Brrrrr, it is cold outside!

It is December 31st, the last day of 2007. I wonder what some of the New Years Resolutions will be? I don't make them because I usually make really dumb ones like refraining from sweets for an entire year...like that will happen!

I did make one a few years ago to not buy any new shoes for an entire year. No one thought I could go through with it and if I did I would be in line on January 1 with $600 worth of new shoes, but it actually worked the opposite way. I realized I didn't need or really want all the shoes I had. Then I broke my tibia and fibula in November 2006 and couldn't use most of them any longer.

But back to its cold outside. It is freezing outside and has been all day. The roadways and sidewalks are covered in ice, the last time I checked the temperature outside, it was 28 and felt like 20. It is cold. My knee highs and jeans can't keep my legs warm.

Sooooooooooooooo, what about the homeless teens in this area who have no place to go to? What are they going to do when it is this cold? Many don't even have blankets, so I am in the process of making some quilts for them with a waterproof, windproof lining.

Please, if anyone would like to contribute to Tsunami Shores Quilts, let me know.

Happy New Year!

55 Degree's Inside

Current temperatures at 2307 this evening here in Aberdeen is 38 degree's and falling. We had hail storms off and on today and we are expecting snow tonight and tomorrow. I am sitting in the basement putting the finishing touches on another Christmas quilt & decided to check my dryer. Brrrrrr~it is 55 degree's in there. It has bare concrete walls & no insulation, so it is pretty raw.

I wonder how the people around Aberdeen who are homeless will survive this night and this winter with no place to go? How do they stay warm? Where do they stay? In door ways of store fronts? In cardboard boxes on the icy banks of the Chehalis river? Under a bridge? In an abandoned warehouse?

I know that many people don't care where the homeless go, but I believe these people are humans, they are people that God created and everyone deserves to be warm on a night like this.

I want to reach out to these people as well with quilts and I know with your help, I can do it. But I need a place to work, I need another sewing machine, I need batting (preferably wool blankets or the cheap but warm blankets WalMart sells. I need to have the ability to start a quilt in the morning and be completing it by evening and ready to be handed out the next day.

Won't you help? Besides the many police dispatchers that need you, there are people that are homeless and need a help up and not a hand out.

Here are a few pictures of a quilt I made today for a Christmas gift for my boss. Our holiday party as it is being dubbed is tomorrow. So, I started out today and finished it today.

It is small, 24" x 32", it is a dark green fabric with red birds on it interchanged with off white cotton squares with hand appliqued pictures of snowmen, angels and other Christmas things with a top center that says 'A King Is Born.'

The back is a red and green Christmas plaid and the border is dark green quilt tape sewn with a modified blanket stitch. The center is a dense poly batting that is stiff so it can be used as a throw or a wall quilt.

Well, it is getting colder down here, so I probably need to go stoke up the fire again or it will really be cold in the morning when we are all getting ready for work.

Its About the People

WOW! I was googling my business name to see what would come up and my blog came up under Google. Now at least I know it might be found.

Well, Christmas is over & it is time to start thinking about our Americorps project for MLK day, we are going to do something with the homeless teens in our area.

I am also going to be working on getting my non-profit status for the quilts if I can afford it and still looking around for a business place to run the company.

For today, here are two miniature quilts I made my husband for his office walls. One is because of his avid love of fishing & I wish you could see the details like both our names in the heart, the scales on the fish, etc. I have it hanging on a branch with a fishing bobber on it and one on the fishing pole.

Below is the second quilt. It is a Moose which I made out of Harley & Tony Steward bandanas, since these are hubbies favorite hobbies. It has trees, birds, stars and a colorful border with 2 1/2 ince strips. The embroidery states: "The Biggest Moose in The Forest,' from a good friend that taught him much!

If you are interested in having something like the Moose made for a friend or family member, I can use their favorite sport or team for things like the birds, stars, trees. Let your imagination run wild. After all, there is only 365 days left until Christmas 2008!

Tsunami Shores Quilts

The picture here is one of 'Footprints in the Sand,' but I think it is an appropriate one with my belief in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior.' It is also appropriate to my journey through life walking along the shores of life in contemplation.

I am NOT perfect. There was only one that was perfect and that was Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior who came to earth and died on a cross because of my sins so I wouldn't have to die a permanent death but could enjoy everlasting life!

Depending on who you talk to along my journey, you would get a variety of answers from people who knew and know me. Those that think I am a horrible person for having feelings and allowing those feelings to be hurt. Those that think I am awful for walking away from the pain of abuse. I am sure if you dug through the sand you could find people who just don't like me.

On the other hand, there are those who would call me generous, kind, loving, fair, beautiful. The people who have been with me during tough times and sad times. People I don't know that I have reached out to so they could survive.

I am not a saint, but I am not the devil in disguise either!

So it is I have decided to begin a journey in making quilts for those that have suffered from catastrophic losses & I am calling it: Tsunami Shores Quilts, Quilts That Warm the Soul!

Merry Christmas!

I can't do it!

I have given this much thought lately & it has been months since I posted, but I just can't close this blog, that would be giving up and I am not a quitter!

