Feb 21, 2010

light a candle, say a prayer....



please help me, my family, and my brother doug, by lighting a candle or saying a prayer for his wife, my sister-in-law, becky, of eagle river, alaska.

becky, who is only 58, was just taken by air- flight off of a cruise ship returning from the panama canal to key west, florida where she has been, given 8-10 units of blood for severe internal bleeding, and placed on a ventilator.

doug and becky have 3 adult, married children who are all flying out to florida immediately.

please hold this loving and deeply, caring family in your thoughts, hearts,and prayers.

on top of so many challenges my family is facing, it seems like one more unbearable challenge that must be faced and born.

but it also reminds me of the need to love, to treasure and to appreciate one another even more.

thank you for your prayers....


typing with my broken arm and no capital letters very challenging 

light a candle, say a prayer....
My Candlelight Vigil
Miracles Happen

Update for May 2012: Praying for a Miracle



I am asking for all of your prayers and a miracle kidney donation of O+ with high antibodies titers for my sister-in-law, Rebecca Savikko, of Eagle River, Alaska.

Project Linus Day

 


In honor of Project Linus Day, Feb 21: Make a blanket or quilt for a child and donate it to Project Linus or any community charity of your choice! 


 The Project Linus Mission is to provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets. S far, over three million blankets have been given to children in need since their inception in 1995. 


 I have just added to my huge list of Free Quilt Patterns and especially these links to Free Babies and Childrens Quilt Patterns (and have double checked for broken links!) This list also includes some doll quilts and patterns to be used for American Girl Dolls, just for fun! To find a Project Linus Chapter near you, check out http://www.projectlinus.org/

And thank you to the founders for this:

"

Project Linus: free sewing, knitting and crocheting patterns for babies

link over to their own page as they have their own direct links to all you could want and need in one spot including!!!....

a listing for this, my own dear blog and website:


With Hearts and Hands
Yes, this is a blog site, but do not let that fool you! Quilter Michele Bilyeu has gathered a GIGANTIC listing of links to thousands of patterns that are sure to please any quilter! On her blog you will find great links on her 2,500 Free Quilt Patterns and Huge List of Free Quilt Block Patterns pages. She even has a blog entry in memory of Project Linus Blanket Make a Blanket Day held the third Saturday of February each year. This page is Free Babies, Childrens Quilt Patterns. This is one website you will not want to miss!


Thank you and bless all you do Project Linus!!!

