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

Tina, Glad you have him home for a while. Please tell him thank you from me and my family.

We are always here to help, we are in this together.

Sue, I finally finished 34 pcs!!  Woohoo!  I printed out the labels and pinned them inside.  What's nest?  I will send a photo hopefully tomorrow!!!  I'm so excited!!!

Ha, I mean what's next????

Lyn can tell you about the subs as her son served on one.  Mrsb, is your son deployed?  email me about it.

Well, my hubby flew to Birmingham last Thursday to see his daughter and granddaughters.  Now he is in Raleigh visiting his 2nd son.  Then to NJ for a family reunion.

While he is gone, my sister came from Utah to spend my birthday with me.  We had a great visit and I hated to see  her leave today. I gave her a couple of sewing lessons as she wants to make pcs too.

My sonny and his girlfriend took us out to lunch yesterday, then we played games for the evening.  We had lots of fun and we ended the day/night at Culver's for frozen custard!

If you have any Marines or Navy fabric that you could donated to ME for special pcs, we will be having another big project in 5 weeks or so.  I heard about this ship in January when a handsome sailor in dress blues was visiting my church.

Williti, you get lots of sailor time while he is there. 

AND there are new numbers.  The Princeton and Birdie's hospital are added in.

I posted the pictures of the Command staff pcs on the Nimitz page.

Well it is offical, my daughters next duty station is NAS Siqonella, Italy. Not sure when she has to be there yet but she will spend 2-3 years there. I guess its time to set up the Skype account and make sure email is working really good. As much as I am happy for her I am sad, I will miss her. Please keep me in your prayers as I get use to this big change.

You know I understand how you're feeling. But, what a wonderful opportunity for her. She will be right in the heart of Europe! I can recommend some great places for her to visit when she has some time off.

Dori and Lyn, thanks for the support. She is so excited and I refuse to tell her that I am sad. After everything she has been through the last year or so she deserves to be happy and I will not let anything stand in her way. Love You Both.

Maryellen, how wonderful that your daughter is going to get the opportunity to explore the world!  I know it will be hard on you but it is very nice that you are willing to support her and cheer her on even through that pain. I wish you both the very best.

Hi girls--I haven't gotten lost--finishing up summer school this week--finals and a paper then next week hope to finish pillow cases for my son's PIR group(DIV) the just found out my cousin and his unit is being deployed (ARMY) so I am getting a count on them to do for them next...be with you soon!!

WOW, over a week has gone by!   School training started on Saturday, 8-3 and I have been swamped since!

Maryellen and I mailed 115 pcs to an Army group last Friday and we had 1 more squadron to do for the Nimitz this week.  I think the ship is now done haha.  Check out the new numbers which I didn't put up yet.

Boy, it was a busy week getting back to school!  And hot of course.  Started my 1st day of school with a vomiting kinder on the bus line.  Always an adventure that job is.  haha

Lyn, I am sure that they are beautiful and I'll take a peek next.

Maryellen, WOW what interesting news!  Ben wanted to be stationed in Spain and that made me nervous, so I get the sad part.  She'll get leave time and will probably come back to the states at least once.  But will probably travel some too.  I agree Dori, plan for a trip.   Skype will help I am sure.  Everyone raves about it.

Congrats to Dani.

Shirleyann, glad to  hear that you aren't lost!  haha.  I get lost sometimes.  Let me know about the Army group-do I have your email address?  We are currently working on a huge Army group, company by company.  Just got another company today, which we are mailing to next week.  He might be in one of them.

Happy weekend!  This week I get why we have 2 full days of school and then the weekend!  I am ready.

Sue--I'm getting his info about his group from his wife then will get back with you

Hi Sue--that went faster than I expected.  He is 1st combat aviation brigade 1st infantry division.

