Appliques I can't get rid of, why?

I sympathise with you Islands. Although I would love to have them, but I too am having a painful cleanout of my things. I only have 3-4 beaded ones, not used and not likely to be used either, but I cannot seem to part with them. Image your collection of 400 :-(

If you can find a school or teacher who loves sewing, in your yellow pages, maybe try them. Sorry I can't be of help to you.

Katherine - Australia

You could donate them to the senior center if you have one or maybe the Salvation Army or Goodwill. You can get a receipt and write them off on your taxes. If you don't care about the taxes donate them to the schools. Find out if there is a sewing class and they would be more than happy to have them. I donate all my scraps to the public school system. These are scraps that are even too small to quilt with. I have an overlock and I throw the thread chains and scraps from there in too. I feel good about doing this and I know they are being used. My sister teaches 3, 4 & 5 year old and told me that all the classes got part of my donation. The kids were so happy that they made collages for Mom & Dad or whatever. They also used the stuff in their "playhouse" to learn to read. I visited my sister 3 year old class and these kids were having so much fun that it brought it a tear to my eye. I feel real good about doing this and will continue to do it.

Michele

I have d>I sympathise with you Islands. Although I would love to have them, but I too

quality. Is there somewhere I

quality. Is there somewhere I

Thanks for your responses. I volunteer in a thrift shop once a week and I'll ask if the ladies there sew but I don't want to donate to Goodwill because I know they won't know what to do with them, they're quite expensive. I am a teacher and can't bring myself to let the kids use them for art projects (except Mother's Day) for the same reason. I guess I was hoping to find a sewing charity who needs fancy appliques :-) I'll also look into the holiday bazaars because there is a local craftspeople group here who meet and sell their work maybe they can use it. Thanks!

Islands wrote: ...

How about stitching a few "related" ones on a dark shirt and selling that? I once saw a great red T-shirt with about ten of the same golf bag applique (not as nice as yours!) and it looked like a $30-40 deal at a boutique. The general population doesn't know how to sew, but they'll buy anything that's already been assembled.

Worth a try, beats dumping them at a day care center.

HTH

--Karen D.

SEW NEWS magazines have stories of sewing charities in them quite often, check out some of the back issues either at the local library or online.