95● festive 2008A NEEDLE PULLING THREAD

Photo courtesy of Angela Edwards of Curran, Ontario.

With so many of our Canadian Forces personnel deployed overseas, and so many of their children, spouses and other family members missing them, the Ottawa Valley Guild of Stitchery - Chapter of the Embroiderers’ Asso-ciation of Canada (EAC), decided to do something to be of comfort to them.

One of their members, Lynne Dem-mery, saw an item on the web about the American group Yellow Rose Chapter of EGA in Houston and their community outreach project Soldier Kissing Pillows in honour of the sol-diers and military families.

The idea behind the pillows is that the person being deployed kisses the pil-low and leaves it with their loved ones. The pillows are distributed through the Military Family Resource Centres on the bases. The Resource Centres were established to help the families when their loved one is away. The pil-lows have been very well received.

Lynne quickly called Kate Dinsmore, who was president of the OVGS at the time and who is a member of the mil-itary herself, to consider taking on the same project. Kate also checked the idea with several military friends, who had been on deployments.

The idea was a hit and requests were made for pillows. Permission to alter the American version of the pattern into a Canadian version was very quickly received.

The Canadian pattern features maple leaves and the words ‘I love you’ or ‘Je t’aime’. It’s not a difficult pattern to stitch and takes between one and two hours depending on skill level. These pillows are a free will gift to the families requesting them and the people who make them are not paid. It is purely a voluntary charitable undertaking with the children of the

deployed personnel as the recipients. It is hard not to want to stitch these when you hear stories about children taking their pillows to bed with them every night.

As co-chairs for the project, we are touched and humbled by the fact that so many things have been donated. It’s a small way to support our troops. It seems as if one only has to mention the children of the deployed to have bills waived and space provided, for which we are truly grateful.

Several of our members bring in fab-ric, stuffing and Aida cloth to donate to the project. However several ladies, most notably Mrs. Paterson who has personally made over 500 pillows, are not members of the guild but support the project with their time and talents.

Military Family Kissing Pillows Written by Lynne Demmery and Kate Dinsmore

As her last act as the outgoing President of the EAC, Madeleine Basta has challenged every member of the EAC to make a pillow for each and every member of their families. This challenge is now bearing fruit as parcels arrive weekly with tops and completed pillows.

Given that hundreds of Canadian Forces members are deployed in harm’s way every year, this is a very large undertaking. With help from other stitchers and quilters we hope to see every person deployed get a pil-low to give a loved one. z

To help, please visit OVGS at www.ovgs.ca or email ovgs.pillowproject@gmail.com.