Once upon a lovely summer, a sweet baby girl was born who grew up into an incredible woman with a heart of gold. She was known for her sweet temperament, her pervading love, and a family that never stopped growing. Her legacy of generous love and kindness is something that continues today, and we’re also hoping to help each of you who might be interested to continue such. Ready to learn how? There are a few ways to choose from:
1- Seriously, guys, who doesn’t enjoy a great opportunity to join in a stitch along to either learn a new skill, or enjoy a delightful finished product? Whether it is to make a blanket, a T-shawl, or quilt squares…we’re going to be doing them. These are all going to be made block by block similar to a quilt and the pattern for each square (along with the anticipated timeline to finish the blocks of that design or color pattern for the project), will be presented here on the blog. We’ll also be doing up some YouTube videos to show how to make the patterns and teach stitch and binding techniques for the blocks which we will share the link to with the patterns. Each of the patterns will be available freely with a donate button so you can choose how much to pay towards our fundraiser efforts. The blankets and T-shawls that we make will often be given to various people including local cancer patients, since they are so useful during treatments, to honor their journey as well as Nancy’s legacy.
2- Whenever we’re able, we’re going to be sharing crochet patterns for baby dresses. Each of these are designed by Rachel Martin (the crochet hook behind Made by Stitches) and original to the Handcrafter’s Lair (with credit to stitches found elsewhere when applicable and able). There will also be a Donate button that we encourage everyone to use, though it isn’t a requirement and the amount is also entirely up to you. The donations via this are entirely, 100% going directly to help an adorable little boy (and his family) that we’ll introduce at the end of this article as well as the reason for these dresses. The dresses themselves will sometimes be made available to purchase during one of our monthly auctions, and 100% of the profits of the total sales price of these dresses will be donated as well. The ones which aren’t made available are dresses that will be given to adorably deserving babies.
3-Periodically we’ll be hosting special sales events. These are going to be for particular needs that will be donated directly (the only percentages that we’ll send anywhere else will be solely the amounts it costs for the sales fees/taxes themselves). These are something we’ll do as we’re able, depending on availability and interest, so be sure to stay tuned and even better drop a comment and let us know what you might be most interested in!
Now that we’ve talked about the who and the what…..what about the why?
Nancy’s love saw her not only raising 9 kids, but also had her actively serving within her church and community. She would see a need and quietly begin working to fill the need, encouraging those with her to act as well. So we’re carrying that legacy forward and inviting each of you to do the same along with us. Our first series of donations will be to help her grandson (Rachel’s nephew) and his family. Elliot the Mighty was diagnosed with an incredibly rare condition called Lissencephaly Pachygyria Spectrum Disorder and with Cerebral Palsy. It has also sometimes been referred to more casually as “smooth egg brain”, and is a lifelong and most frequently a terminal diagnosis. While there isn’t a cure for these diagnosis, there are therapies and various helps so that Elliot and other kids like him are able to live their best lives possible. These are incredibly expensive (1 intensive therapy period alone runs approximately $2500 for their out-of-pocket expenses alone which happens 2-3 times a year plus all of his on-going care, medicines, machines, and equipment), however, so we’re hoping that we can do a lot to alleviate the financial burden for this family so they are free to continue to give the best care possible for as long as he needs. When the day comes that Elliot no longer needs such, we will then be transferring donations to benefit groups who directly assist the kids and families who are continuing to live with similar conditions. To learn more about this sweet kid, check out the Elliot the Mighty instagram page maintained by his mother.
We are excited to be able to offer all of these opportunities to y’all, and are incredibly grateful for any support you feel is worthy! Things like donating, bidding, or sharing one of our patterns or articles about Nancy’s Hugs goes a very long way to help all of us reach the goal of giving loving support the way Nancy always has!