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The cause As you know we had a wonderful project that spanned from October to the end of the year of 2017 that involved the Gold Star widow and her two children as assigned to our community by Operation Ward 57. You can see the project at: The Patriot Woodworkers with Op Ward 57 Adopt a Gold Star Family for the Holidays - 2017 The donation During the project we witnessed many forms of heart felt giving, from the actual raffle ticket purchases, to the exchanging of the winnings from one member to another. Every step of the way, everyone who participated in this project performed heroically, I want to thank everyone once again for their giving, and participation in this very important annual tradition of ours. Thank you! Sometimes, things happen in these projects that are, well, just pretty danged cool, and one of those things was the shipment I received from Patriot Woodworker @honesttjohn. The shipment contained one blanket for each member of the Merlo Family. These blankets were hand made by Mrs. Mordus, (spouse of John Mordus aka honestjohn). John informed me the items were on their way, and I was expecting them, but what I was not expecting was the handwork that went into this operation. My own mother is a crocheter, I grew up with the craft, so I understand the time and heart that goes into this craft, the blankets of Mrs. Mordus were knitted. I am showing images of the work the night before we shipped the gifts from our home to the Merlo Family. I want to apologize for the image quality, it was late, the lights were dim in our home, shortly after I took these pictures our kids wrapped each blanket individually and put a name tag on the gifts before we put them in the shipping box for delivery the next day. This knitted blanket was made for Mrs. Merlo, the knitting is exquisite and detailed, can you imagine spending the time that it takes to make every single tiny square and creating those squares methodically around each heart. I had a chance to feel this blanket, it was very soft, and it had considerable heft to it as well, I was tempted to wrap myself in it but my heart said no, the first wrap should be performed by the honored recipient, Mrs. Merlo. Look at those tiny knitted stitches The hearts The following are images of the blankets Mrs. Mordus created for the children, Camilla and Charlie, the baseballs went to the boy, and the butterflies went to the girl. Mrs. Mordus crafted a border around the fleece fabric of both blankets. This is a style of making blankets that my own mother has been wanting to do for sometime now, mom was over at this time, and she closely examined the borders to see how Mrs. Mordus fabricated them. I wish I had taken close up images of the borders, I don't know why I did not. At this writing I am right now kicking myself. Camilla's flutterby blanket Charlie is a baseball fanatic! And of course, do you think @honesttjohn could let that box of blankets ship without something from the shop! John installed a completely wonderful keepsake box for Mrs. Merlo that he created. This was unexpected, a beautiful touch to an already incredible shipment for the Merlo Family. I am not sure what the box was made from, it may have been John's trademark Pine that he uses in many of his plaque projects, hopefully John will chime in here and let us know. And the grand finale, the Merlo kids with their warm blankets on Christmas morning. You can tell they are very happy. We do not have an image of Mrs. Merlo with her blanket, it was not provided, but I can surmise why we do not have that image, well you know how ladies are, early in the morning, just out of the rack, hair not straight yet, I am sure the image is out there, but Mrs. Merlo surely wasn't going to let that one get out! Without further adieu, the kids Charlie and Camilla and their cherished blankets. (these images shown here, with permission given by mom Merlo) Little Camilla showing off mama's blanket In closing Again, I want to thank everyone who was involved in this project, it was a huge success this year thanks to you all. And on behalf of our entire Patriot Woodworker community, Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Mordus for this very special gift, that will keep on giving to this family for years to come, as they curl up during cold season with these blankets. This topic is long over due, and I want to also apologize to @honesttjohn for taking so long to get this up and live, thanks for your patience John.