Crafting for a Cause: Cool Rice Therapy Bags

Back in May, I formed a unique collaboration with Heartland Hospice Care. I'm now a volunteer with their organization who gets to spend all of her volunteer time sewing and crafting! What great luck for a craft-a-holic! It's a wonderful way for me to focus my creative energies and as a bonus, patients and volunteers of Heartland Hospice Care benefit from my creativity.

My goal as a "crafter with a cause" is to work with the volunteer coordinator to discover the needs of the hospice patients and volunteers and design a craft project to both fulfill those needs and quench my creative thirst. Thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew, I was able to create these amazing Cool Rice Therapy Bags. I altered the size of the pattern provided by Sew, Mama, Sew and used a medley of fabric scraps and remnants. I tried to achieve a balance of both masculine and feminine color and pattern schemes.

Each Cool Rice Therapy Bag includes a decorative sleeve, a muslin rice-filled pouch, and a tag of directions. The muslin-filled rice pouch contains approximately 1 cup of rice and is to be stored in the freezer. When you're in need of some cool, soothing relief, just slip over the decorative sleeve and rest the therapy bag on your forehead, neck, over your eyes, etc. The flexible rice bag conforms to the shape of your body, providing targeted relief.

For the patients of Heartland Hospice Care I made 10 Cool Rice Therapy Bags, 2 each of 5 designs. Now I can't wait to try my hand at other shapes, sizes, and fabric choices for some Cool Rice Therapy Bags of my very own!