Hello, and Happy Saturday!  This is something a little different, but I really wanted to share it with you as I feel it’s such a wonderful project, and I know that there are lots of caring crafters out there who would love to join in.   This is a Guest Post from Hilary of CraftBlogUK who is ‘a piece’ of the #imapiece Jigsaw Project.  Read on, follow the links and find out how you can become ‘a piece’ too, and share this with your friends…

“I just want to tell you about the #imapiece campaign I’m working on with Save the Children and the Craftivist Collective as part of the Race Against Hunger campaign. We’ve created a really crafty campaign, but with a serious message and we need crafty types to help us.

So if you feel like using your creative talents for a good cause (and getting a warm fuzzy feeling!) this would be a great opportunity!  We have a blog badge which I’d be really pleased if you could add to your blog to show your support of this great campaign and help spread the word (see links at the end of the email)  Let me know if you’ve added the #imapiece badge or blogged about the campaign – I’ll tweet out a link to your blog to say thanks from my @craftbloguk account 🙂

Our campaign focuses on malnutrition which effects economies as well as cutting short millions of childrens lives at an astonishing rate of 300 children dying every hour of every day from preventable hunger related causes – that’s about the same number of children dying *every hour* as are in a typical local primary school. It just seems so ridiculous to say a statistic like that in the 21st century – so any small thing we can all do to change this, I think we should.

We’re asking for creatives and crafters all across the UK to create jigsaw pieces (on their own or with friends / craft groups) which will be brought together in an impressive art installation next spring – the picture shows a few of mine, I’m getting addicted already, feels great to be making something that has real meaning!  Each piece will be embroidered or painted with a positive or provocative message about the issue.  Crafters are encouraged to make 3 pieces –

1. One to keep to remind them to be part of the solution and not the problem.
2. One to send to be a part of the big jigsaw puzzle, so we can make a huge impact when they are all put together.
3. One to send or give to their MP, because the fact is hunger is a political issue with a political solution.  Contacting your mp can seem a little daunting and you might not know what to say – but we have help from the experts at Save the Children so just ask if you’d like a bit of advice, you can simply click reply to this email.

By asking your MPs to urge our Prime Minister to really tackle this issue at the G8 next spring we could potentially be saving millions of lives as well as helping to eradicate the long term need for aid in some areas. Campaigning really works to raise awareness and this is what we need to ensure David Cameron does what’s needed when he hosts the G8 and talks to all the worlds leaders in 2013 – the conference is being held here in the UK in the Lake District, so we can show the world the British public are passionate about seeing changes to global food injustices.

Here are the links you will need to get involved!

Grab The Blog Badge – this will really help to spread the word and show you support the campaign!

Image code
http://imapiece.craftivist-collective.com/etc/imapiece/img/craftivist-button.png
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http://imapiece.craftivist-collective.com/
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<a href=”http://imapiece.craftivist-collective.com/“><img src=”http://imapiece.craftivist-collective.com/etc/imapiece/img/craftivist-button.png” /></a>Save the children race against hunger petition to sign – do this even if you don’t have time to stitch!

#imapiece – the hash tag for getting involved – everything tagged with this on twitter / instagram / linked in etc will be shared in our hub web site.
Events – if you don’t want to stitch alone, join one of these events, or host an event yourself! (I’m having a few friends around for a stitching session)
Craftivist ‘I’m a piece’ HQ – the hub site where we can see who’s talking about the project and find out all the info and links
Craftivist Collective website – in case you want to know what craftivism is
Downloadable jigsaw template (they all need to be the same size (140mm x 200mm) so that the big art installation works)
I’m a piece instruction video – worth a watch as it has tips on using things like bondaweb to stiffen the jigsaw pieces
Ideas for what to stitch on your jigsaw piece – you could also use fabric paint.
A story to reflect on whilst you are stitching – This is a pdf you can cut into 4 in order to pass to any friends stitching with you”

I hope you will want to be ‘a piece’ of the action…x

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