day which I intentionally avoid doing any buying. This year, shops and merchants are breaking out the good stuff (and the good deals) right after Halloween to try and help jump-start the economy again.
If having a gift-free holiday is not something your family would go for, why not get them something sustainable? Just by looking through the eco-links collection on my website, one can easily see that there are cornucopia of green stores to choose from. For the next two months, I'll be featuring some of the freshest shopping destinations the world wide web has to offer, helping you get to the bottom of that twice-checked list faster than ever.
Trying to decide who to feature in my first Green Shopping Spotlight was a darn tough decision, but the answer came to me in a snap, or an e-mail as it were. Two days ago, I got a delightful message from Jennifer, half of the two-woman team that started Max and Zane, the other half being April. I'd never heard of the online outlet before so I quickly clicked on over to see what the scoop was, and boy (or girl, haha) was I in for a treat!
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This past week, I have been immersed in the pleasing insanity that is Portland Fashion Week. Though there were not any children's lines being shown at the event, I learned about Little Marmara while I was in town, thanks to an e-mail from founder Gabrielle Ackerman.
At Little Marmara, we believe in simple things. That we should treat the environment as we would treat ourselves. That nothing should go next to our children’s beautiful skin that we would not place next to our own. That clothing for little people can and should be as artful and well made as clothing for big people. And that at no point from the cotton fields to our customers should the earth or any of its inhabitants suffer in the slightest for our cause.
Founded in 2005, Little Marmara just recently launched its website and online store in July of this year. Unable to find anything she liked (and her two kids felt comfortable wearing), Ackerman started Little Marmara to solver her own clothing conundrums as well as those of other parents and their kids. Made from 100% organic Turkish cotton under fair labor practices, all of Little Marmara's creations are printed with low impact dyes, featuring gender-neutral Turkish designs from the Ottoman Empire era. The designs, and the brand itself, is a nod to Ackerman's children's Turkish heritage, with the line taking its name from the Marmara Sea and the ancient Middle Eastern trade routes that used to follow its shores.
]]>"Whether you buy organic fruits and veggies, drive a hybrid car, or teach kids to recycle, our products are another way to celebrate your way of living. Little Green Star is about inspiring kids to learn about the world around us and to develop their own ideas on ways to care for the earth," says the company's website, where you can peruse and purchase items from their entire collection. Though the graphics are simple, they are also adorable, featuring statements like "My dad recycles more than your dad," "Water pollution makes me crabby," "Future geologist," "Growing up green," and a number of others. ]]>
Parents want the best for their kids, so buying items with organic cotton is the minimum for most. As environmentalists of all different shades of green, being proud and outspoken about what you believe in becomes second nature. In a matter of weeks, babies show their own unique personalities, and their surroundings (clothing included) should reflect that. London-based brand Hug, well known for their womens wear, recently re-released their unique children's line called Little Green Radicals. Available for babies and toddlers, all items are made from organic, certified Fair Trade, and sweatshop-free cotton in Egypt and India. Also noted on the brand's website: all prints "have been produced using the most ecological water based inks available."
While basic items like bibs, t-shirts, playsuits, denim are available, they are beyond boring. Graphics featuring phrases like "panda-monium," "I recycle my tantrums," "I only eat organic turnips," and "give peas a chance" come in vibrant shades of red, pink, blue, green, and yellow. Prices range from £5-£28 (roughly $10-$55) and items are available on the company's website. I did some searching and have not yet found an online store in the States that sells the line, so unfortunately, items would still have to be shipped from the UK.
