Good news - & bad news - pictures of flyers - Stand up and be counted etc.

Hello once again,

Well my friends ---- As some of you may know by now I do have some good news and bad news.

 

First thing is that my eye doctor informed me that my eye has been infected with a virus....nothing they can do about it and I now have 4 scars on my left eye.....(the good thing so far is that I still have my vision)

More Good news -- my blog is letting me post pictures again...

Good News -- I have 95 more meters to go and I will have cut 1,000 meters/1 kilometer of segments for our Canadian Record for the World's Longest Banner.

Ummm a bit more bad news....While I was cutting material, the rotary blade that I was using got caught on the temp plate and the blade sliced through my thumb and cut my tendon in half.

More Good news the doctor was abler to reattach the tendon... it took 3/4 of an hour to reattach but he says that it looks like I'll be fine.

 

Good news....hey I only have 95 more meters to go and we'll have 1 kilometer of banner.....now we just have to wait for the banners to come in so that we can sew them together.

I still have one good hand :-)

Picture of invitation

This is where will will hold the parade of banners -

just a 2.5 kilometer walk and then we stack and count the banners -

after that we can have a banner trade off....

then we can recycle our banners by framing them as pictures...

or by making green bags or quilts etc.

Canadian Challenge -

I'm hoping that at least one Canadian from each province will take up this challenge,

for me this would make it such a great success.

simple instructions for making a banner..

don't feel intimidated ....

if all you can do is sign your name then that is all that is needed.

After all -

what we are trying to do is create some awareness

Well my freinds -- this is it for now...take care -- God bless and have a great day.

Maria

Why gold fabric paint on edges of the banners??

 Hello and good afternoon my freinds,

I'm hoping that this message will reach those that have already done banners.

Our banners are
green for the cause of organ & tissue donation

The reason that we are asking for the edges to be painted is to prevent the fraying of the fabric.

The reason for the gold edges (with fabric paint) on your banners is because, we would like for the World's Longest Banner to have a unified look.

Another reason for the GOLD edges

Now ---- some of you may think that this is corny, but

I was raised with this saying that –

A child is worth it's wieght in gold.

Therefore reason for the gold is that

the Gift of Life is worth its weight in gold

(Ya, I know – it’s corny!)

But what do you expect from a country bumpkin. lol

 NOW ---

For those of you that have already done banners and those banners have been handed in to me.

An Example of

Some of the banners that have been completed and handed in, Banners,

• That have been handed in by Jennifer. that were done at special events in Edmonton.
• Those banners that have been done at the National Games and/or were handed in at the games.

I want you to know that I am painting the edges/border with gold fabric paint and I will sew those banners together.

Thank you again for all your help and I apologize for all the confusion that this has caused.

p.s.

The reason that I had to make the change in the instructions i.e. gold paint for edges instead of glue.

This is due to the fact that using glue clogs the sewing machines.

This is a lesson that I had to learn the hard way, after the glue ended up causeing damage to one of my sewing machines.


Thank you again for your patience and understanding.

And, please make sure to paint the edges of your banners gold.

Take care - God bless - and have a great day.

Maria

Invitation and Vision

Invitation

Please join us for the - PARADE of BANNERS

On May 5^th, 2013

In Peace River AB, Riverfront Park

The Vision:    

Canadians working together to set a Guinness World Record for the Longest Banner in the World, 2013, by joining together 1 metre Banner Sections made by individuals and groups across the country to promote Organ and Tissue Donation.

1.    Teams from schools or groups and individuals are invited to wear colors and carry flags representing their community, region and/or province.

2. The Banner Sections made for this event will start being added to those made by the community of Peace River etc. by volunteer sewers.

3.    The procession begins and teams and individuals will walk, carrying the length of the  Banner, on the 2.5 Gift of Life Path,  to the Gift of Life Arboretum

4. As the Banner Parade progresses, we will then continue to add and sew banners together for the parade until all the banners have been attached.

5.    At Gift of Life Arboretum the Banner Sections will be counted and stacked accordion style. This is for proper documentation and to show proof needed by the Guinness organization.

6.    After the event, teams will take their Banner Sections back home to promote Organ and Tissue donation in their community and province.

Banner material - pictures - Getting Ready for 2 Galas

Hello my friends,

It's been a busy few days, my grandson Max turned three on Wednesday and I have been working with my volunteer editor from BC (this lady has asked me to her name keep confidential).

We now have completed a few things for the web page etc and the presentation that I will be doing for my town council on the 22. (I will share this with you as it is completed.)

Today I need to pre-cut and catalog 50 pieces of banner material for the Gala that is to be held in Ontario.

At this point, I'm still doing this and working on my own, the for cutting the material has been a bit labor intensive, but I now have it down pat. 

