2014 - 2nd Quarter Project Announcement

April holds so many special things for our family, and we are excited to ask you to be a part of that!

As many of you know, foster care and the support of children in foster care is something close to our hearts. We have served as a foster family, and have adopted through the foster system twice. Last year, we invited you to join us in celebrating this special month by participating in a special project called "Fluff for Foster Care". There was such a great response that we began our first on-going project....still going strong....the FLUFF Project. Together, we have provided hundreds of stuffed toys to children in foster care, and we want to see that GROW!

Last year, in one month's time, we were able to collect 366 stuffed friends for our first delivery. So I present this challenge to you for our 2nd Quarter Project of 2014, and firmly believe we can surpass it....

We want to deliver at least 500 stuffed friends at the end of this quarter's project!

ARE YOU READY???? :) :) :) Ok....here we go....it's time for a Spring FLUFF Drive!

PROJECT DETAILS   

• NEW items only. First, because these children deserve no less. Second, this may be the one and only personal item they have that they feel is all theirs at this time....let's make it a good one!
• Any type of stuffed animal or doll is welcome. Please refrain from anything that could potentially be scary or offensive though. 
• All ages included. Children in the foster care system range in age from Newborn - 18 years old, that's a broad audience to create for, so lots of possibilities. :)
• HAVE FUN!!!! :) 

You can find an abundance of stuffed toy sewing ideas, inspiration and pattern/tutorial links on my Pinterest board here.
 "Plushies, Soft Toys & Pillows".
Sewing stuffed toys is fast becoming one of my favorite creative projects!

Also, would LOVE to have you add pictures of your donations to our FLUFF Project flickr album HERE. You can see many of the friends we have already delivered there too. :)

When you have your items ready to ship, you can send to me here:

Kristy Smith

c/o Echelon Florist

1260 Rocky Hill Road

Knoxville TN 37919

If you are local, you can also drop off your donations here, as well as, purchase stuffed animals and dolls from the Echelon Gift Shop for donation.

***PLEASE NOTE - Our anticipated delivery is planned for July 14th, so please be sure to have your items arrive by July 10th to insure plenty of time. Having a goal for shipping by June 30th will be a great way to guarantee your items will be here in time to be included with this big delivery. (We regularly deliver stuffed toys, so any late arrivals will simply be added to the next delivery.)

I will be sewing and stuffing like crazy all quarter long and look forward to sharing a bunch of new patterns I've enjoyed working with! I hope you will join me!

For future reference, I have a tab at the top of the blog here that is specifically for the FLUFF Project. You can find regular updates and delivery counts there. 

If I can help you in any way, or you have a business that would like to support our efforts, please email me, I'd love to chat with you!

Remember....Every. Stitch. Matters.

Ready....Set.....SEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!