A Crafty St. Patty's Day

With plenty of sunshine and temperatures in the 70's, eleven Crafty Angels came bearing their latest love gifts on Saturday, March 17th - St. Patty's Day.  It really looked and felt more like summer outside than just shy of the first day of spring!  We were happy to have Joyce Dattalo from Oswego, IL at this meeting.  Joyce has been a faithful contributor to Crafty Angels, but this was the first time she was able to join us in person.  It was also great to have JoAnne Larson from Glenview with us, along with "the regulars".  Since our January meeting, we received lots of yarny goodness to be opened, sorted through, and - most importantly - admired!  We're always blown away by the beauty and QUANTITY of what is brought and sent.  But, even more than that, our hearts our touched by the love that goes into every stitch.  Each of you is such a blessing to the many recipients of your prolific gifts!

Take a look below at just some of what we have received over the past two months!  Because of the volume of yarny goodness, it's impossible to show you everything, so please accept our apologies.

We don't know exactly how many Klickers there are in Loogootee, IN, but we do know that we are always amazed by the variety and sheer quantity of their love gifts!  Here is their latest shipment.  Look at all of the hats, scarves, baby afghans, etc., etc.  Check out the adorable hooded infant wraps - lots of oohing and aahing over those!

Linda Faubel of Ladd, IL has also been VERY busy.  She sent hats, scarves and loads of baby afghans.  Look at all of the gorgeous spa cloths she created!  The folks at Cornerstone Community Outreach, North Park Friendship Center, and the new moms and babies at Swedish Covenant Hospital are going to be thrilled.

Margie Chan of Chicago worked up some gorgeous spa cloths and a beautiful lavendar hat and scarf set.

Check out the goodies from Kathleen Evans of Wynnewood, PA!  The hats and baby mittens were adorable and we loved the spectacular baby afghans.

All the way from Phoenix, AZ, Shirley Miller sent us a beautiful afghan, a lap blanket and some scarves.

Carol Flowers, one of our regulars from Bolingbrook, IL, has been busy working up her gorgeous hat and scarf sets as well as lots of baby hats and spa cloths.

Look at the bright, beautiful colors in these crocheted afghans provided by Penny Sawczak from right here in Chicago...

We loved the beautiful soft colors in these baby afghans brought by Joyce Dattalo.  The hats and scarves will be a blessing to some of the folks at Cornerstone Community Outreach or the North Park Friendship Center.

Naperville resident, Terri Klein, sent us a boatload of love gifts.  Just look at all of the fruits of her labor!

Edgebrook Covenant's own Pam Gantzer, knitter extraordinaire, worked up some cozy hats and scarves.

Carol Stephan, from Forest Park, IL, is famous for her gorgeous baby afghans/sweater/bib sets.  Here's her latest installment, along with some very cool (or should we say warm?) scarves.

Edgebrook Covenanter, Phyllis Snodgrass, has become our reside expert for gorgeous multi-colored scarves with fringe.  She also brought a much-needed bagful of spa bag "innards".  Thank you, Phyllis!

What more can we say about Debbie Kreusch's adorable baby sweaters with the unbelievably cute buttons?  What a clever way to turn scraps of yarn into amazing love gifts.  Debbie always seems to be playing around with new creations and this time she brought fleece blankets with crocheted borders.  Best of all...check out the dolls!  Aren't they the cutest?!

And here are the beautiful baby afghans and hats created by JoAnne Larson of Glenview, IL.  She also brought some love gifts for the men at A Just Harvest (the dark hats and scarves) and the moms at Cornerstone Community Outreach (spa cloths).  Thanks, JoAnne!

We're pretty sure Mary Grotz of Skokie, IL must have used a pack mule to transport all of her yarny goodness to this meeting!  Just look at how much work she did!  The baby onesies that she crochets are adorable, as are the afghans and, well, pretty much everything else she makes.  The men at A Just Harvest are going to love the hat and scarft sets that she stitched.  On top of all that hand-made goodness, she also brought spa bag "innards".  Whew! 

Last, but certainly not least, look at this amazing afghan Jeannine Patt crocheted.  This was given to one of the men at Edgebrook Covenant Church who recently lost his mother.  We know all the love that Jeannine stitched into this afghan was a comfort to him.

Good news!  We finally have enough dark hat and scarf sets to be able to make a delivery to the men at A Just Harvest this upcoming Christmas season.  That being said, if you enjoy making these dark hat and scarf sets, keep 'em coming!  We need 200 sets in order to gift them with yarny goodness and it takes a long time to collect that many.  Any extras will go into storage for the following year's delivery.  We are also in need of adult-size afghans, so if you have the patience and inclination, we'd appreciate receiving any of these you'd like to send our way.

Angels, we can't thank you enough for all the amazing work you do for so many people who are blessed beyond belief by your goodness.  We hope you enjoyed the mild winter and that you're enjoying the very beautiful (so far) spring.  Please remember that we meet the third Saturday every other month at 10:30 a.m. at Edgebrook Covenant Church, 6355 N. Spokane Avenue in Chicago.  Our next meeting is May 19th.  If you live in or around the Chicago area, we would love for you to come join us.  Blessings!