Christmas Stockings for Troops

[IowaGal]

I would like to help explain the mandate on religious fabric.

The armed forces per se doesn't have a problem with religious articles, however, they are deployed to a muslim country and they have to be very aware of that country's beliefs.

Before Drew was deployed, they had to take a bunch of classes to understand local customs, hand signals and beliefs in order to prevent an accidental misunderstanding or insult. It is also showing respect for the locals religious beliefs, just as we would want respect for our own in our own country. It seems odd to us, because we live in a country that celebrates Hanukka (sp?) Kwanzaa, ramadan and Christmas, but living in a country that has religion tied to its governement is a whole other ballgame. Therefore, anything in bulk going to the middle east cannot have anything religious in bulk. While this may not seem like a big deal to us, it can have major problems there. Especially since Christmas is a religious holiday by itself.

[9patchfav]

GP,

I am not sure if this can work for this mission . But when one of our church members were deployed to Afghanastan,and we collected stuff for his group, his wife carried the boxes to the military base and it was mailed from there. No postage. Just an idea.

I might try to make some of these and see if my quilting group at Girls Night Out might want to make some.

Have a great day.

[Georgiapeach]

9patch, I don't know, but I'll sure check it out. IowaGal, do you know?

[IowaGal]

I don't know, but I can do some checking. In the first stocking send off, that wasn't possible, as Drew's base is in NC and I am in Iowa. It may take a few days, but as soon as I have any news on this I will pass it along.

[CaroleJ]

On my To Do list for the coming week is a trip to the hardware store to have the stocking pattern cut out of plexiglas so I can stack and rotary cut. I have already hauled out all my Christmas scraps, and that's not counting all the greens and reds I have in my regular stash...looking forward to doing more stockings for the troops!

Carole

[grammy65]

Got my plexiglass template made. Now my friend (who is going to work with me on this) and I, are cutting out pieces for fronts, backs, batting and lining so we will be ready to put them all together. Thought it would be easier to get big chunks cut ahead of time and then lay out the stocking template on them. She is more into sewing and is anxious to put on trim, etc. I will let her do all that....I'll be lucky just to get them sewn together. LOL.

The rotary cutter works pretty good with the template except for going around the front ankle area. Have to switch to a smaller cutter at that point.

Another friend said she and her friend will be doing some and sending them directly to you Georgiapeach. She is also getting her quilting circle involved.

I still haven't heard how many are in my girlfriend's son's unit. Doubt if we could cover the whole company, but maybe his platoon or even a couple platoons. Just have to wait and see what he says.

Made a sample today, and after sewing the cuff wrong about 3 times, and putting the hangee thing on upside down once, I think I have it down. Geeesh...I made two of these a couple Christmases ago.

[ladybess]

GeorgiaPeach, if I send you a self-addressed stamped envelope, could you send me a paper pattern of the stocking, um, sock?

[Georgiapeach]

Ladybess, sure, just message me your address and I'll get one in the mail to you!

Grammy, that's great, we're going to be able to get a lot of these "socks" to the troops, thanks for your help! Let me know what you find out from your girlfriend's son.

[Oasis]

We have 4800 + people on this forum.

If everyone made just one, think what we could do.

A few of us are not working or are retired, so can do up a few more and some ladies are getting help from their guilds, co-workers, and grandchildren. We could really send a large amount of these to lift the sprits of our troops.

Thanks again GP for organizing this project and thank you IowaGal for presenting and completing the "Iraq Project". I'll never forget the face of the MP that looks like a Rockwell Painting!!!!!

[sunsup]

Ooops! I havn't been putting the cuff on. Is is required?