Project Linus Day (Feb. 21) Free Babies and Childrens Quilt Patterns

3D Pinwheels Baby Quilt 40" X 40" quilt (shown above) 1-2-3 Quilt, Toddler * A Day at the Calico Zoo Quilt Amish Bars, Toddler ~ Child Anything Goes Scrappy Quilt Angel Quilt Patterns Applique Patterns Applique Blocks for Elephant block Circus Tent blockJuggling Clown Zebra Baby Blocks, Infant Bear Quilt, Infant to Child Baby Flower Box Quilt Baby (Valori Wells) Dreamy Quilt Baby Quilt Patterns Baby Quilt Pattern: The Ultimate BlankeyBaby, Baby, Preemie, Double 4-Patch Quilt, Baby Magic Quilt Pattern by Jeanne Baby, Preemie, One Patch Quilt Baby, Preemie Quilt, 1 Patch, 2 Borders Baby Boots Baby Coverlet Baby MagicBaby Quilt - an easy fast project. Baby Bunting a 12" block from the 1900's Baby Flower Box Quilt Baby Flower Box.pdf Baby Valori Wells Dreamy Quilt Baby Quilt Patterns Baby Quilt Pattern: The Ultimate Blankey Baby, Preemie, 9-Patch Quilt, 18” Baby, Preemie, Double 4-Patch Quilt, 18” * Baby, Preemie, One Patch Quilt Baby, Preemie Quilt, 1 Patch, 2 Borders Baby Quilt: Tumbling Squares Baby's Little Goslings Baby's Busy Day Quilt Pattern Birth Bear Baby Quilt Pattern Bachelor Buttons (preemie sized)Quilt Basket Quilt Patterns Bazooples Storybook Quilt Beginner Quilt Patterns Bento Box Quilt Instructions Big Bricks, Infant to Teen Block Party, Preemie to Teen Bordered Brick Quilt, Child to Teen * Blossom Time Blue Jeans Quilt Boxy Stars Bricks & Stepping Stones Bubbles Building Quilt Patternsa Bugs on Parade pdf pattern Buggles Diaper Bag FP 101 and Buggles Baby Quilt FP 102 Bullseye Quilt Block Bunny Quilt (My list of 27) Butterfly Quilt Patterns Butterfly Circle Butterfly QuiltButterfly Quilt Pattern Butterfly Quilt Patterns Cat Quilt Pattern Cats Can't Stop Spinnin' Carnival Center Panel Quilt, Child Center Panel Quilt, Infant Checkerboard Center Quilt, Version 1, Child Checkerboard Center Quilt, Version 2, Child Conversation Bricks Quilt, Child Chinese Coins Chunky Churndashes Colorful Butterfly Crumbs Charity Baby & Preemie Patterns Charity Quilt Patterns Charity Quilt Strings Child Quilt Patterns Child Quilt A to Z Blankets 4 Kids Child Quilt Bear, Bunny, Butterfly and Cow Child Quilt, Chicken, Duck, Elephant and Giraffe Child Quilt, Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat Child Quilt, Mallard, Owl and Penguin Child Quilt, Pig, Raccoon and Sheep Child Quilt, Squirrel, Turtle and Zebra Chinese Coins Circus Stars Quilt Pattern Coming and Going Stroller(or car seat) Quilt Pattern Corn and Beans Crayon BoxCrumbs Crazy Quilts Curvy Nine Patch Diagonal Strips Pattern Denim Quilt Dashing Dragons Quilt Pattern Dolphin Dream Quilt Pattern Disappearing Nine Patch (tutorial) Dog Quilt Patterns Doll and Baby Scottie Dog Quilt Free Crib Quilt Pattern: Mile A Minute Checkerboard (Free) Dog Quilt Patterns Free Doll and Baby Scottie Dog Quilt (Free) My List of Easter Quilt Patterns Free Pioneer Nine-Patch Pattern Early 19th Century Medallion Quilt Easy Quilt Patterns Easy As A~B~C Blanket, Infant Easy Blanket for Infant to Teen Elephant Quilt Block to applique Fastest Charity Quilt Top Ever Fish, Frogs & Bugs Four Block Brick Quilt, Child to Teen Four Block Big Bricks, Infant to Teen Hearts, Bows & Ribbons Galaxy of Stars Quilt Grandma's Choice Variation Happy Blocks and Twisted Happy Blocks Happy Scrappy Houses Heart Block Patterns (Paper-Pieced) Heart Strings Quilt Block Pattern Heart Quilt Pattern Hidden Pinwheels Hidden Spools Illinois Roads Quilt, Child Lollipops [PDF] Infant Snuggle Wrap In the Pinks Baby Quilt Pattern I Spy A Four Patch Hearts, Bows & Ribbons *How To Make A Quillow Home on the Range Quilt Pattern Hugs & Kisses Baby Quilt Jig Swatches Puzzle Quilt Pattern Lollipops [PDF] Log Cabin Doll & Crib Quilt Pattern Log Cabin/Traditional Quilts (Irregular) Log Cabin Quilt Lucky Ducky Quilt Pattern Mama Teddy Bear & Baby FP 104 Maverick Stars Memory, Photo Quilts Mermaid Quilt Pattern Mine Shaft Free Quilt Pattern More Than a Nine Patch My Blue Heaven Nine Patch Split Ocean Waves Ohio Stars & Rails Oklahoma Backroads Not Quite Bow Ties Not So Scrappy Quilt, Child Novelty Checkerboard Quilt, Child Not So Much of a Trick Ohio Star Out On A String! Patches & Pinwheels Patches of Scraps, Older Child Patchwork Squares Quilt, Child to Teen Picture Frames Quilt, Infant to Teen Patchwork Novelty Quilt Patterns Patchwork Quilt Patterns Play Box Crib Quilt Puppy & Cats Quilt Playing With Jacks Pieced Basket Doll or Baby Quilt Quilts with Hearts & Hearts on Quilts Quilt Blocks Quilt in a Day Quilt patterns for American's Girl Dolls Sapphire Stars (3 sizes)Quilt Sashed Squares, Older Child Scrappy Bricks Quilt, Child Scrappy Center Quilt, Older Child Scrappy Four-Patch Quilt, Older Child Scrappy Rail Fence, Child ** Scrap Fabric Quilts Scrap Quilts Scrap Quilts Scottish Stars Quilt Scrap Saver Patterns Serger Quilt as You Go Baby Quilt Simple Baby Quilt Simply Strippy Sloppy Stars. Smokey Mountain Stars Stardance Quilt Star Struck Stitched Scraps Six (6) Hour Quilt Snowman Quilt Pattern Snowman Quilt Patterns Snowman Free Pattern Speedy Baby Speedy Baby 2 Speedy Monkey Soft Baby Blocks for Baby Stained Glass Butterflies Star and Heart Quilt Pattern Star Flower Quilt *String Quilting Tutorial and Patterns Strip Quilt, Toddler to Teen Sweet Baby Quilt Pattern * Sweet Strips from All People Quilt *Sunbonnet Sue Patterns Sunbonnet Sue and Sam Quilt Pattern **Sunbonnet Sue: Free Quilt Patterns Sweet Dreams Quilt Sweet Pea Trellis and Angel Wings Quilt T shirt Quilt from All People Quilt Take 5 Quilt Pattern Cutting Instructions pdf from accuquilt That's My Baby The Scenes of Childhood Quilt Pattern Trip Around the World Quilt, Child Triple-Decker Quilt, Infant to Teen Tumbling Squares Baby Quilt warm wishes Wiggles 'n Giggles Quilt & Pillow FP 103
To Add in from APQU: PROJECT PATTERNS

