Heads at Ease pillowcase project - our motto is: ALL OR NONE

Welcome to Sheldon's Mom!   So happy to have you join us to help bring a touch of home and some comfort to our troops!

I added in some pcs sent to an AF unit from OH.  

Donations

I know that times and finances are tough right now but please do not let this project put you in debt. I am working on a package of helpful tips that have worked over the years to get donations. Sue and I both have information on the how to do donations and on the Group. If you need this information please email me and I will get it back to you.

1. Start by asking family and friends to contribute, they are the best resources you can have.

2. Fabric- I have found over the years to buy at Wal -Mart, most have a good selection and they are cheaper than Joann's or other places. You can also look on line. On place I found was Fabric.com, they have a lot of different fabric and are always haveing sales. Another place is rummage/garage/estate sales, I have found some great stuff there too.

If you need help with getting donations please ask Sue or myself and we will teach you some tricks.

Yes, Maryellen times are tough right now for a lot of people. I buy most of my fabric at thrift stores. Around a $1 a yard. I only buy from fabric stores when it is a great price. Like $2 per yard in the clearance section. Which gets me to my point... I have 22 "kits" cut and ready to sew. Would anyone like to sew them for me? PM me your mailing address and I will be happy to ship the kits to you. If you live in the Denver area we can meet somewhere to save the shipping cost. Thanks, Patricia

Pat, I understand what your saying, I think if we all share our ideas then we can help each other.  Terry thats great get together with Pat. This is a great bunch of women here and we all work together to help each other.

Terry, I can email your address to phoebe.  

I have a great letter that a friend of mine wrote in March 2009.  It's been very effective in getting donations.

Sue, How was the Civil War Today?

The Civil War was absolutely awesome!  Now to explain that!  My elementary

school does a Civil War reenactment with the 5th grade.  This is my 1st year to work with them and I loved it!   I became a "milliner" or hat maker.  I'm pretty proud of how they turned out.  I really did more refurbishing of the hats, but did make 2:

an old fashioned sailor, which if I had more time, could have done much better and Mrs. Lincoln's hat.  I totally recovered President Lincoln's hat too and it looked brand new.

I was even "in costume"  haha.  doesn't that orange vest look Civil War era?  I was wearing my Constitution apron and my Lincoln penny earrings.  That is Mrs. Lincoln with me.

1 more and I'll post some more tomorrow.  My hubby came and took photos.

Mrs. Lincoln at tea (we had a hair problem and the hat keep slipping, but it stayed on-I would pin between performances-the kids did each scene 5 times today!)

here's the sailor.  I think I will make a new one.  ME, someday I'll send you a swatch of fabric to embroider U.S. Navy for me.  I made both of these hats from photos and my own imagination:

Good Morning! I have the box ready to ship to Terry. Will go flat rate today. Maybe that's what I'll continue to do, put the "kits" together and ship them off to others to sew...

Terry, To fill the box I added some uncut fabric of "state plates". Really cute. Hope you can do something fun with it. Patricia

Pat and Terry now thats team work. I love the fact you to are getting together to make things moving. We are taking a little break so it will give you time to sew.

glad this was able to work out!

The Shoup is finished and new numbers posted.  Good going crew!

Happy Resurrection Day!  Hope you all had a great day.  My son came for luncher this afternoon.  Always good to see him!

I am on spring break although I am working 2 afternoons in the afterschool program.  BUT I don't have to get up at 5!  woohoo!  of course, I still wake up at 5 haha, but I don't have to get up.

check out the thank you note that just came from the Lawrence.

Terry, glad it arrived.

Well to UBU's mom!  We are happy to have you join us!  Is your sailor new to the Navy or an "old hat"  haha.  Mine is a veteran now after serving 5 years.

Phoebe and Terry, so happy that this has worked out!

I everyone. I'm finally back from VA Beach. We went down there to fix the damage that the renters did to my son's townhouse so that he can find new tenants. It was a lot more work than we all thought. Not only did they not pay rent for 6 months, but they did $12,000 worth of damage before they were evicted. Looks like we will need to go back 2 or 3 more times to fix all the damage.

Hi Lyn,

glad to have you back and NO FUN having to deal with nasty tenants and what they leave behind.  Being in the rental business, I can not comprehend what people are thinking when they damage a property!  I sure hope that he will press charges or file a judgement against them.

Check out the Shoup thread!

I only wish that having them arrested would serve some purpose. But, after not paying any rent for 6 months and causing all that damage, they just left. None of them have any money and while we were there the police came looking for one of them. He had not checked in with his parole officer and they wanted him.

My son was nearly on the verge of bankruptcy trying to pay rent in one town and pay the mortgage on the townhouse. Thanks to some great people from the USS Bush and with the help of my youngest son (formerly a navy nuke) we are getting the place back into a live able condition and hoping to find new tenants by sometime in May.

what a blessing to have some help from personnel on the Bush!  

