AnneMarie's Donation

How cute, and adorable and soooooooooo perfectly timed is this heart square afghan from our friend AnneMarie. I love the colors, the design, and the workmanship!!! As Mary Poppins would say practically perfect in everywhere. Remember by the time you read this scheduled post this adorable afghan has already been donated and is being used by some little girl who's now happier then she otherwise would have been. A cute blanket all for herself. These heart blocks are a perfect follow up on the contest that was announced yesterday. Please scroll back and read details. Remember you do not need to be a blogger to participate.
And, AnneMarie didn't want to leave out the little boys in her thoughtfulness. This wonderfully crocheted shades of blue ripple is perfect. The dark color is not black folks but dark blue...not sure why, but sometimes dark blues don't show up as dark blues well on the computer.
Her 10 hats will warm a variety of sized heads and her ever popular hand warmers will be so greatly received by those living out in the elements, as well as those in the shelters. Many thanks AnneMarie for your on going support of our cause. It is so very much appreciated. Please keep up the good work.

2012 Donations:
Hats: 87+10=97
Scarves: 27
Slippers: 9
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 5+2=7
Mittens: 68
Squares: 78
Socks: 35
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, gators, yarn, hot packs etc)

**Please use a lint roller and or launder your donations if you let your furry friends camp out on the warm items. Those of us with allergies surely appreciate it**

DETAILS for Contest HERE

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

New Helping Hands from California

What an interesting and cheerful crocheted afghan. You all know how I like to name the afghans I put together from your donated squares, well the minute I laid this one out to photograph I though Spring Garden. I didn't crochet this lovely reminder of Spring Gardens, Elizabeth R from Oakhurst, California did. It's sized nicely for a family afghan and will be a wonderful house warming gift through our project "Welcome Home" Program. Elizabeth....you hoo...if you're out there, would love to have notified you of it's arrival, but after checking through my data base, my emails, various forums/groups etc I'm a member of, Facebook etc I was unable to locate an email ady for you.
Elizbeth has been busy folks. As our newest pair of helping hands look at this wonderful donation. Hats, scarves, and slippers/booties in lots of different sizes and colors. Some are sets. Many thanks Elizabeth, we're thrilled to have you join us, and hope to see you here on Bridge and Beyond often.............do sing out and leave your email ady for me.

2012 Donations:
Hats: 75+12=87
Scarves: 13+10=23
Slippers: 3+6=9
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 3+1=4
Mittens: 18
Squares: 78
Socks: 15
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, gators, yarn, etc)

**Still looking to identify unknown crocheter, please if this donation is from you, make contact. Click HERE to see donation.**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Designing Afghans, Mother Earth and Christmas 2

**Check details of upcoming contest, announcement on Valentines Day, February 14th**

As I started to add Joy's squares from yesterday's post to my holding area of donated squares waiting to make friends and become a warm afghan.....my mind went into over drive. I figured heck, I might as well design, tag, and bag while I had the squares in hand. I've named this one, Mother Earth, blues for the sky, browns for the earth, green trees, and other colors represent flowers. Or at least that's what I see. I also figured since I had just taken out one bag of a previously designed ghan to begin working on I had room in the designed and ready to be made ghan collection area. I see this being edged and joined in either offwhite/tan or gray. Stay tuned.
Bet you guessed this one when you saw the pictures of Joy's squares from yesterday. Once again, ahead of the game here. I must make sure to get several Christmas Ghans designed and in the wings to work on in time for next years Christmas Holiday Season. What a perfect gift for a family moving into their new home during The Holidays. As time goes on, I'll either add additional squares to this, or add enough rows to make the ghan the appropriate size.

Currently working on a ghan I've named Red Brick. It's been in the wings, partially designed, but in need of added squares...added size with some of the recent donations found exactly what I needed for it.

