Pillowcases For Mary Bridge and More

The weather in Chicago has been incredibly cold and snowy for December. We've had a few days that were a little warmer, but then it rained. So, all in all, not a good month for hanging pillowcases out on the line. When I walked out the door this morning, I couldn't believe how lovely it is, almost 39 degrees, and sunny!!! After all the extremely cold days we've had, it feels like spring! I always laugh about how in the beginning of winter when we first get into the 30's, we're all so cold. Come March or April with temps in the 30's, everyone pulls out their short pants!!!! 

I have two donations to share with you and something new which will be at the end of the post.

First up is a donation that was spear headed by Lisa of  http://www.poldapop.com/. She organized a sew-in at her church. You can read all about it here, http://www.poldapop.com/2013/12/sewing-for-charity.html. FYI, she gives me a little too much credit. Once you read her post, you'll see what I'm talking about. Anyway, her efforts yielded 15 more pillowcases for the Mary Bridge Children's Hospital pillowcase project. If by chance you are new to the blog, here's a link to all of the posts that have been done on this project,  http://www.rhondabuss.blogspot.com/search/label/Mary%20Bridge. It has truly been a labor of love and one of the most enriching experiences of my life.

For those of you who have followed all of the posts, you have seen my garden in every season. Because of the warms temps, most of the snow is gone. I'll try to post some pictures when we get a really big snow as the garden is so lovely under a blanket of fresh snow.

Lisa had some adorable fabrics like the circus print with Dumbo above and Holly Hobbie below. I was such a Hollie Hobbie fan :)

So lovely! Thank you Lisa for your efforts. Because of Lisa's project, I'm now thinking of organizing a project at my church. What a lovely way to pay it forward in so many ways.

The second donation comes from Willi. I did a post here on the slippers that she made for her granddaughters and their dolls. Willi combined her pillowcase making efforts with teaching her granddaughters how to sew. How sweet!

Their efforts produced 10 more pillowcases for the project.

 The cases are just adorable, baseballs and monkeys...

cupcakes and sharks!!!

Thank you so much Willi for your contribution. With both Lisa's and Willi's efforts, new sewists were born and that's always a wonderful thing.

This morning I received this note;

Dear Rhonda,
I had taken a blogging sabbatical (nearly eight months) and am just getting around the blogosphere again. I set about checking out all your recent blog updates when I came across this post.

It's my turn...
It's my turn with what I've called "The Pillowcase Project." It's in honor of my mother-in-law who sewed pillowcases for pediatric cancer patients when her own grandson, our nephew, was also dealing with cancer last year. Fortunately Blake is back in college and cancer-free, but Mom's pillowcases inspired an idea for me...
Across the street from where we live in Manila, Philippines, is a pediatric charity hospital, National Children's Hospital. Since my precious MIL is a December-month baby and just turned 80, until Thanksgiving we will accept NEW pillowcase contributions to "The Pillowcase Project" to be gifted at Christmastime 2014 to the pediatric patients at NCH.
Wow. I had forgotten all about your pillowcase drive... This is soooo cool. I hope you'll share more images about the journey of the contributed cases from clothesline to Mary Bridge's. So awesome!
Would you like to join "The Pillowcase Project" See my blog post at http://kelleyhighway.blogspot.com/2013/12/ethel-pillowcase-project.html.

Happy highways,
Kelley of Kelley Highway

You can read her post about the project here, http://kelleyhighway.blogspot.com/2013/12/ethel-pillowcase-project.html I think this is a wonderful project and one that I intend to contribute to. It's rather exciting for me to be on the contributing side rather than the organizing side for a change :)

I have been asked if I will continue with the Mary Bridge project, and my answer is no. As I said earlier in the post, it has been a wonderful and enriching experience, but I feel that I did what I was supposed to do and now it's time to move on. The Mary Bridge project has been a lesson for me in the power of positive thinking. As I've shared along the way, there have been times when I was a little unsure, but I would not give a voice to my feelings, and look at what has happened, people from all over the world have come together and over 1000 pillowcases will be shipped to Tacoma, Washington in February. Absolutely amazing. 

Thank you for all that so many of you have done to make the Mary Bridge Project such a wonderful success!

Rhonda