in addition, i have been working hard to help my friends tracy and mary marks to get the single moms and widows in katerini started in their very own quilting business. we have ordered their quilting machine and frame and have a space for them to work now. we have also found a merchant willing to place their work in his shop window and tracy has found a US market for some of the quilts to be sold. so slowly we are helping these women to create a business for themselves through the avenue of quilting.
you can see we have been busier than little bees trying to get everything finished before my one month trip back to the states in august. i wish it was for a relaxing vacation by the beach but . . . i will need to get much done in the short time i will have there. so here's the scoop:)
if you check out CHRISTMAS 25 PROJECT 2011 you can see a slideshow of all the work we have been busy to do these past 7 months while there has been NO TIME FOR BLOGGING!! hahahaha. we have had lots of help from valerie in england to tina in america. we have had two teams of young people from the states that came for a "missions" experience plus two girls from germany who are in a one-year volunteer program for community service. and we put them all to work!! even david, thank you david for your sweet spirit to go along with the projects we had including time at the quilting machine:) and we will surely miss our dear friends miriam and tilla who have returned to germany after their almost one year stay for community service in our humble studio. all have left with a passion for quilting both to understand it better and to do more of it wherever they have gone i think:) here are some photos of our younger volunteers from both america and germany:
and what a great place our little nursing home is too. when i get old i want to live there:) really. the staff was fantastic with the residents. both full-time staff doctors are born again believers and it shows both in the way they know and care for their residents as well as how the residents responded to them. we had an amazing opportunity to both read our messages on the back of our quilts to the folks and to pray for several of the residents while we were there. thomas and i plan on making more visits just to be involved with what is going on there. we will plan to take time to both pray and read the Bible with them when we return. what a blessing we all received and to think that we thought we would be the ones giving the blessing. it is always that way it seems. for sure the Spirit of the Lord is in that place!!! here is the staff and the doctor on the far left is antonis. he personally took us to every ward and introduced us to the residents.
so i have decided to work with MODA fabrics. they have a great product and their program for small businesses is more than fair. you can check out my shop as it is for now from my FABRIC SHOP tab or go directly to the shop at: www.fabricstoquiltorknot.weebly.com. when i get home to ohio i will be meeting with the MODA rep, MARK from moder as my little confused mother calls him:) you are so cute mom:) hahahaha. we will get the final orders in place and then my daughter and i will be working to get our shipping office manned with printers and scanners etc. and our fabrics ready to cut and ship as the orders roll in and the fabric rolls out to the world around us!!! hahahaha. so please support our store by buying fabric from us if you are buying quilting fabric and tell your friends about how they can support our charity projects by buying fabric from us themselves. we have some nice christmas fabrics right now and some kits to make christmas projects that you will love!! our store will be fully operational after september 1, but for now you can buy fat quarters from our fat quarter store and look at all the fabrics by the yard that will be available later.
so check it out!! have fun this summer!! pray for me as i begin to market my wares to friends and quilt guilds and groups back home. i will try to keep up while i am home so you can see how things are progressing.
on a final note, when i go back home i will be staying with my daughter, my two grandchildren, my son-in-law and their very big dog -- english mastiff. hahahaha. emmet as he is called is part of the family and he thinks he is just one of the kids. my daughter says he is her best behaved child:) here is a picture i took on a skype call with my daughter the other day. she has turned her guest room (my room) into an office for our business and has a tv in there to watch videos and such. so the kids and emmet were watching a movie while hilary and i were visiting. it was too cute not to share.