Feb 16, 2010

One Million Pillowcase Challenge


The APQ -1 Million Pillowcase Challenge been issued with a worldwide goal...to make one million pillowcases and donate them to various charities around the world....for any, and all, charitable causes.

Today, back in Salem, Oregon, quilters are meeting at Greenbaum's Quilted Forest and having a pillowcase sew-in for this world-wide cause.

The Challenge was initially showcased in 'Better Homes and Garden Magazine' and documented at the APQ website, but has spread around the Internet so many times, in so many versions, that I'm not sure where it truly first began, or how and when,it might finally end.

I am constantly making and giving pillowcases away through our Salem's Mid-Valley Quilt Guild in Salem, OR. Our guild has given hundreds of them to Mission trips in Africa, the local Foster Care group, and to groups which gather together supplies for mothers and children is crisis.

I can't wait to get up to speed so I can use my own Make a Magic 'Burrito' Pillowcase pattern and support this wonderful challenge just as I have,so often in the past.

Make pillowcases on your own,wherever you live, Donate them to a charity of your choosing and record them at the APQ website! And do check out fellow blogger Debi's Fifty Pillowcases Finished ........WOW!!!!! Is that awesome or what? And her goal is to make 1oo !!!

And as I tell everyone. If you make one, make a hundred more before you forget how!!!

This is a list of suggested charities to get you started if you don;t already have a favorite!

* Operation Support for Deployed Military
* Department of Human Services/foster care programs
* Child Welfare Services
* Nursing homes
* Oncology units
* Women’s shelters
* Youth shelters
* Runaway shelters
* Hospice centers
* YMCA’s
* YWCA’s
* Red Cross
* United Way
* Ronald McDonald House
* Veteran’s clinics/hospitals
* Missions
* Transitional Residences
* Victims of fires
* Victims of hurricanes
* Victims of floods
* Church World Service
* Lutheran Refugee Services
* Catholic Charities
* Pediatric Surgery Centers of local hospitals

Feb 14, 2010

single handed valentines


inspite of many challenges
my fall on alaskan black ice

my broken wrist
and the discovery of my alien encounters
and overuse and stress issues with my right

and my 84 year 0ld mother, whose challenges with alzheimer's
have helped me to use laughter therapy to create
Stitches in Memory and Time

and many wonderful who dat moments
of championing over adversity

both coming and going.......
with my father's sleep apnea and resulting heart attack

i finally finished
these 3 Adult Bibs

the hardest sewing i've ever done...
sewing with only one hand,
using a pencil in my mouth to turn collars,
pin, sew and turn 3 layer bibs inside out...
one hand both holdin winding a bobbin...oh my!

but such a sense of claiming my personal power
going from 'i think i can' to 'i know i can'
of sustaining and persevering on top
of so many other challenges, chores, and problems

that making time for me to create from fabric and thread
seemed more than just necessary,
but somehow essential

not shown:
for my 93 year old father...sweet treats of dark chocolate for increasing heart health (and hopefully keeping him on the sweet and not old grumpy alaskan bear side;)
and an electrical 'brotherhood' union hat from oregon mailed up by family

valentines for my alaskan valentines!

my heart, my hand !
oh yeah...my feet and sinking in some teeth, too ;)

my gift to you:

