Crafty contributions to Operation Cover Up

June 7th, 2013
[by David Armstrong]

Crafty Motuekans are working again this year to knit and sew winter clothing, bedware and toys for orphaned children struggling with daily life in some eastern European countries.

Operation Cover Up has been a long-running project run in Motueka by Faith Wells as part of a New Zealand-wide effort through Mission Without Borders, a Christian charity.

The many thousands of products created by individuals, schools and community groups will be displayed again at the open day on Monday August 5th at St Thomas' Anglican Church. (See our story from last year's event.)

The items are then packed and sent to Nelson, then on to Christchurch to be combined with items from the South Island into a container ship bound for Holland. The North Island does likewise.

They end up in orphanages in Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. Faith says these institutions look after 10,000 children in Moldova, 80,000 in Romania and 100,000 in Ukraine, all of whom were orphaned following civil wars and persecution in their countries and have to survive bleak winters with little warm clothing.

One Motueka group already busy making brightly coloured quilts consists of some members of Crafty Tarts, a craft skills-sharing group. Up to eight of them have been gathering weekly to make, cut and assemble the squares, which will eventually be sewn together to make bed covers.

They are made from a backing of polar fleece, lined with old wool blankets, and topped with creative and colourful decorated quilting using pieces of fabric that some had stashed away for many years, or donated from other people's old stashes.

They will all be joined together and bordered into blanket sizes. So far the sewers are fast running out of polar fleece materials and old wool blankets, so if you have any such materials around that could help, please phone Val on .

Sadly, unless someone can step in to take responsibility for organising the open day exhibition at St Thomas', this may be the last one in Motueka. Faith decided last year to finish her eight-year stint as organiser, but her replacement was unable to take over for other reasons.

Faith says that although the garments and blankets will still be made and gathered, in future they will be shipped directly to the Christchurch collection point rather than assembled for display.

Five of the Crafty Tarts group at a recent sewing session, with their brightly coloured squares.

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