I introduced you to this dear friend in a previous post, but yesterday I was privileged to see some of her most recent masterpieces, and decided it seemed like the perfect post for Memorial Day.

Her hours and hours of work and expertise are done for service men and women who have been touched by war.  She did not want me to share this picture of her, but I think you need to see this gifted lady.

The organization is "Quilts of Valour".

 

 

My friend does the machine done quilt top.  In other words, she is the designer, the color coodinator, the piecer, and the artist of these quilts...an artist extrordinaire!  Her good friend is the the master quilter of these particular quilts.  There are many women who work tediously for the "Quilts of Valour" organization.

 

 

Look at the details in this quilt...amazing!!!

 

All done for very special men and women who serve our country.  Who help preserve our freedom...our heroes.

I want to share what a friend read at church, in regards to these men and women;

"I watched the flag pass by one day,

It fluttered in the breeze.

A young Marine saluted it,

and then he stood at ease.

I looked at him in uniform

So young, so tall, so proud,

He'd stand out in any crowd.

I thought how many men like him

Had fallen through the years,

How many died on foreign soil?

How many mother's tears?

How many pilots' planes shot down?

How many died at sea?

How many foxholes were soldiers' graves?

No, freedom isn't free.

I heard the sound of TAPS one night,

When everything was still

I listened to the buglar play

And felt a sudden chill.

I wondered just how many times

That TAPS had meant "Amen,"

When a flag had draped a coffin

Of a brother or a friend.

I thought of all the children,

Of mothers and the wives,

Of fathers, sons and husbands

With interrupted lives.

I thought about a graveyard

At the bottom of the sea

Of unmarked graves in Arlington.

No, freedom isn't free."

~author unknown

 

Today, you may be having a picnic.  You may be celebrating a holiday from work, simply relaxing and stretching out on your hammock, or a blanket under the shade tree.  But, somewhere in this world of ours, soldiers are not having that privilege.   Thanks to them, we do.

Thanks to all of you...every last one of you who serve our country!

Those of you who haved serve and who do now serve in our United States Military! 

Those of you who lost loved ones in war, and those of you whose loved ones are not with you this holiday weekend because they are serving our country.

On a personal level...thanks to our wonderful son-in-law and all his years serving with the United States Coast Guard, our two nephews now serving with the United States Army.

Today we salute and honor you!