Charities
The Bradford Khaki Handicrafts Club was established in 1918 to provide occupational therapy and employment for men returning from the First World War (1914-1918). Among the handicrafts provided was embroidery.
Fine Cell Work is a registered UK charity that teaches prisoners the crafts of embroidery, quilting, cross stitch embroidery and other fine needlework. The finished products are sold and the money goes to the prisoner. The charity works with about 450, mostly male prisoners per year. The charity was started in 1997 and now works in 29 prisons in England, Scotland and Wales.
The Ladies Ecclesiastical Embroidery Society was founded in 1854 by Agnes Blencowe. The stated aim of the society was to “supply altar cloths of strictly ecclesiastical design either by reproducing ancient examples or by working under the supervision of a competent architect.” The Ladies Ecclesiastical Embroidery Society was also sometimes known as the Society for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical Embroidery.
Marine Comfort Quilts is a grassroots project in the USA that was originally organized to make and present a quilt to the next-of-kin of every US Marine Corps soldier who died in the war in Iraq. The project began in March 2003 following an attack against a US Marine unit in An Nasiriya, Iraq, which left eighteen marines dead.
Operation Homefront Quilts is a quilting group that was founded in May 2003, when Jessica Porter (Florida, USA) decided to design and stitch a quilt for every USA soldier killed in Iraq. By 2010 Jessica Porter, aided by her mother and thousands of volunteer quilters across the USA, had made and distributed some 2,300 quilts.
The Queen Mother's Clothing Guild (QMNG) is a charitable institution closely related to various (female) members of the British royal family. It is responsible for making and distributing thousands of garments to those in need throughout Britain and elsewhere. From the beginning, these garments were either sewn or knitted, but because of its name it was decided to include an entry about it.
The Sybil Carter Indian Lace Association is an early twentieth century USA group that organised schools for teaching various types of lace making to native Americans. The first school was set up by Sybil Carter in about 1889, following an invitation by Bishop Henry Whipple for her to teach lace making to Ojibwe women in the White Earth Reservation (northwestern Minnesota).
The U.S. Sanitary Commission was set up in 1861 by women and religious leaders from the northern states of the USA to provide support for Union (northern) soldiers during the USA Civil War (1861-1865). The Commission was authorized by the USA government to manage military hospitals and is credited with reducing the death rate of wounded soldiers by 50%.