***Remember to avoid the use of white and off white in your donations (a bit here there in squares that aren't solid white or off white is ok)***

2012 Donations:
Hats: 64
Scarves: 8
Slippers: 3
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 3
Mittens: 18
Squares: 78
Socks: 15
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, gators, yarn, etc)


All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Beautiful Blanket from Bunny

Such pretty colors! This blanket is perfect for a sweet little boy or girl to cuddle with. Bunny (Lynda G), crocheted this using lots of different colors. All children love to have a blanket/afghan of their own and besides giving them physical warmth, how perfect to help a child adjust to his or her new surroundings. These family's have been through a difficult time, losing their home, being homeless, living a while in a temporary housing situation..........so when they make the transition into permanent housing...it's a big deal. Our Project "Welcome Home" afghans serve as a congratulations and best of luck to these families. This cute little blanket will indeed give comfort to a child as they make the move. Though the moving is exciting, it's probably also scarey...after all, these families have been here there and everywhere, the children surely feel unsettled. Our afghans help in many ways.

Thank you Bunny, and please keep up the good work. Bunny and I have known each other a good many years now thanks to the internet. We worked together in a group to benefit survivors of Katrina. It's wonderful to have your ongoing support and skillful hands, and friendship.

2012 Donations:
Hats: 49
Scarves: 5
Slippers: 1
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 2+1=3
Mittens: 13
Squares: 19
Socks: 3
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, yarn, etc)

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Big Variety Donated

Thank you Jeannette for this variety pack. She's donated crocheted squares (19), 3 pair of socks, a fleece blanket, and hats. Some of the hats are crocheted and some are fleece.

Remember one of our goals this year is identifying where everyone is from. Please check the lists for your name and see if a state is listed. There are many that are missing. Let's get your state listed with your name and make sure it's on the map.

2012 Donations:

Hats: 41+8=49
Scarves: 5
Slippers: 1
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 1+1=2
Mittens: 13
Squares: 19
Socks: 3
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, yarn, etc)

**Reminder folks to please, please put a note with your donations so I know who you are and am able to contact you via email to let you know your donations have arrived. Please include a note, even if you want to be anonymous on the blog. I need to know for record keeping.**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Got Brown, I'm in Love

I love, Got Brown. I really enjoyed watching this afghan come together. It's traditional, because it's made from granny squares. It's fun, funky, and modern because it's not colors you see together in granny squares often. There's a mix of squares in that some are solid some aren't. It's 64inches by 62...well, before blocked that is. Probably a little larger and more squared up afterwards. It's drying here.

The squares were crocheted by our friend Liz (minnisoda on The Ville), who's been a wonderful supporter here on Bridge and Beyond. Many many thanks Liz. I added 2 full rows of double crochet to each square in black, joined in black using the join as you go method, and added 2 rows of sc for the border. This ghan will be donated through our Project Welcome Home. (you can read details by clicking on the badge in the right sidebar).

I have a challenge for you all today. Please visit and comment on the following 2 blog posts. They happen to be a couple without comments and I'd like to change that. Remember, you do not need to be a blogger to leave a comment. Type your comment, click the drop down box and select name and url and leave url empty if you don't have a blog. Everyone appreciates comments on their creations and spending time on the blog, reading and posting comments helps the blog. Soooooo, please; though I know many of you visit I want to encourage you All to leave comments.
post #1
post #2
post #3

2012 Donations:
Hats: 41
Scarves: 5
Slippers: 1
Shawls: 2
Afghans: 1
Misc Items are not counted individually (such as personal care items, headbands, yarn, etc)

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Designing GemStone Afghan

Gemstone afghan....how's that for a name for this afghan in the works? These fabulous squares were donated by our good friend Liz (minnisoda on The Ville).