There are still people in this world that are hurting and that need a quilt to keep warm & while I may only be one person, I am determined that I am going to make quilts for the police dispatchers in this world, because they are the forgotten ones, the voice that calms over the air and the voice that is forgotten when police or fire help arrives. They are the ones day in and day out who do their jobs without a thanks, because their thanks comes from knowing they have helped someone during their day, a stranger that was unknown to them until the call for help came in.

I may struggle, I may find myself at times in financial dire straits, I may not have the job that pays the bills, but I am going to find a way to help these people that need all of us. To reach out to those that need a hug.

Yes, I may only be one person, but that is all it takes to make a difference!

THIS BLOG IS CLOSED...

After many posts and no responses to my posts, I have decided to open another blog on impending retirement, leaving my adult children behind and moving to a new state to start fresh.

Feel free to follow my blog as my life takes turns I didn't expect.

God bless all who read and followed my postings and who contributed to my quilting cause!

Strokes and Affirmations Among the Stitches

I am blessed to have wonderful friends, so when something terrific happens to me and work and it is ignored and I am not acknowledged my friends step in with hugs, laughter and love. You see, over the years while seeking positive reinforcement at work, I have slowly been killed inside with the knowledge that no matter how well I perform or how great a job I have done, I am not among the elite that gets the strokes.

I am not complaining, it is just a fact and a reality check. Take the quilts I made for the dispatchers flooded out in New York state. I recently was the recipient of a letter that was sent to my Chief on my behalf thanking him for all the quilts and prayers & yet only because the woman was kind enough to send me a copy do I realize there is a letter like this in the Chief's office.

I am not going to pretend it doesn't confuse me and hurt me, but I can turn that hurt towards the light of my friends who believe in me and know what a great person I am but most of all, I can take that letter as I have done many others and the pictures of the people with the quilts I have made and I can place it into a binder where I keep the dates, whom received them who is in the pictures and I can pass that onto my family as my legacy of love and my way of giving back to the community and passing it forward.

For it isn't my co-workers when the day is done and I am gone that will remember me or even care a week after I retire, but it is my family, my children and my grandchildren who will show these books and quilts to their children and it will be from this legacy that I will live on and that my quilts will live on and hopefully out of them all there will emerge a new quilter.

That people is what life is about and sometimes the horse has to kick you in the head before you can open your eyes to see around you clearly.

Depression Really Does Hurt!

Have you seen the commercial about depression in which the commercial states depression hurts everyone & goes onto explain it hurts all over? Well, I understand that commercial now!
You see, I have suffered from depression for many years and like so many others, do my best to push it aside and state I can get over it. But this time, it hurts! I don't mean mentally, I mean I am in physical pain and I believe it is because of my depressiona and the fact that my husband and I have been separated from each other for over 4 months now.

This man is my soulmate. His smile lights up my days, his voice calms my fears and help me relax when I am upset, his touch is healing medicine when I am sick, sore or tired. His kindness comes to me in all areas of my life and now, we are thousands of miles apart and I don't know when I can see him again.

I had dreamed and prayed to see him in March, but after paying $1600 to have 8 new windows installed in our new home and just receiving a $4000 estimate on painting the interior of our home, all the money I had in savings is now gone and I can't afford to fly the babies and I up to Washington to visit. And...my depression darkens!

Of course it doesn't help when the kids and I have been so sick with the flu the last 2 weeks that all anyone does is cry, whine or sleep. This has to be the most exhausting, painful flu I have ever experiencied in 50 years of my life. Fevers of over 104, chills, aches, migraines, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing. Horrible!! The babies had it last week and they are still laying around most of the day. I came down with it Saturday.

Oh yeah! For the first time in over 12 years on my job, when I told them I was sick and yes I knew I would have to use vacation time...they requested a doctors note. Oh Lord, grant me the serenity to stay where I am until You tell me we can move!

Graduation comes in just a few months for the oldest of the babies & then hopefully by then most of the court stuff will be behind us.

Not so good news!

I saw the doctor for my foot on Thursday and to say he isn't happy about what my foot looks like, is an understatment. He took one look at my swollen, bruised & painful appendage and stated, 'that shouldn't look like that after two months.' I am in agreement, however, I don't know what it really is supposed to look like, only that I would like to be able to get it into a shoe, a boot, a mule or even a flip flop, but doesn't look good right now!

HOME: Well, our house closed in Washington and I still haven't seen it with the exception of pictures or have yet to step a foot inside. I was hoping by now the doctor would have determined if I was going to remain on short term disability, go to long term disability or what my status would be. Though back to work right now, my foot hurts daily.

The lawsuit with the other grandmother is still dragging on. Ya gotta love attorneys because once they get involved, your 6 month lawsuit automatically turns into a forever thing and the money you set aside to go to the Bahamas that took you ten years to save up for, you watch disappear into thin air as attorneys are so arrogant they feel they need to charge you for every minute of their time.

Your $4000 retainer feed, well lets just say they don't call it a retainer for nothing. You will wind up tossing more money to your attorney and when it is all said and done, none of it will have been worth the money spent unless of course you committed a heinous crime and your attorney got you off.

Life is precious, treat it that way!