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.

 

Wow, @honesttjohn. You and your wife are tremendously talented and just great people.

Long after all the toys are forgotten, your gifts and your giving souls will be lovingly remembered.

Many thanks Mr. Morris, for the pictures. Great to see the kids with those blankets. 

2 minutes ago, Gene Howe said:

Wow, @honesttjohn. You and your wife are tremendously talented and just great people.

Long after all the toys are forgotten, your gifts and your giving souls will be lovingly remembered.

Many thanks Mr. Morris, for the pictures. Great to see the kids with those blankets. 

Hang on a minute, I have something in my eye. Thanks to you both for doing this @honesttjohn and @John Morris . Well done, guys.

@honesttjohn, what a thoughtful gift.  Mrs. Mordus, you are a true artisan.  My mother knitted and crocheted and taught all of her six children how to also so I am well aware of the time and skill required for this endeavor.  Many kudos to you.

On 1/28/2018 at 10:18 AM, schnewj said:

Hang on a minute, I have something in my eye.

Must be something going around! There's some good folks left yet.

John

Thanx guys

 

Debra was a bit embarrassed when she saw this. Just the way she is.  As I told John, she makes these all year round just to give them away to various organizations.  I think she did somewhere around 150  last year.  It was kind of nice to see who actually got them for a change.

 

That box was from my first  ( and only) attempt.  Was  a couple Baltic birch boards glued up for thickness and then flocked purple inside.

 

      

@honesttjohn...I'm just now seeing this...

The kids pictures speak the words we couldn't hear. Priceless!

A special thanks to both you and your wife for such gifts from the hands and the heart. Bless you both for such a kind and thoughtful gesture.

 

Thanks to @John Morris for all you and your family do behind the scenes as "our" Ambassador for these endeavors. We couldn't do it without your support and dedication.