Such a shame that people do things like this!  It makes you sick.

check out some new photos in the ship threads,

New numbers today!   We mailed 125 to an AZ National Guard unit that deployed in Jan.  I saw the newsclip about their leaving and tracked them down.  haha.

Also, sent 20 to an AF unit.  The POC is another young man from my church.

Such and  honor to do this for our troops,.

Welcome to Sal's mom.  We are happy to have you join us!

I think I may have mentioned in the past that our local fabric store offers free pillowcase sewing classes every last Wednesday of the month. The owner has been doing that for me for over a year now. All pc that are made that night are donated to my pc projects. Some people even make them on their own time and drop them off at the fabric store throughout the month.

Last week, our local newspaper ran an article about these classes, and how we're striving to get 100 pc's made in the month of April.

On Monday morning, I received an e-mail from an LT in the USN, telling me that he grew up here in Lincoln, CA and is currently deployed in Afghanistan. He read the article online and wanted to know if it would be possible for him to get a pc. I told him that our motto is "All or None" and asked how many he would need to ensure everyone in his unit received one. He messaged me back and said that he's part of a hospital staff in Afghanistan and that he'd need 200 pc's to cover everyone.

I put the word out to our local ladies and the response has been beyond overwhelming. People are donating fabric, sewing pc's, getting stuff together for care packages and paying for the shipping of all boxes. I'm just blown away.

Even though these pc's will all be done here locally, it will still be considered an HAE project. So, once I have the final number, you can add those to your totals.

Awesome!

Birdie, this is just AWESOME news!   I am such a firm believer in "word of mouth"

advertising and you have just proven again how great that works!  I started HAE with the thought if everyone did just alittle, as a group we could do much!

I am so excited that this young man contacted you and how cool is this that the pcs will be made by his hometown!  If you need more, just let me know but it sure sounds like you will get it done.

Good going.  A local quilting shop in Tucson caught the vision in July 2009 after my 1st tv interview.  They have been firm supporters ever since and have hosted 2 pillowcase challenges-sewing days for HAE.  From those 2 days, over 1,000 pcs were turned in!  AND, ladies keep dropping off finished cases all year long.  Got a call a week ago and the crate is full again.

What a blessing!  I so appreciate your support for our troops!

Welcome to new member Joniana!  We are glad to have you!  questions?  just ask,

we love to answer them.

Thank you, Sue.  I am SO impressed by what you and your group has accomplished.  My son does not go to bootcamp until October, so we are very new to this journey.  The thought that I might be able to do something fun and productive after he goes (and I have all that "free time"!) is reassuring!  Will be enjoying watching this group's progress. 

Thanks for the kind words Joniana (Helen)!  HAE is definitely a team effort, it couldn't be done by just 1 person!  You are just beginning your journey into "navy mom-hood" and it is an adventure!

Welcome to Kisses and Liv.Irene.  We are happy to have you both join us here!

"Operation Fighting Zebras", as my project is now called, is going insane! I think we'll surpass the 200 pc mark at tomorrow night's sewing/packing party. I'm hoping to get some great pictures and I will post some on here.

The Fighting Zebras are our local high school football team. Our little town of Lincoln, CA is also known locally as "Zebratown". :)

sounds good Birdie and I am glad to hear you are doing so well with this!

Need some prayer:

We just found out that Ray's granddaughter (Amy Strickland) suffered a stroke yesterday and is still in the hospital. She is 23 and we are praying for a full and quick recovery. 

Well I wanted to share in the good news. This is a picture of my son Chris and his beautiful Wife Kelly. They were married Friday the 26th in Ripley MS. In the recent years him and I had not talked due to conflict between family. The Last year has been a blessing and we have put the past behind us. I am a very happy and proud mother and I have now gained a great new Daughter. I can not ask for a better daughter -inlaw.

Maryellen,  I do see the family resemblence!  Congrats to both of them and to you!

So happy to hear that you have been able to put the past behind you!  Life is too short for that.

AND more good news:

Ladies,  God is just blessing all of us with Great News this week. We have to thank Him for all our blessings and gifts he gives us each day. My husband had been fighting for years with his blood sugars being out of control, if Feburary we got the insulin pump and glucose censor. He has been on it for 36 days now and his blood sugar has been in more control than it has been in 4 years. Thank you all for your prayers. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

I haven't been on here much of late.  Just adding to Birdie's Project Zebratown.  Delivered the last dozen to her yesterday.  With one special Zebra pillowcase for a special LT from Lincoln.