Free Heart Themed Patterns: Quilt Blocks, Heart Quilts, Heart Pillows and Crafts


Feb 7, 2010

who dat ?


dat me doin fais-do-do in mama's kitchen

50% french, and 50% alaskan pioneer finnish, i am entertaining my 1oo% (cajun) french mama, nellie grace, by making Making Adult Bibs today

mama watched me cut them all out yesterday

i put a shiny purple ribbon around her neck
her 'lagniappe' (lawn yop) ..... little something extra ;)

'now, you're monkeying with me she said!'

she still loves being included and having fun....
and fun, we do have!

and it will be my own competition with being handicapped
or handi-able.....until my broken wrist heals

3 hours to just flip the material flat and cut 3 sets

who knows if i can sew?

don matta!

we're having a 'sew-do-do' in the kitchen today

Laissez les bon temps rouler ....

(let the good times roll)

who dat?
short for.....
Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints"

challenges
broken wrist
laughter therapy
alien encounters
Stitches in Memory and Time
coming and going.......

Feb 4, 2010

coming and going.......


I just came and went from Alaska in 6 days time
to Alaska from Oregon January 5th

then back to Oregon
and then back to Alaska again
now, this week

celebrated my mil's 94th in Oregon
was important to do
and necessary in all ways

however, the night i left Juneau
chaos began

my brother's son up there broke his leg in hockey game
tibia and fibula huge jagged break

same brother who spent 3 weeks helping me
with my broken wrist
and resulting surgery in Juneau
now having to continue with his son

very next morning my dad was clawing at bedroom drapes
to get window open gasping for air
rushed to e.r. in Juneau from our Douglas Island home

he stayed 2 days in hospital
inconclusive test results
but very very sick, dizzy. nauseated, weak

sat night my same brother found him incoherent in bed 3 am
upside down twisted in blankets
gasping for breath
he asked for hospital

rushed him back to hospital
probable 1 to 2 heart attacks had previously happened
silent ons with no pain expressed
not even caught in previous 2 days of tests
in hospital just 2 days before

i got back on first plane out from Oregon
next day Mon am
back to Juneau
they told him i was coming

by time i got here and
went to him he rallied
huge turn around
they admitted he has incredible will to live
at his 93 years

stress and anxiety and caring for my Alzheimer's mom last 5 yrs
plus his acute shingles i came up to help with in 2008
exaggerated the mild sleep apnea he'd had for decades

oxygen deprivation as he slept and napped
combined to create stress on heart
undiagnosed cardiac irregularities and unrecognized heart attack(s)

my 'good 'unbroken and too overused wrist went out on me
two wrist splints now

talk about 'out of my hands' and thy will be done
one simply tries to flow through faith into a place of acceptance
and still stay cheerful and hopeful

my nephew had surgery on his broken tibia and fibula 4 days ago
visited him at home
and welcomed him to the alien encounters
'parts department'

he almost smiled thru huge pain
bless his heart

first cast created horrific pressure sores
my bro had to rush him into er again
total agony

removed cast,treated sores
new fiberglass cast that is looser

my sil's and brothers all rose to challenges
all being amazing tho exhausted
someone at home with mom

we all took multiple turns at hospital with dad
every second 24 hrs a day
and helping with mom's constant care

we are cautiously encouraged about dad
they sent him home wed
taking it all day by day

medicare just ended Juneau coordinator
no sleep apnea c-pap unit here
sleep study showed dad woke
gasped for air 45x that night

we have to order and ship big unit to Juneau
and learn how to set up,clean, and maintain by ourselves
with directions over the phone from Anchorage office

my over used 'good' wrist now injured
so one broken and with badly islocated wrist
one carpal tunnel from constant use of only one hand to use
1 surgery but 2 matching splints
in just 3 weeks

challenging time
me with wrist here
then back to mil in Oregon
then my nephew to er here
then my dad
all in 3 weeks

its unbelievable yet
how life flows and goes sometimes

tomorrow, on Friday, the 2nd graders and
our kuspuks will be filmed
by Anchorage news crew on native culture segment

good times in spite of hard
we are all so grateful dad is still with us and mom is good

we still practice laughter therapy
every single day
even in ICU
not sure others understood ;)
but so important to keep energy and spirits up

still so blessed in all ways
and we never forget that

it is the secret to all challenges
it really is

one more day at a time
we all can do this

links:
challenges
broken wrist
laughter therapy
alien encounters
Stitches in Memory and Time
coming and going.......