Haven't decided on what color to edge and join this one with...so many options..black, dark green, red.........?? Thoughts? As you know we've received so many wonderful squares I'm designing several at a time and will keep you all posted on the progress. All these squares when joined will be donated to The Homeless Families Foundation for our Project, "Welcome Home". If you're new here and haven't yet read about that project, please click on the badge in the right side bar.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 481
Hats 983
Mittens 258
Socks 360
Squares 941
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 419
Sweaters/Poncho's 11
Slippers 134
Afghans 56 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

Please leave a comment as to the state your from if it's not listed with your name.
Please visit often and when you do, leave a comment. You do not need to be a blogger to do so. Use the name and url feature in the drop down box and simply leave the url space empty. We love knowing you were here, and it helps the blog's placement in search engines which is important for our growth.
Please look around the blog, constant updates with regard to our need, sizes and color requirements etc.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Fun and Funky Afghan in the Works

Sorry the picture here is a bit blurry, I must have moved when I snapped the photo. This is an afghan in the works, recently designed from squares donated by our very good friend, AnneMarie in New York. I need just 2 squares to make this design complete and believe I have yarn that will work. Any thoughts for a name beyond Fun and Funky? Or Funky Fall? That's where my brain is taking me at the moment I layed these squares out. I believe I'll be edging and joining this afghan in orange.

I'll keep ya posted on the progress of this fun and funky afghan for Project "Welcome Home".

**Need to make contact with a Ruth P from Michigan, and an unidentified donator who sent a box of 17 hats

2011 Donations:

Scarves 473
Hats 971
Mittens 258
Socks 337
Squares 921
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 419
Sweaters/Poncho's 11
Slippers 129
Afghans 56 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

Please review the tabs at the top of the blog for requirements for size and color for hats, scarves, mittens, slippers, and squares. Patterns are also available.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Smiley Faces make me Smile

Personal care items, socks, slippers, and 2 knitted hats from our good friend Yvonne from the state of North Dakota.
AND a darling no sew fleece blanket. How adorable is this! I flipped the corner so you could see the color on the reverse side. This adorable blanket will surely make some little one smile. Who can resist smiling faces after all. Many thanks Yvonne for your on going support of our people in need here in Ohio. The blanket was donated to Project "Welcome Home", and by the time you all read this scheduled post is already keeping a child warm.

**Received unidentified donation of 17 hats, could you please make contact? Also, could Ruth P from Michigan make contact, I don't have an email from you.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 473
Hats 969+2=971
Mittens 258
Socks 333+4=337
Squares 920
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 419
Sweaters/Poncho's 11
Slippers 128+1=129
Afghans 55+1=56 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

**Remember items that came in before the end of the year are still being counted in the 2011 totals, and remember all posts are scheduled to post in que, PLEASE keep checking in for the final tallies**

***Notice differences, changes, additions to the blog? Please take time and look around. Mitten tab has patterns, and This is Mitten Month!***

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Designing Afghans, Got Brown?

If you've been to this blog before, you know I like to name the afghans that are donated to our family shelters. This afghan show casing some fun brown squares from our good friend, minnisoda over on The Ville (Liz) is thus far named, "Got Brown". It's funky and fun. I'm not yet decided on what color I want to edge, join, and border with. Initially, brown seemed the logically option. Using blue would bring out the blue, but also make it more youthful; I think which is not what I have in mind. It's modern looking, funky looking to me, so I was thinking black? Though black is very traditional with grannie squares, I think here it might be non-traditional looking? And masculine?

It should be sized nicely enough to be a good family afghan also. Then again.........what would red look like with it? Thoughts? Please feel free to add your thoughts.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 473
Hats 969
Mittens 258
Socks 333
Squares 920
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 419
Sweaters/Poncho's 11
Slippers 128
Afghans 55 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

**Remember items that came in before the end of the year are still being counted in the 2011 totals, and remember all posts are scheduled to post in que**

***Notice differences, changes, additions to the blog? Please take time and look around.***

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Crocheting and Donating, almost everything but the Kitchen Sink!

Cheryl S from Michigan has been super busy! Look at this fabulous donation and look how many people she's keeping warm with her wonderful crocheted donations!! You might remember her previous donation where I discussed her double slippers. What a fabulous idea. She makes 2 slippers and stitches them together. This does several things, it makes them truly warm, makes them more sturdy and it makes them reversible!!! What a plus. I liked her idea so much I've listed it several times as a tip. Thank you Cheryl for your idea and your donation of 11 pairs of slippers.