Hi everyone.. I am back... I haven't been on much. The cold weather we have had was killing my wrist. With my disability money, I  paid off some bills, got caught up on others, helped my youngest get his first car, and other stuff, bought a washer, a real  bed for hubby and I, and a couple of futons. Still trying to get that sewing spot of my own, so I "drop and sew" where I can. My Seabee and his wife had their first child in Feb...a little girl named Amelia Rosemary. She is a cutie. Hopefully Mother's Day, I will get to see her. I will get a pic of her and me and grandpa. and I will post it. I hope to get back in the groove and start making pillowcases again. Its been a bit tough as led now, I am on SSD and when that monthly check comes in, it goes back out to pay the house payment and the car payment . There's not much left for fun stuff like fabric.... not that I need any.I can only  sew for so long, then my wrist starts hurting, or my back gets tired from sitting too long. But I do have my own laptop now, so I can go on whenever I want.. Yeah. I am currently trying to work on my crafts to get a stash up to sell. Being disabled, it takes longer to do stuff. Well just wanted to stop in and say hi

Well, I'm finally home. I've done everything I could do to fix my son's townhouse so he can rent it out and avoid foreclosure.  I planned on it taking 2 weeks. Instead, it took almost 5 weeks. The house was an incredible mess, from the leaking roof to the need to replace most of the plumbing, electrical and all the flooring. 

 I'm back now and looking forward to our next pcs project and reconnecting with all my friends.

Hello!  I can't believe how long it's been since I've been here again!  time does fly by for me.

We have started the mailing to 2 new groups today.  An army unit and Operation Care.  We have mailed to them before.   Thanks to all.

Glad that Teddy is doing so good Maryellen!

That is very cool that Birdie and others are helping to get that young man and his unit some pcs.  Love that she is doing ALL, which of course is our Motto.

Like the zebra case Paymaster.

good to hear from you NitaSewBee and congrats on the new grandbaby!  We can always use pcs whenever you have some made.  Just let us know.

Lyn, so glad that the TH is ready for the market!  That is a grueling process especially when much of the work is from damage.

And last but not least, Welcome to KrisN!  She is also from your state Maryellen.

Back to work

I shipped 10 boxes to our local LT in Afghanistan, for a total of 206 pc's. Since he is with a hospital unit and has received permission to hand some of them out to the patients, I will be sending him boxes on a regular basis. He is scheduled to be stationed there until Jan 2014. I'm sure we'll keep him well stocked. He promised to send me lots of pics. I'll post them on here when I get them. 

Birdie, this is just AWESOME!   What a blessing for him and you!  If you need more at any point, let us know.

I did add in your total to the count.  Check it out.   AND I can't wait to see the photos.

Why don't you make a thread for this group?  That way all the photos etc will be in 1 spot.

Happy Mother's Day to ALL!  I love this heart and think it reflects us well:

I added in some new numbers!  check it out!  We mailed to an Army unit and Operation Care this week.

Welcome to Navymassmom!  We are always happy to have a new person join us!

Saw my sonny this morning and that is always a treat!

I received some very cool pictures from the hospital unit in Afghanistan. There are too many to post here. Check them out in my "Happy Recipients" photo album on my "Adopt-A-Pillowcase for a Soldier" Facebook page.

I will send them more pc's on a regular basis, since they will be handing them out to the wounded warriors as they come through their hospital.

Welcome MamaMary we are glad you joined us. If you go to the discussions at the top and find the easy pillowcase instruction. This will give the size we are looking for. Right now we are working to get the numbers for 2 ships and a couple of group troops, which we will post at the top of the page. You let us know what you can commit to for each group. We try and have eveyone ship what they make so we don't have to pay extra shipping. You can go to USPS and order Large and Med. Flate rate boxes, and custome form envelopes. When it comes time to ship you can print your postage and custom form straight from the USPS web site. If you have any more questions feel free to email me at mepeller@bellsouth.net

Please check the thread, we have a new ship.

Birdie, could you post a couple of photos in the 2013 group?  I don't go to FB and would love to see some!  Thanks.

Susie, many congrats to your son for completing his service.  I know how rough some of those days can be.  Good for you for taking 2 tiger cruises!  I got to do 1 and loved it!  Good luck to your son!

MamaMary, we are happy to have you join us and Maryellen gave you great info!   

Thanks for doing that ME!

EXCITING! is all that I can say about the new thread!  I keep track of the pcs that are finished around the country and we have about 1500 out.  A great start to this new project.  Check it out!

If you haven't helped in awhile, this would be a good one to get revved up for.

here is my most recent "persona" - Blanche

I am holding a homemade bubble machine, which is a  hoot.  This was at a party for my afternoon job called "UnCommon Evening-Element of Surprise".

It was a great theme and the kids had a great time - me too.

I love the photo, and the hair that color looks good on you.

thanks!  my SIL wanted to know if I cut and colored or was it a wig?  And it is a wig.  Hey, I earned that gray hair and I am proud of it.

Check out the Nimitz thread.  We would love your help with sewing pcs, fabric, shipping or fabric $.

School is officially out for me.  1 more day of CARE tomorrow, 1 day of cleaning and putting away for CARE on Friday and then I am done.

I made these in my "spare time"  haha, over the last 2 weeks.  They were for kids production at church.  Now, I can think about sewing some pcs,.

thanks Terry for the pcs and for posting in both places!  they look great!