SRQG Quilts delivered to Wounded Warriors
From: Therese Thomas
To: Theresetax@sbcglobal.net
Date: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 2:51 PM
A run was made to the WWB today to deliver boxes and boxes of goodies – and this trip coincided with the 235th anniversary of the USMC birthday!! Happy Birthday to all you Marines and extended family of Marines, domestic and far flung. Semper Fi!
FRO Miss Melinda
So today I was replenishing the Family Readiness Officer (Melinda Willett) larder, which is being stocked in anticipation of upcoming Christmas festivities. There was one final box of books and coloring items from the previous shipment of the Santa Rosa Quilt guild, then there were two HUGE boxes from Barbara M from Taft, CA.
Raggedy Ann & Andy, transformers, coloring items, hot wheels, and zipper pencil cases – a treasure trove of items for both boys and girls.
Hot wheels, play-Doh, boy toy dozers, water bottles, a cheer doll and wonder of wonders, Christmas wrapping paper. I can remember when times were **extremely lean** for me and I only had newspaper in which to wrap presents. It became a loving family joke and that is what my brother and I use between us now, but it was so humiliating for me at the time. Her inclusion of this paper showed a great kindness and thoughtfulness. Good job, Barbara.
Then Terri from Ohio had sent two boxes of her lunchtime finds:
Books, stickers, dinosaurs, zip bags with card games inside, plastic bracelets and puzzles. Great for boys and girls….
The best is last: a huge box of quilts arrived from who else: Santa Rosa Quilt Guild!!
This first was a great large size in manly colors and (of course) one of my favs: 9-patch. Love how bands on the perimeter can bring any quilt to another size.
They have a new design to their patches!!
I thought this single bed quilt would be **perfect** for a female Marine. Tastefully done, including incorporating stars into the perimeter machine quilting.
Another grandly large quilt in great crazy colors. Nice blending of colors along the band perimeter.
Quilt #4 was a great pieced quilt of very similar hues. I just do NOT have the ability to guess right and my quilt efforts on this line always have one or two blocks that pop out because they aren’t the right intensity. This on was a great job in joining so many wonderful colors of fabrics. No eye poppers here!
Quilt #5 was my favorite of this batch: white on white background and what a way to use up such vibrant colors. You know which ones they are: those fat quarters that called to you in the store but when you got them home you scratched your head and wondered about your sanity. How could such intense colors be unified into something that would not blind you – here’s your solution!!
Quilt #6 was another wonderful riotous color assembly. Those generous ladies at the SRQG must have a lot of fun assembling these tops – and I even recognize some of those blocks in my own cupboard – ideas to share….
Today there was also a cake and celebration at the Battalion for the 235th birthday of the USMC.
They had seats for the residents (patients) and all the other Marines stood for the brief ceremony. It truly was a celebration of family in all forms: military, marriage, friendship, psychological support, religion….Attendees were reminded to continue to be safe but to treasure family during this and following holiday times.
As to residents: last count was somewhere nearing 130….a dozen arrived this week alone!!
Construction continues on the new facilities (Ronald McDonald type house, plus physical therapy and mental therapy space and an administration building):
Since the last email when some of you found my photos had grown back up to gargantuan size, I went back to the camera store, having spent way too many hours searching for a solution on picture size. There were four clerks, store manager and myself huddled around the camera and manual when we had our Eureka moment. I’m hoping that this size of photo is much more convenient for all, and if they need to get smaller still, let me know, but at least I’ve tried and am partially on the right track….
Happy holidays. I’ll be sending more photos soon.
Therese Thomas