Cheryl is very creative, see the green bag in right corner of the last picture? Somehow (we need you to tell us how), she crocheted a zip lock bag. Clicking all pictures folks makes them larger. It's a handy bag one might use for personal care items. Looks actractive, but has a zip lock bag inside so would work well for like a toothbrush/toothpaste etc.

She's included a pretty doily (nice for a table top), 5 cotton washcloths, 1 cowl, 7 hats in her donation.

Check out the doll and her wardrobe! She's tucked all cute into her own snuggle sack and has several changes of clothes. Remembering these posts are placed in que, so this has already been donated by the time you read this post. The folks at The Homeless Families Foundation were thrilled to get this and it will be a Christmas Present to one of little girls.

Project, "Welcome Home" sure got a helping hand with these 4 fabulous afghans. They too have already been delivered. Wonderful timing Cheryl. They had a good number of families moving out of the temporary housing into their permanent housing right before Christmas. I was thrilled we had so many ghans done to delivery to them for these house warming gifts. How special too that they were able to get in settled for Christmas. We wish these families well with our thoughtful handmade afghans.

I think my favorite is the pretty green and white plaid looking ghan, though they're all great.

AND...check out her cute red sweater for a little boy. Hoping she can remember what pattern she used for it, as it looks like a good one. AND...mittens, which always make me clap. We're fast approaching our Mitten focus folks....January will be mitten focus.

You've got just a few more days to mail your squares then onto mittens we go.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 467
Hats 941+7=948
Mittens 253+5=258
Socks 333
Squares 849
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 340+5=345
Sweaters/Poncho's 10+1=11
Slippers 115+11=126
Afghans 51+4=55 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

**Please notice new tabs with information regarding our working calendar for the up coming year of 2012, scarves and more*

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Donations from Minnesota, The North Star State

Wonderful, wonderful. Look at this fabulous donation from our good friend, Liz (minnisoda on The Ville). A beautiful stripped ripple afghan. These colors are awesome together. The size is good for a teen or adult. 5 wonderful warm hats, 2 awesome scarves (super soft), and a nice cotton wash cloth. Many many thanks Liz E...your on going support is greatly appreciated.
And....wait, I'm not done folks. Look at 3 fabulous afghans. A wonderful and colorful afghan suitable for a family ghan, a nice blue and white some little guy is going to like, and one for a toddler...who's color doesn't show up here well in the picture. Sorry to say, cause it's not white, it's a nice green and blue. These afghans will be wonderful house warming gifts for our families at The Homeless Families Foundation for Project Welcome Home. (if you've not read the details of that folks, please do...click the house badge in the side bar).

2011 Donations:

Scarves 459+2=461
Hats 934+5=939
Mittens 253
Socks 333
Squares 825
Rain Ponchos 216
Cotton Washcloths 339+1=340
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 115
Afghans 46 +4=50 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

**Please spend time looking around the blog....changes are constant, new information all the time**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Crocheted goodies being donated

Thank you Mary H from Ohio for this thoughtful and abundant donation of crocheted goodies. There are 11 brightly colored scarves, sized nice the kids, a pink shawl that I believe one of the ladies/Mom's at one of the 2 family shelters will enjoy wrapping up in, and a Candy Corn Colored crib sized ghan to brighten and warm one of the young children for our project, "Welcome Home" for The Homeless Families Foundation. Nice work Mary, keep up the good work.



2011 Donations:

Scarves 396+11=407
Hats 903
Mittens 247
Socks 318
Squares 551
Rain Ponchos 208
Cotton Washcloths 338
Sweaters/Poncho's 10
Slippers 100
Afghans 43+1=44 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands, shawl, hot packs, or yarn etc.

This is day 30 in our Jack Otis Memorial Month, tomorrow starts our focus for squares. Please read the details before your knit/crochet/loom and mail. Thank you.

This post is #565...can you believe how fast we zipped by our last mentioned milestone of 400 posts? WOW. Each posts represents the hard and wonderful work you all do, as each post highlights a day of donations from someone...impressive isn't it! Give yourself all a pat on the bag for stellar work.