Hi Shirley,

need more information and want to discuss it offline.  I forwarded your 1st message to you?????  I have a Shirley Ann in my email contacts.  If that is you, please respond so I know.  If not, then please pm me your email address.  I don't post mine on here.  Thanks!

thanks for all of the info Shirley.  I'll keep you posted.

I recieved this from The Gualt Family from Ft Hood today, I want to share this with everyone because we ALL worked very hard to take care of Ft Hood and the troops coming out of there after the attack. I will keep it safe and wear it proudly.

               Ok here we go, this is the USS Fitzgerald, It is on forward deployment in Japan. We will be working with the CMC of the ship, it is a surprize for the crew. HAE and the Command are the only ones that know the Pillowcases are comming. 

There are 320 aboard the ship with 49 being female and then the 3 command. We will start to ship on the 21st of August to the 24th. Please let Sue and I know what you are willing to send. You better hurry cause this ship sill go by fast..

The bracelet is beautiful Maryellen!  Very timely since the terrorist's trial has been going on.  I proudly tell people that HAE sent pcs to every unit who was at Ft Hood the day of the terrorist attack.  Here's the background story on  how it came to be that HAE did all of those units.  

When the attack occurred, a friend of mine from Curves asked me if HAE would be sending pcs to those there.  I said that I didn't know how we could because we needed a contact, but I would check into it.  I prayed and The Lord delivered.  Because a couple of weeks later, this photo was posted.  Another Navy mom saw it Thanksgiving weekend 2009, posted it and said "Sue, I think that young man needs a pillowcase!"

Dori did the research and found out what unit that was heading to the sandbox and where they were based out of.  Maryellen had a contact at that base in WI that were out of and when we realized they had been at Ft Hood the day of the terrorist attack, we knew we needed to follow thru with all of them.

I saw the bigger picture.  HAE had just completed 300+ pcs for the USS New York and they were handed out on 12-7-09 at the ship.  Ally headed that up.  The bow of that ship was made out of steel from the Twin Towers.  The terrorist attack at Ft Hood took place on the day that the New York was commissioned.

So I felt that we needed to do these men and women who were there.  It took us awhile but we got it done!

That's your HAE history lesson for today haha.

Love the history lesson. It makes it even more special that I get to help with this project.

And the ship is already filled!  So excited.  We  have a big one coming soon, so keep sewing and stashing.

I finished my 1st full week of school on Friday and I survived it!  We had 108 on Friday.  I end my morning doing hallway duty for lunch and our hallways are covered but outdoors!  And of course, no breeze!   Lots of kids going thru. I asked my afternoon kids to make me a stop sign and it really helps.

Friday afternoon was crazy paper day and the kids made me a couple of hats.  If they make it I will wear it.  The parents look at me alittle funny, but it's fun.  In the top photo, I am either a bearded lady or a lion haha.  the boy is a 5th grader!

He is that tall!

thanks Dana!  I have all sorts of stories about how we get our groups. Maryellen 

did an awesome job coordinating everyone of the units.  We even did special pcs for the wounded and for the families of the fallen heroes when they were ready.

Ft Hood is near and dear to our hearts.

ME,

Do we have a discussion thread for the USS Fitzgerald?

no we don't Lyn.  We will just record the info in the Misc 2013 thread.  the ship filled up fast, so no need for a special thread.

do you mean Ft Hood?  We did those in Jan 2010 thru sometime to 2011.  There were quite a few.

scroll thru all of the discussions and you can see the threads,.

This is the picture from the Ft. Hood project. This is the one that touched our hearts. I will never forget the many months of doing the units that were attacked that day. I will never forget the many friends that I have made and keep intouch with from Ft Hood. If I remember correctly it took me 4 phone calls and I had all the information and then some. As Sue has said in the past, Ft Hood has a big part of our hearts.

Lyn, we are NOT making one since it is a small ship, we will put the pictures under the 2013 Misc Groups heading. That is why you can't find it.

Here are my 25!  My first shipment, I'm so excited!!

I need help with my pictures!!  How do I make them bigger?  So frustrating...

