Appreciation

Went down to drop off the four Snuggle mini-quilts today. None of the people there had any idea what we were talking about. I showed them some information, and recognition still did not dawn. (We ended up waiting 30 minutes for the shelter manager to show up, and she, at least, knew what they were for without the explanation.)

It got me to thinking about how the way that people or organizations receive your gifts (be they material items or gifts of your time) makes a big difference.

Our Project Linus coordinator does a wonderful job with this. She sends her volunteers photocopies of the thank you letters that the hospitals, shelters, etc., send to PL so we can see that what we do is making a difference. This keeps us feeling positive and enthusiastic about the organization and about our roles in it. It makes us feel appreciated.

I think there is probably a lesson in here for me about trying to show more appreciation when people spend time and effort on me as well.

So, for starters: it means a lot to me when people respond to my posts here. It makes me feel that you are listening, and that you care. It also inspires me to keep going here, so if you enjoy my updates, know that your responses help to make them happen! Thank you all, very much!

PJs

We went to JoAnn's last night to pick up some thread. Of course I could not get out of the store without browsing. In the sale section, I found some flannel for $3/yard, and we were able to stack a 40% off coupon on that, which made it a very good deal indeed.

The flannel is ice blue, and has little white kitty faces and fossil fishes in pink and aqua and white, as well as a non-standard rendering of feline speech - "meiow." The fabric was manufactured overseas, so I am just declaring that to be a regional dialect of Cat ;) [Found a semi-blurry pic online, if you are curious]

I bought 5 yards intending to use it to back Snuggles, but I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of using some of the yardage to make PJ pants too.

(Even Stacey and Clinton can't taunt me too much for age-inappropriate garb if I just use it as PJs, right?)

You are what you quilt

Here's the first round of tops for the Snuggle quilt(let)s:



You'll notice that I did end up doing a bunch of Crazy Quilt blocks in the end. They may be slower to sew, but to me, their spontaneity and randomness makes them more fun to make than Disappearing 9 Patch blocks. Plus I get to use all the tiny pieces that have been sitting in my scrap bag forever!

Whee, flying monkeys!

The monkeys and their quilt are currently flying on their way to Michele, and should be there tomorrow before noon!

Here is a shot I took immediately after I tied off the last knot in the thread I was using to stitch the back of the binding. (If you click on the image to see the larger version, you can see a bit of a dimensional look to the squares. That's what happens when you stitch "in the ditch" between blocks. It is a pretty neat effect.)

Not a mad cow

Yesterday we went in to the local Red Cross blood center to fulfill a little goal of mine.

We'd tried to give blood as a group back on 9/11. It seems everyone else in our area had exactly the same idea, so the blood center was swamped, and since my type O+ sister was pregnant (with Liam) and could not donate, and none of the rest of us had especially useful blood types, they told us to come back another day.

The next time I tried, they'd put the Mad Cow disease restrictions in place. I had spent a quarter abroad, which meant, I thought, that I was no longer eligible to give at all. I felt downhearted, but consoled myself that my type AB+ blood could only be used by 3% of the population anyway.

However, while having a conversation with my friend Katie, who works at a blood center, I learned that, while AB+ isn't that useful as whole blood, it is actually the universal donor for platelets and plasma (components of blood). Once I heard that, I had to see if there was any possible way for me to donate. (After all, platelets are used to help cancer patients, and this could be one more thing I could start to do in honor of my Finny.) NB: I believe that AB+ actually is only the universal donor for plasma, although there is conflicting info on this online.

So I wrote to my overseas center to see how much time I actually did spend in England. The response I got back was crystal clear: quarters are always exactly 11 weeks long. I was safe by a week!

I thought I would see if I could get DH to donate blood at the same time so we could make a morning of it. He was reluctant at first, and finally admitted to a fear of needles. But after some negotiation, we struck a bargain, and he agreed to give it a shot.

Yesterday was the day. We both passed the screening, so he headed to the general area to wait to donate blood, and I went off to give platelets. I will spare you the details as I know some people don't like to hear about medical things, but I will just say my experience wasn't too much different from giving regular blood, except that it took longer. DH was able to go and drop off a box of Linus quilts with our coordinator while I was still lying back in my comfy chair watching the movie they'd set up for me.

When I was done, I walked over to see DH talking with one of the receptionists. They were talking about the next time he was eligible to donate - seems he had gone ahead and started booking his next appointment on the spot! Apparently he not only got around his fear of needles this one time, but has moved past that fear for good! :)