Sew Good & Do Good

If you have been hanging out here with me for a while you already know I wear my heart on my sleeve when it comes to so many causes, and here are a couple of recent ways I am giving back this year.

ASCR donation

Last month Ruby Star Society's latest instalment in the Projects with a Purpose serries arrived in store.   

The new Patchwork Panel was a collaboration with all five of the Ruby Star Society designers contributing artwork including:

• lovely ladies from Rashida Coleman Hale,
• folk-arty apples and strawberries by Kimberley Kight
• florals and teacups from Melody Miller,
• kerchief inspired designs from Alexia Abegg,
• and Sarah Watt's 'gaters and cats.

The RSS team pledged to donate $5 from every panel sold to the Jed Foundation, which is mental health agency in the US which provide support and suicide prevention services to teens and young adults. 

I matched this and donated $5 from each panel to the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.  The ASRC is the largest independent human rights organisation for refugees and people seeking asylum in Australia.  They deliver support services, direct aid such as food, legal aid and primary health care to asylum seekers within Australia.

With all 28 panels selling out within a fortnight I was able to make our donation of $147.70. (I opted to add the additional $7.70 to cover the transaction costs, so that ASRC recieved the full $140)

Here's the proof of donation

Pride Fundraiser

When Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky asked me if I would like to be involved with her Pride Fundraiser, it was a no brainer. In addition to her Ally pattern pictured below, there are several new rainbow-licious patterns due to drop any day now.  Berene will be donating all proceeds from the sale of the Pride Fundraiser patterns to @FriendsofRuby.ca and @HandmadeCollectiveAwards to celebrate north American Pride Month which is coming up in June.

Inspired by her Ally foundation paper piecing pattern, I have a small number of Pride Fundraiser fat 1/8th bundles using Sarah Watt's Sugar fabric collection with Ruby Star Society.

Bundles include 9 shades, inspired by the rainbow and trans flags, and I chose fat 1/8ths to give you scope to make a couple of the different project options, AND keep it affordable.

I will be donating 20% of the proceeds from the sale of each bundle to ACON NSW.  ACON was established in 1985 in response to the HIV epidemic and remains the leading health care and support agency providing services for people of diverse sexualities and genders.

You may need to get in quick as these fabrics are now out of print and stock is pretty limited