It Takes A Village…

There is an African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child,” and that is something that the charity Home-Start firmly believe, and aim to replicate in their work with families in times of trouble.

 

You will remember that a few weeks ago I posted about Petersfield Town Mayor’s Charity Auction in aid of Home-Start, where a beautiful quilt, handmade by the ladies of the Sew Social at Sew Creative, was being offered for auction. Well, now September is upon us and the Family Craft Fair where the successful bidder is coming up fast.

The Sew Social ladies have been busy knitting and stitching up a storm, and samples of what will be available for sale have been on display in Petersfield library, alongside the quilt. The display changes every couple of weeks so make sure you pop in to have a look. At the moment there is a very spooky Halloween display, but you will have to be quick as this will be changing on Friday.

Witches, pumpkins, and trick or treat bags – what more could you want for Halloween?

As well as festive offerings for both Halloween and Christmas, there will be a wide variety of other handmade items on sale that would make perfect presents, or just treats for yourself. The kids haven’t been forgotten either in our crafting activities, and we will also be selling clothes, both for the kids themselves, and also for their dolls, along with cosy sleeping bags, pencil cases and more.

We have lots of exciting activities for all ages taking place on Saturday 6th October, as well as many local businesses offering beautiful items for sale. Please come and see us to get a headstart on your Christmas shopping.

On top of all this, on the day itself there will be a competition for someone to take this happy little chap home with them. Come along to find out all the details.

Don’t forget, you can still place your bid to become the owner of the quilt. All the details are as follows:

Made with Love Take 2

The eagle-eyed among you would have spotted a very rare species on my blog last month – a non-book related post! I know, it’s almost unheard off, but it does happen. The post in question related to a silent auction for a beautiful handmade quilt, in aid of Home-Start Butser. Well, exciting news folks! We have found somewhere to display the quilt, so you can have a proper look at before you place your bids. It will be at Sew Creative on Lavant Street in Petersfield, before moving on to Petersfield Library. All the details can be found below, but just a couple of quick notes:-

• Bids will only be accepted from people aged 18 or older.
• The minimum bid we will accept is £100.
• Payment is to be made via BACS to the Town Mayors Charity account.
• Owing to the size of the quilt, it must be collected by the successful bidder (full details will be agreed following the notification of a successful bid). We are not able to post the quilt.
• All personal data collected will be used for the purpose of the auction only, and will be deleted upon completion of the auction. With the possible exception of the winner’s name, with their consent, this will not be shared with any third parties.

I really would encourage you to come and take a look, because photographs just don’t do it justice. It is a work of art, and hours of work went into it (and I can sing it’s praises because I wasn’t involved in the actual making, I was just a curious observer).

Made With Love

  I want to take a break from the book chat today to talk about another subject close to my heart. Some of you will know that when I am not reading, or talking about reading, I can usually be found up to my neck in one craft or another. When ill health meant that I was no longer able to work full-time, I felt a bit lost and alone, and trying out new crafts helped keep me sane. One day I was lucky enough to come across a fabulous fabric shop in a town near where I live, and even more lucky to, quite literally, stumble through the door just in time to bump into one of the lovely ladies from the shop’s weekly “Sew Social” sewing group. After giving me the grand tour of the shop, she encouraged me to come along to the group the following week. When the big day came around, I found myself, quite uncharacteristically for me, headed off to spend the morning with a group of complete strangers for a couple of hours sewing. Cut to almost two years later and those strangers have become some of my closest friends, and have been an absolute lifeline for me.

Anyway, enough about me, that is not really what I want to talk to you about today. What I really want to do is tell you all about a beautiful quilt that these talented ladies have been working on for the past few months. Using the “quilt-as-you-go” technique, they have each produced some lovely squares for the quilt, which have now all been stitched together to produce a 6ft x 7ft quilt (think double bed sized). This quilt is now being auctioned off to raise money for Home-Start Butser, the charity that the recently appointed Town Mayor of Petersfield has chosen to support.

   Home-Start Butser is a fantastic charity which operates a team of equally fantastic volunteers who step in to help local families during times of crisis. You can read all about their good work and other fund-raising activities here.

If you would like the chance to make our quilt your own, you can bid in the silent auction from today until Saturday 21st July. Because of the amount of love and hard work that has gone into making the quilt, we are only able to accept bids in excess of £100, and I would stress that we are not able to arrange delivery of the quilt, so if you do bid, you must be able to collect from the Petersfield, Hampshire area. All the details of how to do this can be found on the Facebook page, which I would love if you could share the link to:-

Petersfield Town Mayor’s Charity Silent Auction

 

The full terms and conditions for taking part in the auction are as follows (these are also available on the Facebook page):-

• Please send your bid to madewithloveauction@outlook.com stating your bid, full name, e-mail address and contact telephone number.
• Bids will be accepted from 21st June 2018 until 21st July 2018.
• The minimum bid we will accept is £100.
• Bids will only be accepted from people aged 18 or older.
• The successful bidder will be notified via e-mail or telephone by 23rd July 2018.
• Payment is to be made via BACS to the Town Mayors Charity account by 1st August (full details will be sent following notification of the successful bid).
• If payment is not received by 1st August, the quilt will be sold to the next highest bidder
• Owing to the size of the quilt, it must be collected by the successful bidder (full details will be agreed following the notification of a successful bid). We are not able to post the quilt.
• All personal data collected will be used for the purpose of the auction only, and will be deleted upon completion of the auction. With the possible exception of the winner’s name, with their consent, this will not be shared with any third parties.

Happy bidding, and good luck everybody. xx