Day 215 of 365

I've heard you are either an Elvis person or a Beatles person. You can like them both, but you always like one more than another.

I'm a Beatles person. When I first discovered music in the 70s I was listening to Paul McCartney and Wings and John Lennon so I became interested in the Beatles. My memories of Elvis were not positive back then. By the time I started paying attention he had let himself go and was not very attractive. It wasn't appealing to watch him perform.

But years later I'd heard so much about Graceland that it went onto my bucket list. When we did our cross country trip a few years back it was one of our must-see places to visit. Stepping into the mansion was like stepping back in time. Same carpet, counter tops, and furniture, all in 1970s color scheme.

Only then did I appreciate Elvis more for what he had done than for what he had become. I started to like Elvis more. Over the past couple years I've even bought some Elvis fabric. Until yesterday I had no idea of how I was going to use it.

As I was cutting up all those stockings for Stockings for Soldiers, it occurred to me I might use some Elvis fabric. I was second guessing whether it would be a good choice. But Casey Kasem helped me decide. Last night I was listening to a repeat of his show from 1977. A year I remember well. How can someone forget when Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy had hits in the top 40? This repeat show mentioned several times about Elvis' death. (He had died just a few weeks earlier.) As I heard them talking about him again and again, I remembered the importance he played in music and sewed up those Elvis stockings.

11 more down.

Day 214 of 365

I don't know what it is about sewing that makes me enjoy it so much.

In my lifetime I've tried cross-stitch and counted cross-stitch. Candlewicking and crewel work. I've tried tole painting and scrapbooking. I've made wall hangings, pillows, padded picture frames, and Christmas ornaments. I've painted a garden scene on the side of our shed and I have scrapbooks full of pictures.

But I always come back to sewing.

Somehow attaching pieces of fabric to make some type of creation is relaxing. I love visiting fabric stores, I love buying fabric, and I love sewing the fabric. And these past few months the best type of sewing for me has been sewing for others. Sewing for those I don't know has given me a purpose.

If it wasn't for sewing for others, I couldn't throw numbers around like these. Since March 5th I have made:

• 17 kids quilts sent to either Quilts for Kids (for sick kiddos) or Operation Kid Comfort (for kids of deployed soldiers), and one to another organization
• 14 presentation cases for Quilts of Valor (for veterans)
• 2 quilt tops - one for a soldier, one for a diabetes auction
• 24 turtle pillows for The Painted Turtle Hole-in-the-Wall Camp (very sick kiddos)

57 items.

Now I get to throw some new numbers around:

• 4 more kids quilts to be done for Quilts for Kids. Two need to be quilted, two more kits are on the way.
• 5 more sets of pictures (which will equal 5 more quilts) for Operation Kid Comfort are headed my direction.

And a new project.

Stocking for Soldiers kicks off October 10. Stocking for Soldiers sews Christmas stockings, fills them with goodies, and sends them to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. While I may not have the goodies to fill the stockings, thanks to my fabric stash I have plenty of Christmas fabrics. They provide the pattern, I make the stockings. At least 80 stockings worth. (I still have more fabric, but stopped cutting at 80.)

5 down and 75 to go.