*****Please avoid open and lacy stitches, if you can see your hand through the item, and or poke your finger through...it's too lacy and not warm enough. *****

Reminder that posting comments helps the blog. How you might ask? Increased comments helps our search engine placement. When we place well in the search engines more folks can find us to help us which in turns means we can help more people. So, please please please. I know many of you visit, and read. Be brave, leave a comment, let us know you were here. Encourage each other and admire each other's work. Be friendly and get to know the other wonderful folks who help. It truly does help the blog which in turns help those we're reaching out too. You do not need to be a blogger to leave comments. Simply type your comment and click the drop down box that says name and url and leave url empty if you don't have a blog. Please use the name and url instead of anonymous. Anonymous doesn't tell us who was here and often ends up in the spam folder which in turn does not help the search engine optimization.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

A Square Here, a Square There makes for a warm Afghan

Day 13, Jack Otis Memorial Month

Yippee, another afghan for our folks at The Homeless Families Foundation for project, "Welcome Home. This afghan is made from mostly crocheted squares. The squares come from about 3 different people. The bright purple squares are knitted. I edged each square with 2 rows of single crochet, used a version of join as you go with darning needle and yarn vs crocheting them together. I like that using a darning needle and stitching them together as they lay flat makes the join flatter then when they're crocheted together; but I'm not sure I'd use this method again. A lot more ends to work in at the end.
Here's a close up of the border. I've used this border alot in making afghans, it's one of my favorites, it's not open, or lacy, but adds some interest to the edge. Once all the squares were put together, I did 2 rows of sc around the outside of the afghan, then the decorative shells type row.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 376
Hats 809
Mittens 200
Socks 185
Squares 543
Rain Ponchos 84
Cotton Washcloths 324
Sweaters/Poncho's 9
Slippers 91
Afghans 42+1=43 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Fabulous Family Friendly Donations

This darling brown crocheted shells afghan is practically perfect in every way for some little guy needing a hug, needing a "special" blankie. Thank you Annemarie in New York for this donation. It's already been hand delivered for our Project "Welcome Home". Remember, these posts are scheduled, written and placed in que, so by the time you read this no doubt this has already brought a smile and needed huge to a young boy.
Another fabulous donation for our families again through Project "Welcome Home". Please click to see details in these special hand crochet afghans from Annemarie. This is perfect for families to snuggle under as they make their transition from the family shelter into more permanent housing. A wonderful house warming gift for sure!
Can you see how busy our friend Annemarie's been! 2 scarves, 3 hats, 2 pairs of mittens, and an adorable sweater. All beautifully made, all made with love and thoughtfulness. Annemarie.....love love love the sweater. What pattern did you use? Can you share it? My quess is this would be sized right for a 8 yr old? Maybe older? Just eye balling it, as they say. Would love to know what size you made so I can tag it that way.

Many thanks for your skillful hands. Keep up the good work!!

2011 Donations:

Scarves 359+2=361
Hats 738+3=741
Mittens 143+2=145
Socks 153
Squares 516
Rain Ponchos 84
Cotton Washcloths 324
Sweaters/Poncho's 7+1=8
Slippers 90
Afghans 40+2=42 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.

**Do you think it's possible for us to reach 500 scarves this calendar year? That popped into my head as I was updating our numbers. How fabulous that would be. Scarves for men, women, and children (not the wee ones...school age and up).**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Donated Squares = Rainbow Bright Afghan = Happy Little Girl

You may remember seeing these donated squares (thank you Cheryl S) and afghan start HERE. Here is another afghan that by the time you read this scheduled post has already been donated to our Welcome Home Project for The Homeless Families Foundation. Bright and cheery, I think Rainbow Bright (you know how I like to name all the ghans), should bring a smile to a little girls face.

While December is the month to donate squares, if you're mailing other items and want to include them with your hats, scarves etc. to save postage, please feel free to do so.

We have a few more days in October for our Mitten Focus, and November will be The Jack Otis Memorial Month, with a focus on Men. Please keep checking in.