Geeze, I should have said my 20!!!  Silly me!

Mrsb, the picture is just fine, it don't need to be bigger. I love the PC's they look great.

Terry and Mrsb, could you please email them to both Sue and I ?

Maryellen, I sent them to Sue this morning.  Can you pm me your email and I'll send to you?  

And thank you about the pcs!  My husband thinks I'm obsessed now!!!

Thanks Ladies

Mrsb. it is mepeller@bellsouth.net

Thank you Maryellen!

I just posted new numbers for the Army group that was mailed last week.  Well, me on Monday haha.

I also updated the 2013 thread with the 2 army groups, and the USS Fitzgerald.

Mrsb and Terry, beautiful pcs.  thank you!  And I recognize some of that fabric.

I also copied and posted your photos in the 2013 thread.

rain here this afternoon again.  We need it!

Yes!  Her name is Farrah, and she is definitely the "queen" of our greyhound pack.  We have 4, Farrah, Wally, Joey and Napa.  The last 3 are all red-apparently a weakness for me!  I just love the red dogs!  They are all retired, rescued, greyhounds.  I'm not only obsessed with them but also with making pcs!!

beautiful dog!  

new notes and photos on the Nimitz!  WOW, we got that ship done in 2 months!

I am impressed.

We have another biggy coming, starting sometime in Sept.  I'll ask ME to post the thread very soon, but in the meantime, sew and stash!

Ladies, if you haven't sewn in awhile, we can use your help again!  It will take us a couple of months to complete this new group, so we will do the wave method again.  That works so well  AND alittle more HAE history/trivia for you today haha

We began the wave method in May 2010 for the biggest Ft Hood group there was.  800+.  When ME told me the numbers of that unit, I GULPED very big and said let me think on this.  And we came up with the "waves"-hey, I am a Navy mom after all-got to do a water theme haha.  

This method is fabulous because we don't have to have the pressure of getting tons done in a month-we do them in a manner that we can complete in a timely fashion AND we always get them done for ALL.

Happy Saturday.

Cloudy and cool here in Sunny southern AZ.  Love it!

New thread posted about our new project.  CHECK it out and let us know how you can help.  

I'll post the "background" story on this unit soon.

Welcome to 3 new members!  So glad that you found us!

Proud Navy Vet mom, Shello63 and BriguyzMom

Welcome to nesum!  We are happy to have you join us!  congrats on being a new Navy mom.

Please pm me your email address.  thanks!

I joined your group and then promptly went on vacation to see my daughter and SIL (who are stationed somewhere out there in outer edges of the pacific) after their baby was born... came home and my son left for bc! Phew!!! I am now ready to purchase my fabric and begin sewing. Any suggestions what type of fabric is best for them out there (I'm assuming a cotton blend). Since I'm so new and have not done this before... is there a "do's and don'ts " list somewhere on this site? Thanks for your info!

Proudmama,

Welcome back, sounds like you have been very busy. If you email me at mepeller@bellsouth.net I will give you all the information you will need. You are correct in the type of fabric.

proudmama, there are directions up above in the discussions but if you are a visual person like I am there are several good videos on YouTube. I really liked the one by Robin Gallagher but there are plenty of others. As far as material goes you can use a good cotton/polyester like JoAnn Fabric's symphony broadcloth, which just happens to be on sale this week. Sue also will "sell" you fabric from her donations for the cost of shipping. You just have to contact her. She sent me a huge supply a few months ago with all differnent kinds of fabric and I hope to send out money this week for more!  It's almost like Christmas to  see what all you get.

thanks for the promo Jodi!  But let me correct you.  I don't sell it.  I just ask people to pay for the shipping.  The fabric was a gift to HAE/me, to use for pcs or other projects that help others.  There is just too much of it for me to pay for shipping.  

Proudmama, cotton or a cotton/poly blend is the best.  do I have your email address?  if not, please pm it to me.  thanks.