Community project in Stone will raise money for charities

Pictured above is The Artisan Boutique owner Susan Hughes with some of the donated squares

A community project in Stone with the aim of raising money for charity is proving popular.

The Artisan Boutique on Radford Street in Stone, Staffordshire decided to create a project that the whole community could get involved with to help people in lockdown as well as local charities.

They launched the community project earlier this month which sees crafters asked to make and donate squares to create a blanket that will then be raffled off.

Shop owner Susan Hughes said it was the idea was her colleague Jeanette Obradovic.

Susan explained: “We were discussing ways of getting people to interact and how to give people a sense of purpose.

“We would like knitters and crocheters to make four inch by four inch squares in whatever colour and pattern they like. Preferably they should be in double knit yarn or Aran yarn but any will do as long as the square is that size.

“We will sew them all together to make a blanket that will then be raffled off for charity. The more squares we get the more blankets we will make and we will choose different charities for each blanket.

“The response has been amazing, with the notes that are included with the knitted or crocheted squares truly being heartwarming. This project seems to be helping people in so many ways that we could never have imagined when we started it.”

The charity that will benefit from the sale of the first blanket is Stone Comunity Hub.

Susan added: “We chose Stone Hub as a dear friend of mine is a great supporter of theirs as are quite a few of my customers.

"And initially we wanted to give something local to Stone, especially with another lockdown, the hub will continue to help a lot more families in need at this time.

“We currently have 459 squares with more arriving every day, plus three blankets donated.

“The amount of squares we need is limitless as we intend this to be an ongoing project with different charities being chosen each time. Our second charity will be Katharine House Hospice.

“We are hoping to get the first blanket stitched together during February so we will be announcing the raffle on our Facebook and Instagram pages.”

Anyone able to donate a square is asked to post it to the shop, in person or via mail, and include a tag with your square/s, name, location and maybe a message about lockdown.

The address is The Artisan Boutique, 4 Radford Street, Stone, Staffordshire, ST15 8DA.