Help for Sandy Survivors!

Help for Sandy Survivors! 

I am copying this post from Bonnie Hunter's blog Quiltville's Quips & Snips almost verbatim.  I have been so busy lately with the move and now with unpacking and Master's Studies that I have done very little blogging, but if you read this and you have an afternoon free to sew up a quilt, please do so.  If not, and you are in a Walmart, or Meijer, or Target, or where ever you shop and you can pick up a blanket, it will be used and appreciated.

A friend of mine lives in a neighborhood devastated by Sandy.  His neighborhood lost two young boys when a tree smashed the home in which they were sleeping.  There is great need.

 

Bonnie's Post...

This is an urgent post.

I’ve been emailing back and forth with Victoria Findlay Wolfe of bumblebeansinc.com over the past several days trying to line up something that we can do to help those left in the wake of Super- Storm Sandy’s destruction.

So many are still without power, having lost their homes or having experienced severe damage ---

So much is needed!

As quilters, what do we do best?  We Quilt!

Here is what V sent me to pass on to you:

 

Super Storm Sandy and my area of the world.

Having missed the entire storm, by being in Houston for Market, I felt helpless as my family were in NYC without me. I started to organize a quilt drive for our area while I was still in Houston.

 

Once home, I realized how seriously the storm affected my neighborhood, my friends, and fellow New Yorkers, CT, PA and NJ... Homes have been wiped off the face of the earth, people are cold, and wet, and we have rain and snow coming. I need to be able to help NOW.

 

I just had a call from Raul Russi, Head of the Acacia Network, whom I had previously partnered with on myBUMBLEBEANSBASICS.com Quilt Drive for homeless families being taken out of shelters and put into transitional housing.

 

He said, "We have 150-200 quilts here, right now. And since the rest of my families are INSIDE already, can we deliver these quilts in our medical trucks to the people in the Rockaways, NOW?"  I said, "YES! Let's go!" 

Once we have more quilts, we will continue to set up more distribution points around our area including Staten Island, Long Island, NJ, CT.

http://bumblebeansbasics.com/

QUILTS AND BLANKETS are needed ASAP.

Home-made or Store Bought QUILTS AND BLANKETS: ANY SIZE.

Quilts will be accepted, and handed out as quickly as they come in.

Give Selflessly.

Thank you cards will not be sent out due to the urgency of the events of SANDY.

REAL THANKS:

LABEL YOUR QUILTS, Name, address and email.

The person who receives your quilt may want to thank you themselves.

Send Quilts & Blankets to:
Basic Housing, Inc.
Attn: Robert Gonzalez / H.SANDY
540 East 180th Street, Bronx, NY 10457

PLEASE Include INSIDE THE BOX CLEARLY WRITTEN
your name, email & address & Phone

Please ship them with delivery confirmation.

Any questions, Please email:

Lane Falcon: lfalcon@acacianetwork.org

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!

Victoria Findlay Wolfe bumblebeansinc.com

Me Again...

While I have not done Bonnie's Trip Around the World quilt, I have done a few of her quilts and her instructions are well written and easy to follow.  I may just abandon my unpacking for a day this weekend and spend some time sewing... I've been wanting to do that for some time anyway, now I have a "Good" excuse.

Until Next Time,

Paul

We're Moving...

We finally closed on a new house!  I haven't been posting because I haven't been sewing.  I posted about a house where I was going to have a sewing room on the main floor with big windows, but that fixer upper deal fell through. :-(

BUT, we found an even BIGGER house and with a little wheeling and dealing we were able to buy a 2 year old home with more space than the fixer upper we were looking at (and more than twice the space we currently have!) and our monthly payment went up only $110!!

I am SO excited to get moved in... Oh, and while I won't be getting a main floor 11x12 foot sewing room with big windows, I will be getting a 14x16 foot mancave (also known as a sewing room) in the basement!  The basement is unfinished, so initially my mancave will have only two concrete walls, but it'll be mine!  I can leave Betsy and the Queen out all the time.  The Treadle will have a home and the Red Eye can come out of her table and see the light, and my unnamed Featherweight (Yup... I got one!) will be able to be on display and used as well.  And of course Leonidas, who is still naked with parts in boxes will be out where I can see him again.  It'll probably be Christmas break before I can really work on him again, but I'll finish him before 2013...

I have also been VERY busy with school.  For those who may have missed it, I have gone back to school to get my Masters of Divinity, and I'll earn a Masters of Ministry along the way!  This has been a complete exercise of faith for me, and if you'd like to know more, click on the bible on the right side of the page near the top to read my other blog.  (You could follow it too if you'd like to see all of my updates on that front.)

Pictures of the new house and mancave will come soon.  First we are going to clean the carpet, and finish painting a room, and then we'll move in!

Exciting Times!!

Until Next Time,
Paul

Back To School...

Well, it's that time of the year again... Back To School.  This past Sunday at church Pastor asked everyone who is going back to school to stand and come to the front of the church so he could pray over everyone.

3 of my 4 kids were with me and as pastor called up "Middle Shoolers, High Schoolers", they got up and headed to the front as pastor continued, "We have some starting college, and some returning, and we have two Graduate Students who need to come up here too", I started looking around to see who he was speaking of when my friend sitting behind me tapped me on the shoulder and said, "that would be YOU!"

Oh, Yeah... That IS me!  I don't know how I forgot considering I spent 4 hours Saturday night reading from "Introduction to Biblical Interpretation", my textbook for my Biblical Hermeneutics class which starts next week, but I did forget.  I was seriously looking around to see who was going to Graduate School.  I guess it still hasn't really hit me that I am going back to school.

I am still a little short on my funding for the first semester, but I am 100% confident that God will provide.  He has thus far, I have no reason to doubt that He will continue.

If you would like to read more about my schooling adventure, or if God is leading you to contribute you can find instructions for donating online as well as by directly sending funds to MVNU (Mount Vernon Nazarene University) on my other blog Paul's Ramblings.

I know this is my "quilting blog", and there has been very little quilting lately, but that will change soon.  Once I have settled into a new routine in a new environment (hint, hint...) I will be able to get back to sewing on a more regular basis.

And I will definitely be sewing this weekend, as my daughter needs a new Dance Bag.  She signed up for 3 dance classes this year and she needs a bigger bag to carry all of her gear.  We could have bought one, but she actually asked if I would make one for her.  Well, how long do you think it took me to say "YES, I'll make one for you!"?  So Friday night we're off to the LQS to pick out some fabric and then I'll be spending a few hours at the sewing machine!  Woo Hoo!  I can't wait!

Until Next Time,
Paul