How you can help-- even when your knitting and or crochet time is tight
Visit the blog, read, spend time, and post comments. Remember you do not need to be a blogger to leave comments. Simply type your comment, click the drop down box under the comment area that says name and url, leave the space for url empty. Please use this option and not anonymous. Anonymous comments often end up in the spam folder. Visiting, reading, spending time, and commenting help the blogs placement. Helping the blogs placement in search engines helps us be easier to find, being easier to find gets us more helping hands. More helping hands=more people in need we can help. Please share our blog link with your friends, family, and co-workers...even if they aren't bloggers or knitters or crocheters.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 355
Hats 735
Mitts 142
Socks 135
Squares 515
Rain Ponchos 84
Cotton Washcloths 324
Sweaters/Poncho's 7
Slippers 90
Afghans 39+1=40 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn etc.

Please read how you can help if you've not read it recently, also check out FAQ, thank you!

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

5 Cotton washcloths (crocheted), 22 pairs of slippers (crocheted), all different sizes and several sexy styles! Cheryl S doubled her slippers. She made what would be 2 pairs, put them together (one inside the other), did several rows of crochet around the ankle part which made them nice and thick and warm. Others she lined with felt by sewing in a lining...very cool ideas here Cheryl. Love how they turned out. Please to enlarge so you can see the various styles, the cut little brown teddy bear ones, and see how she made the double slippers a different color inside so they can be reversible.
This is a nice thick ghan that some child/teen will love. It's suitable for a girl or a boy and has been donated to The Homeless Families Foundation for our Welcome Home Program. This is also crocheted.
Who doesn't love the traditional Log Cabin Quilt Design! Awesome. This ghan was also donated for our Welcome Home program and will be wonderful for any family as a true Welcome Home Gift.

In addition to this lovely items, Cheryl also donated 2 pair of mittens, 14 hats, 4 ponchos, and personal care items. On the day these photographs were taken, something went berserk with my camera and or when they were loaded to the computer, as the picture for those items is gone. This happened also to 2nd picture taken of Carol S's donation. I really am bugged and have no clue what went wrong. I've only had that happen a couple of times over the last couple of years. Weird and irritating. I also note the items and the amount donated so use that when calculating our numbers. Additionally, she included 4 bandana's and 1 black long john shirt.

Many thanks Cheryl for your thoughtful donation, keep up the good working. Work is continuing on Snow Cone, the ghan being made from some of the squares Cheryl donated. Scroll back a few days to see it.

2011 Donations:

Scarves 343
Hats 717+14=731
Mitts 140+2=142
Socks 124
Squares 515
Rain Ponchos 80+4=84
Cotton Washcloths 318+6=324
Sweaters/Poncho's 7
Slippers 86
Afghans 34+2=36 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)
Misc Items I've not counted misc items like all the personal care items, the neck warmers, head bands or yarn.

TIP: Think warm, sturdy and durable for your donations please. Please avoid special care fibers.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Project WELCOME HOME

Operation WELCOME HOME with above picture/badge will be an on going program. It will utilize the squares you all have sent and will send (Give a Square). Afghans will continue to be assembled and donated; just as we have done through our Give a Square Program. Previously we donated to Faith Mission for those living in temporary housing. We will now be switching gears to donate these afghans to Homeless Families Foundation. These afghans will be given as a house warming gift to the families as they move from The Homeless Families Foundation Shelter (temporary housing for 3 months) into "their" home/apt. These afghans will be a true welcome home, and welcome to your new life.

Families receive assistance with education, food, lodging and guidance through out their stay in temporary housing to help with the transition to permanent housing-employment etc.

The next 3 families slated to move from their temporary to permanent housing are:

1. Mom, Dad, and 2 little boys
2. Mom and a teenage daughter
3. Dad and 2 kids (age 2 and 4)

With what we already had ready to go, we've supplied 2 adult ghans, and one ghan suitable for the teenage daughter in family 2. We will continue to try and be informed about a couple of families at a time. Current thinking is once we get rollin and have some extra on hand for them, they will have the ability to select appropriate ghans to go in their house warming package. Until we reach the extra stage, I'll be working towards specific families based on what we have here to assemble.

