Soldier Kissing Pillows

I have began working on a wonderful little project that any stitcher can participate called the Solder Kissing Pillow. These small pillows are stitched by crafters all around the country and are being handed out to deploying soldiers and their families. The concept is that pillow is kissed and hugged by either the soldier or by his family members and serves as a little piece of "home comfort" for the period of seperation while serving our country. I have read stories where families who received the personal effects of soldiers that gave the ultimate sacrifice found these little pillows returned to them tattered and torn but carried by the soldier day by day providing comfort and solace to all.
This effort was began in 2005 by the Yellow Rose Embrodiery Guild of America in Houston, Texas. Since then, the requests for these little pillows has grown to a nationwide effort of EGA guilds and cross stitch enthusiasts who just want to share their craft with someone and knowing it can bring comfort as well as beauty into their lives.

I am hoping to create 25 of these pillow tops this year to help with this effort. The design is very simple and is stitched on 14 count aida with DMC floss. The pillow has the words "I LOVE YOU" along with two stars of patriotic colors. The stitcher only stitches the top part of the pillow and can send the completed tops to a participating EGA which will then make sure the pillows are finished and deployed. This seems to be wonderful way of giving something back by sharing a craft that I love and enjoy so much.

Here are some links that I found about the effort. Please feel free to google search "Soldier Kissing Pillow" and you will find abundant information on the web. The first link is to the Yellow Rose EGA chapter which started this effort. If you are  interested in helping out with this effort, please leave a comment stating so and I willl reply to your request with an email containing the pattern and where to send the finished stitched tops.Thanks!

http://www.yellowroseega.com/outreach.htm#soldier
http://www.the-signal.com/archives/13293/
 http://wcfcourier.com/lifestyles/article_cd3bd7c4-e670-11de-a931-001cc4c03286.html