let's do some Good

Have you ever heard of Beads of Courage? I recently found them and absolutely LOVE what they do. Bead artisans from all over the world are making and donating magnificent beads to hospitals that treat children. Whenever the children have to go through any of their treatments, they are gifted one of these incredible beads. As they progress through whatever treatment is necessary for their illness, they gather these beads to incorporate in a string of small beads signifying their milestones. It keeps helps keep them motivated, inspired, and encouraged.

How does this program effect us as quilters? These wonderful kids need bags for their beads!! These bags take no time at all to make and will be making a difference in the life of a sweet child. I would like to get as many people together as possible to make these with me for this organization. You can make 1 or 5 or 10; anything makes a difference. Feel free to reach out to your guilds, bees, and/or groups of quilting friends. 

We are modern quilters, and I have seen some beautiful work done by all of you. Let's get creative with our bags. I hope to try to incorporate pattern, fussy cutting, adorable fabric, and color (all of the things we love most) to gift these kids with bags that keep them inspired and strong. 

Being a part of do. Good Stitches has really helped me to see the potential we as quilters have to use our talent to help other people, particularly kids. I think this is a really wonderful cause, and I hope some of you are interested!

Below is the tutorial link for the bag and some details. I am thinking about opening a flickr group, just so that people can easily find me and/or the information. If you are interested in making even one, please comment so that I can know if we even need a group for organizational purposes. If there is just a small interest, I can just be in direct contact with those who want to participate.

Feel free to take this in to your own communities to help hospitals near you. I am hoping to distribute the bags I receive to the organization itself rather than to a specific hospital, so that they can then send them to any hospital that might be lacking. 

Now lets make some bags!!!

Here you can find the original instructions from the Beads of Courage program itself. On Craftsy, Amanda Pazak has graciously created a PDF pattern for these bags that is free! Here is her bag:

Details:

You can make large bags or small bags, the large being 12"x9" and the small being 10"x7". 

Each bag can be made with just 2 fat quarters and a piece of ribbon.

The bags need to have the Beads of Courage label stitched on them, so you are welcome to request them from the website, here, or I will hand stitch them on before sending them off. 

I really hope you all get as excited about this as I am. I think this is a wonderful cause, and it takes almost no time at all to contribute. Keeping these kids inspired, encouraged, and strong is an amazing undertaking for the doctors and nurses who care for them. Let's help keep up the smiles with some adorable handmade bags for their handmade beads!