The volume of squares is still quite good. Therefore I do still need to restrict them to specific months. Our next month for collection here will be December 2011. If however, I start running low on your squares as I get more ghans assembled, I may alter that.

PLEASE read the guidelines for squares in Give a Square before sending your donations. If you have squares that don't meet those guidelines, and or are mailing a box of other goodies here and want to include squares.......please send me a quick email so we can make appropriate arrangements.

**September is Scarf Month, and we're having another contest.
From now until October 8, I'll toss names into a hat for everyone who donates a scarf for a teen or adult...male or female. Feeling like we need to bump those numbers a bit and will draw the winning name from the hat and send out another box of yarn. Contests are fun. We've had several fun, productive, and successful contests. Every scarf donated for a teen or adult (at least 5 inches wide and 5 feet or longer please), will qualify. **

2011 Donations:

Scarves 285
Hats 583
Mitts 133
Socks 115
Squares 454
Rain Ponchos 80
Cotton Washcloths 305
Sweaters/Poncho's 6
Slippers 86
Afghans 33 (2 sent to our friends at Pine Street)

Received unidentified donation from Seattle, Washington. If you know who that is, please make contact. Thanks!

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

Step 3 Designing Calico

Step 3, a ghan someone suggested we call Calico. A most unusual mix of colors, orange, yellow,purple, blue, tan, beige, tweedy, multiple shade of brown, several shades of blue, tourqoise, and a sorta mauvie? These are 25 of the 8 inch squares from the 2 previous posts. None of these are the traditional crochet in the round granny squares. There are however both knitted and crocheted squares here. The 13 crocheted squares are sampler style.

The beige tweedy squares, the purple squares, and the blue earth square 2nd from the left on the 2nd to last row (top to bottom) are knitted and the others are the crocheted squares.

I have black out to edge and join, but haven't totally given up on the idea of using a blue. Will stare a bit longer and make a decision. This will be another of squares for afghans for Faith Mission.

**Have you read and enter your name on post for the contest?**

2011
Scarves 174
Hats 277
Mittens (gloves) 66
Socks 74
Slippers 37
Ghans 29 (2 went to Pine Street Earlier)
Squares 214
Sweaters 5
Ponchos 43

**Need email ady for a Diana H, from PA if anyone knows her, please sing out. Got a donation, but don't know email, or on line ID, avatar etc. Am not finding clues in my groups etc.**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!

New Helping Hands, Afghans for Faith Mission

Doesn't this afghan look like a big Easter Egg! Lovely Spring Colors. This log cabin style afghan was crocheted by Joanie B in Ohio. Joanie is our newest pair of helping hands. Welcome Joanie, we're thrilled to have you join us and hope to see you around The Bridge often. Joanie is a friend of our friend Cindy whom I know you'll remember when I say Cindy and Rebeccah...the mother daughter team! Thank You Joanie for joining us, and Thank You Cindy for spreading the word and recruiting another pair of helping hands.
Another awesome afghan from our newest friend Joanie. Again many thanks! These ghans will be well received by those in need at Faith Mission.

**3 More Days for April Showers** Details in the sidebar.

***Yesterday the announcement regarding our month long celebration of our milestone of 400 posts was posted. Along with the details of the blog comment contest you don't want to miss! PLEASE scroll back to read all about it.***

2011
Scarves 171
Hats 274
Mittens (gloves) 66
Socks 68
Slippers 37
Ghans 27+2=29 (2 went to Pine Street Earlier)
Squares 214
Sweaters 5
Ponchos 16

**If anyone is trying to post a comment and been unable to, please email me at sandycrochet@gmail.com. Over the last 2 days 2 people have indicated they had trouble. One of those has since been able to, so assume it was a weird thing. The 2nd one, well; not sure. Just don't someone not to be able to join in on the fun for the upcoming comment contest. Have had various people checking/testing this with a variety of computers, computer systems, and browsers and they report all is fine.**

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated, and all donations keep someone warm. We help, one stitch at a time. YOU truly DO make a difference. THANK YOU!