Sunday, June 07, 2015

Our First 2015 Gathering

I remember, so often, Chris Pokorny - this ministry's founder - saying how amazed she was when, whatever it was Crafty Angels might need, it would show up.  And, how exciting it was when yet another person found their way to Crafty Angels and how they just kept coming.  I can say, unequivocally, that in 2015 - entering into Crafty Angels' 14th year - this is still the case.  It's humbling to see God's hand at work through all that you create, Angels, and through the giving of your time and prayers to this ministry, your giving hearts.  It fills me with wonder to walk into our church office and see it half-filled with an enormous donation of amazing yarns from an anonymous group of women at Northeastern University.  I get excited every time a new person contacts us through one of the internet sites where Chris posted our Crafty Angels information or when new partnership opportunities present themselves.  It still surprises me when I notice that we might be a little short on certain items and then they show up in a shipment from someone or are brought to a meeting by one of the Angels in attendance.  It truly is miraculous!

I open with all of this because, while it had been a while since we had gathered as a group, it was obvious when we met on May 16th, that you had not stopped knitting and crocheting in the interim since our previous meeting.  We had MANY boxes of beautiful yarny goodness to open at this meeting in addition to what the folks who were able to attend brought with them.  My favorite part of this blog is the sharing of pictures of all of this!  OH, and after our meeting, I walked into the church office and the secretary's desk was covered with boxes of more love gifts that had arrived while we were downstairs in fellowship hall.  (Marya Preston, I'm saving all of your wonderful-ness to open at our next meeting so the ladies can see it first-hand.)

Alright then, pictures...  Again, the stitcher's name is shown below each photo.

Phyllis Snodgrass

New Angel, Martha Hicks, from Durham, NC

Debi Buerger.  Seriously!  Look at this lovely in the middle with the flowers!

New Angel, S. Matthews, from Somerset, MA


Ann Hubbard of Columbia, SC
Nina Rubich

Jeannine Patt

Carol Flowers - Yes, there was even more that wasn't in this photo.  The woman is prolific!

Jill Lind, Associate Pastor at Edgebrook Covenant.  Beautiful knitter!

Faith Yao - Faith, I apologize for the poor layout of your gorgeous work.  When I looked at this photo, well...it just doesn't do justice to your amazing knitting skills.  I'll try to do better next time!!

New Angel, Linda Froning, who dropped these beauties off at our church.  Thank you, Linda!

Carol Stephan

Anita Hohenstein

Nan Cardinal - Nan is like family to me down at our winter home in Fort Myers.  Nan is 78 years young and has more energy in her little finger than I have in my entire body.  She needed something to do while she was watching tv at the end of the day and asked me to get her started on crocheting again (she used to crochet years ago).  These are some of the many wash cloths she did in a very short amount of time.  Thanks, Nan!

Doris Ahlstedt

Cindy Weinzierl

Joyce Dattalo

Maureen Martin

Jo Sztapka

Nancy Byron
It was wonderful to be together again!  We had a group of 13 at our May meeting.  I know I say this all the time, but thanks so much to those of you who were there for all that you do at these meetings.  We so appreciate your help in opening boxes and displaying all of the gorgeous handmade goodies, in helping with putting all of these donations into giant bins and then toting these giant bins back to our storage area, in helping with clean-up, etc.  As you know, we take the summer off but our next meeting will be on September 19th at 10:30 a.m. at Edgebrook Covenant - 6355 N. Spokane Ave.  Sandy and I hope to see you then.  We've missed you!  Just a final reminder that our November meeting this year will be the second Saturday in November, 11/14, rather than the third Saturday.

Have a great summer, Angels!  Happy stitching!

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Catching Up

Wow!  I'm FINALLY in front of my computer in an attempt to catch you up with what's been happening in Crafty Angels for the past six months or so.  Yes, I am a horrible blogger!  I wish I had the kind of motivation it takes to do this on a more regular basis, but, what can I say?  I'm a tad "old-school" when it comes to blogging and so many of my promises to be better have gone the way of New Year's resolutions, so why not just fess up?

Okay...I'm going to keep this short and sweet.  Not much in the way of verbiage - this post will be mostly pictures of what was opened at and/or brought to our November 2014 meeting (our BIGGIE) as well as some pictures from our annual holiday sale.  Let me just say a huge THANK YOU to all of those who attended and brought things, to all who sent their beautiful gifts of love to be opened at this meeting, to those who helped assemble 600+ spa bags, and for those out there who pray for our ministry.  Those prayers are working, let me tell you!  Also a heartfelt thanks to those in our church (Edgebrook Covenant) who helped out with our holiday sale - whether it was making goodies to serve at the coffee hour, helping with set-up, serving as cashiers, bagging, or in whatever capacity.  You are so appreciated!!

On to the scads of yarny goodness.  The stitcher's name is shown below the photo.

Anita Hohenstein
 
Bonnie Banks

Margie Chan

Carol Flowers

Nina Rubich

Paulette Roth

Jennifer Kenny

Linda Faubel


Jeannine Patt

Anita Hohenstein

Nancy Byron

Karen Egolf-Simon

Carol Stephan

Lisa Broxterman

Pam McMahon

Our friend, Olga Dejongh is a multi-faceted crafter and contributed not only these adorable teddy bears and sashay ruffle scarves, but also hand-made cards, candles, and soaps to sell at the holiday sale.

Jo Sztapka

Phyllis Snodgrass
Angie Lyke
Cindy Weinzierl
 
Penny Sawczak

Joyce Dattalo

Deb Kreusch
 
Maureen Martin
Shown below are all of the "elves" at work assembling spa bags and packing up other items.  Even Sandy Rice's daughter, Lori, and granddaughter, Nicole, came to help out.







 
The pictures below are from our holiday sale.
 










Lisa Kowar, me, Sandy Rice, and Kathy Waldsmith.  Kathy and Lisa were kind enough to pull together the coffee hour set-up and treats for us.



The lucky winner of the beautiful afghan - created by Linda Faubel - that was raffled off at the sale.






That's a wrap!  Isn't it amazing to see so much hand-crafted goodness in one place?  As I mentioned in my e-mail sometime back, we made more at the 2014 holiday sale than we ever have and still gave as much as, or more to, our charities than we ever have.  It was a VERY good year, Angels!  Thank you for all you do!