{"id":28581,"date":"2013-11-18T02:58:26","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T07:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/?p=28581"},"modified":"2015-01-07T00:38:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-07T05:38:35","slug":"quick-christmas-toysocc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/18\/quick-christmas-toysocc\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Christmas Toys~OCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"OCC<\/a><\/p>\n

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What a wonderful organization Operation Christmas Child<\/a> is! Shoe boxes filled with age\/gender appropriate gifts are given to children who might otherwise receive no gifts on this most special holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 These are children in war torn areas, in refugee camps, and in areas of disaster like the Philippines.<\/p>\n

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\"OCC<\/a><\/p>\n

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I’ve had a big time these past few weeks making little stuffed toys for the 2-4 year old boxes.\u00c2\u00a0 This age group seems to be somewhat challenging–to find items both safe and small enough to fit into the shoe boxes.\u00c2\u00a0 Last year when the chairwoman from our church asked if I had any ideas, these so called “stuffies” or “softies” came to mind immediately. \u00c2\u00a0 The toys<\/a> made then were packed into boxes that were sent to little ones around the world.<\/p>\n

There are so many sources for the machine embroidery designs.\u00c2\u00a0 I learned the hard way to avoid patterns with intricate shapes that make it frustrating, time consuming and nearly impossible to turn right side out.\u00c2\u00a0 One of my favorite sets is Anita Goodesigns’<\/em> Stuffed Animals.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Each design comes as a stuffed animal, a quilted applique’ and fully stitched version and the collection includes a juvenile alphabet.\u00c2\u00a0 An appliqued onesie would be sweet with a matching stuffed toy.<\/p>\n

Other favorites include\u00c2\u00a0 Embroidery Garden’s<\/em> Softie Toys<\/a>,\u00c2\u00a0 and Hatched in Africa’s Stuffed Toys<\/a> (I stuck with the bears, duck and owl).<\/p>\n

Though time is running out, it’s not too late if you would like to participate. Stitching toys is such a fun and meaningful\u00c2\u00a0 opportunity to use our skills and the scraps spilling out from our overflowing stashes. With an embroidery machine, they are quickly made.\u00c2\u00a0 With a standard sewing machine, the toys could still be made quickly.\u00c2\u00a0 It is just plain fun to combine bits of fabric to complete a soft toy for a needy child.<\/p>\n

Many of our church members shop all year and fill several shoe boxes with these items.\u00c2\u00a0 For our two older grandchildren, 9 yo Laurel and 8 yo Robert, filling shoe boxes for children of their same age was a meaningful experience.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 The realization that for some children, this would be their only gift, was a sobering awareness.\u00c2\u00a0 A lot of thought went into their choices as\u00c2\u00a0 they shopped with their mother.<\/p>\n

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\"OCC<\/a><\/p>\n

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This past weekend Laurel and I were invited to a lovely luncheon to celebrate the collection of boxes from our church.\u00c2\u00a0 For each of the two hostesses I embroidered one of my always ready,\u00c2\u00a0 pre-washed, pressed and starched gingham bordered All About Blanks dishtowels.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0 The embroidery design was\u00c2\u00a0 the 5×7 Christmas border from A Bit of Stitch.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 Arched over the border was the text Operation Christmas Child 2013. \u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 In all the commotion of getting ready, I forgot to take a picture.\u00c2\u00a0 But they were very nice, thanks to the design and the ready-made towels.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m moving on to very pressing deadlines for Thanksgiving and Christmas.\u00c2\u00a0 What are you sewing?\u00c2\u00a0 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Nana Fun<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Headed to the car on a rainy Sunday last week, Laurel complained about the non-stop allergies and asthma that plague her so.\u00c2\u00a0 When she included cats in her list of allergies, Robert pooh-poohed the notion.<\/em><\/p>\n

“You’re not allergic to cats.\u00c2\u00a0 You go down to the goat barn with Nana every time she feeds the cats and you’re just fine,”\u00c2\u00a0 he said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Laurel gave him a stoney look and replied, “I AM allergic to cats.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve been tested.”\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Then she turned to me and wondered why it was that on a rainy day such as this her allergies are always worse.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Robert rolled his eyes and said, “That’s because it’s raining cats<\/strong> and dogs.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  What a wonderful organization Operation Christmas Child is! Shoe boxes filled with age\/gender appropriate gifts are given to children who might otherwise receive no gifts on this most special holiday.\u00c2\u00a0 These are children in war torn areas, in refugee … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":28583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16,74,35,43,18,32],"tags":[81,1056,80,549],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28581"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32856,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28581\/revisions\/32856"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.janicefergusonsews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}