Sew Good
Semaphore Ladies Fellowship Craft Group has been helping to keep people in need warm, lending their sewing skills to the Wrap with Love project that distributes knitted blankets to communities and individuals who need relief from cold weather conditions.
The small group of around ten ladies meets once a month to create blankets by sewing together knitted squares that are made at home, or that are provided by members of the public. Once the brightly coloured patchwork blankets have been completed they are distributed to those in greatest need via Wrap with Love’s aid agency links.
“It’s an exciting project for us as there has been a lot of outside interest,” says Myra Fechner, who leads the craft group.
“I think people enjoy the prospect of being able to give something physical as an alternative to donating money.”
On hearing about the project many community members have gone out of their way to donate materials such as wool, as well as giving their time to make squares. Myra says many are not from the church.
“Through word of mouth we now have several ladies who are not church members attending our group and we feel it serves a two-way purpose in that it is encouraging people to come in from outside the church and join in.”
Myra says it’s sometimes the small things that speak to people and any opportunity to reach out to the community should be valued.
“You just don’t know how far it’s going to go,” she says.
The project has also served as a means of enabling some of the more elderly members of the church to get out and about and avoid isolation and loneliness.
“Our oldest member is in her nineties and says how important it is for her to have somewhere to go, and to be able to help others,” says Myra.
At one stage Myra feared the group, which has been sewing blankets since 2007, may have to close as there was a shortage of completed squares coming in and many of the local church ladies were unable to knit more, due to arthritis. But thanks to a visit from a friend who spread the word on Facebook the knitted squares are now arriving thick and fast and the group has more than enough to continue.
“I feel through prayers and God’s guidance we have been protected and help is coming from all corners,” says Myra.
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