Sewing/Embroidery Machine for Nana
Donation protected
My life is focused on my faith, my family, and most often my darling granddaughter. The photo above is her...nana's little helper. We are crafting together, working on making little mermaid dolls.
Last month, my sewing machine stopped working. I had a spare, a 30 year old Pfaff that was purchased when my ex-husband and I were stationed (Army) in Germany in 1983. This week, it decided to stop working as well. So, at present I have a tiny little sewing machine that is about 15 years old as my only backup. It is for small class projects and not intended to do full size quilts or operate for a long time.
After working almost 30 years with the Army, I was stationed at a base (Ft McPherson, Georgia) slotted for closure as a Base Realignment action. So, at the age of 58...I'm not retired. My working salary was around $100K and my current retirement is around $20K. The personnel management folks were super slow at getting my retirement package done correctly and I lived with about $12K annually for almost the first year of my retirement...and lost my car to repo because of that. And, although it's been three years since then...and I still don't have a vehicle; my family helps me with trips to the post office and grocery store.
My dream during my working years was to be able to spend time with my family. I'm doing that since I moved back home. I also wanted to spend time with hobbies that I enjoy which include all types of needlework. Each week I blog about what I'm stitching on and what I'm designing. I taught myself how to use software to help draw up quilt patterns and created a book about crazy quilts. It is a self-published workbook through Amazon titled Embellishing Crazy Quilts and was printed at no cost to me...which is the only way I could have done it. The sales are very slow, but it has helped me along the way these past couple of years with grocery money. A lot of the things that I do designs for are free and shown on my blog. Others are sometimes sold on my Etsy page. My blog is at shawkl.com if you want to check out my work.
It is really a bit demeaning for me to even think about asking perfect strangers for a helping hand. But, I'm honestly just trying to face my current circumstances and not wallow in depression because life did not turn out the way I thought it might. I am a good honest person, I've worked hard all of my life, and I try to share all that I can. A sewing machine is just a silly little thing...and my life will continue without one...but, I did so much with my machine and wanted to do even more...that I really miss not having it.
My granddaughter is almost ten years old now (in the photo she was about five) and I'd like to create some super cool clothes for her and add little embroidery touches to them....with your help.
Last month, my sewing machine stopped working. I had a spare, a 30 year old Pfaff that was purchased when my ex-husband and I were stationed (Army) in Germany in 1983. This week, it decided to stop working as well. So, at present I have a tiny little sewing machine that is about 15 years old as my only backup. It is for small class projects and not intended to do full size quilts or operate for a long time.
After working almost 30 years with the Army, I was stationed at a base (Ft McPherson, Georgia) slotted for closure as a Base Realignment action. So, at the age of 58...I'm not retired. My working salary was around $100K and my current retirement is around $20K. The personnel management folks were super slow at getting my retirement package done correctly and I lived with about $12K annually for almost the first year of my retirement...and lost my car to repo because of that. And, although it's been three years since then...and I still don't have a vehicle; my family helps me with trips to the post office and grocery store.
My dream during my working years was to be able to spend time with my family. I'm doing that since I moved back home. I also wanted to spend time with hobbies that I enjoy which include all types of needlework. Each week I blog about what I'm stitching on and what I'm designing. I taught myself how to use software to help draw up quilt patterns and created a book about crazy quilts. It is a self-published workbook through Amazon titled Embellishing Crazy Quilts and was printed at no cost to me...which is the only way I could have done it. The sales are very slow, but it has helped me along the way these past couple of years with grocery money. A lot of the things that I do designs for are free and shown on my blog. Others are sometimes sold on my Etsy page. My blog is at shawkl.com if you want to check out my work.
It is really a bit demeaning for me to even think about asking perfect strangers for a helping hand. But, I'm honestly just trying to face my current circumstances and not wallow in depression because life did not turn out the way I thought it might. I am a good honest person, I've worked hard all of my life, and I try to share all that I can. A sewing machine is just a silly little thing...and my life will continue without one...but, I did so much with my machine and wanted to do even more...that I really miss not having it.
My granddaughter is almost ten years old now (in the photo she was about five) and I'd like to create some super cool clothes for her and add little embroidery touches to them....with your help.
Organizer
Kathy Shaw
Organizer
Piedmont, AL
