Police officer and felt heart maker Annie Ryan (left) and her Kiwi compatriot Trina at the Sydney cafe where the hearts have been a hit. Photo / Supplied
Police officer and felt heart maker Annie Ryan (left) and her Kiwi compatriot Trina at the Sydney cafe where the hearts have been a hit. Photo / Supplied
Sydney-based Detective Inspector Annie Ryan has been stitching felt hearts to send as gifts to friends and acquaintances on both sides of the Tasman, including to Ozanam House in Palmerston North.
Ryan is New Zealand Police's Sydney liaison officer.
Her stitching started with an Australian project called 1000 Hearts, launchedby a Tasmanian woman to share a bit of kindness, long before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ryan became involved through a colleague at the High Commission in Canberra, who started making them after being given one by her sister while undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
Since July, Ryan has made about 900 hearts, which she has been sending to police friends and colleagues in Australia and up and down New Zealand, and many others.
"These hearts are a silver lining – for me they came out of the cloud of my colleague's illness, they're keeping me busy and bringing smiles to others."
Ryan has a family connection to Ozanam House, which provides accommodation for cancer patients and their families. One wing of the Ruahine St house is named after her father, Andrew Ryan, who was involved with the house for many years serving as chairman and trustee.
Annie sent 50 to the 1000 Hearts project to distribute, and one to Trina, a Kiwi worker at her local cafe. "She was so pleased – she said to me 'when I'm studying I squeeze it and it helps me concentrate'," she says.
"I gave her quite a few to give to customers – she says she's had people in tears because of the thought behind it."
Hearts are also making their way to the Big Apple - the wife and 7-year-old daughter of the New York Police Department's liaison officer in Sydney started making them after Ryan sent them some.
Her craft skills are well-known among friends and colleagues – before hearts it was baby bootees.
"In the first couple of weeks of lockdown I knitted 14 pairs of baby bootees but there are only so many pairs of baby bootees you can give away – so hearts came at a timely moment."
Annie Ryan is experimenting with hearts in Kiwi-themed fabric. Photo / Supplied
She says she can make about 100 hearts in a weekend, using felt because it's not damaged by stitching as other fabrics can be. But she's experimenting with Kiwi-themed fabric – buzzy bees and Māori motifs – provided by a friend in the Victoria police.
"It's my lockdown sanity project," she says. "The jury is out on whether it has worked."
Directions on making hearts and other info can be found on the 1000 Hearts website.
• A version of this story first appeared in Ten One Magazine.