Here are the steps that I'm using to get a Kilometer of material done in my community.

I just took these pictures for you this morning. (I hope this information will help those that want to meet or beat my challenge to do 1 Kilometer )

The first step I took was to design a pattern and then I ordered a kilometer of pre-cut material (Then geeeezzz -as you can see the material was cut in different widths - because of this I now have to make changes to the pattern size and instructions)

At this point I'm beginning to wonder "What else can go wrong?" and I'm beginning to feel more then a little foolish because the instructions have all ready been posted in the National News Letter for the CTA!

Then I think - "Oh well, we just have to keep trucking!" After this I speak with my head volunteer and good friend Claudette and she suggests that we take e excess material and make quilts for the needy....(O.K. this makes me feel better and now we move on.)





This isn't the order that I posted this

but this darn program has a mind of it's own..

But, I'm not going to fight with it anymore -

I know that you will get the gist of things...-



# 2
I cut holes in a box to make rolling out of fabric easier.

 


# 3

So that I could have an accurate measurement

I went to one of our local glass shops and

had a temp plate made from Plexiglas

 






#7
a rotary blade helps to speed things along.

  





# 8

After temp plate is on I take my rotary blade and

cut my material to the proper measurement.

 




#6

A top view of my production line - a line of one :-)

As you can see I have a hillbilly set up

But it works for me

 



#5

I then set my cutting mat down and

place the material on the edges that I have taped on the mat 





#4

I set up my table and then

stick a broom handle inside the role of fabric





# 1 -
Kilometer of material ordered



#9
I set my temp plate down on the material and
I am now ready to cut my material to the right length





#10 - a
I cut the left side

 


#10 - b
I then cut the right side
Since I am taking the pictures myself I had to take the picture in this manner -
 what I do normally is start from the bottom and work my way up.



# 11 - b




#12

I place the pattern on top of my pre-cut material and

mark the stitching lines



#11 -a

I made a pattern to be able to mark accurate stitching lines

This pattern is made out of construction paper.

.

 


.

#13

I place the pattern down to mark the stitching edges.



# 17
Some of my materials - paints brushes-temp plate etc.



Now for step #2

The material has been cut and the stitchings edges are marked.

(I did this with a felt marker and as usual I find out

 that if I don't move quickly that the paint bleeds and darn it -

I did it again!!)



.

#14

After marking the stitching edges

I start documentation of the banner material 

This is the World's Longest Banner - piece # 455

I write this number in the book 

After this it is ready for distribution. 



# 15

These are some of the paints that I use for the edges of the banner to prevent fraying of the fabric.

I sometimes use gold fabric paint or

I will use an acrylic paint that has been premixed with a medium

this transforms the acrylic paint into a fabric paint.



# 16
I now paint the edges with gold paint

 



# 13
This are cutting instructions
This picture is for those of you that are working on smaller pieces of material

   

Well my friends - I have been at this since 6:30 a.m. when I kissed my husband goodbye this morning as he set of for work.

So now that I have completed this task - I will start cutting material for the up and coming 25th anniversary Gala's in Calgary and Ontario.

Ontario would like to have 50 pieces of pre-cut material sent out asap

Therefore I better get my butt off this computer and get it in gear for cutting material.

I'll  need to have the material ready to mail out today, so that it will be ready on time for thier Gala.

Hopefully - Since mailing out material can get pretty costly for me - things will take a turn for the better soon and we'll have some brave souls that will take on this challenge and order their own material.

God bless - Take care and have a great day.

Maria

Instructions for WLB section - Part 1

How to Construct a Section of the

World’s Longest Banner for Organ and Tissue Donation, 2012

The color of the banners is green for the cause. Material for the banner a medium green broadcloth is ideal, or a subtle green-on-green print cotton or poly-cotton.

Each Banner Section MUST be 100 cm (1 metre) banner, with 2 cm. seam allowances on each end. It is important that each section, once sewn, be exactly 1 m as the sections will be counted toward the record rather than measured.

1.  CUT FABRIC

Cut the Banner to exact size. The required size for each individual Banner Section is:

• 104 by 33 centimetres  , or
• 41 by 13  inches  

Basically the banner sections are 100 cm (1 metre) with 2 cm sewing edges added to the two ends. This can also be measured as 39.4 inches, with ½ inch sewing edges. (See illustrations on page 3.)

2.  MARK SEAM LINES

A very critical step is to clearly mark the sewing lines at exactly 1 m. You may do this with pencil or a thin-tip permanent Marker (e.g. Sharpie).

3.  PREVENT FRAYING

GOLD fabric paint is to be used, in order to give all the completed banners a uniform look.  The top and bottom edges of the Banner Section must be painted to prevent fraying of the fabric.

If you decide to frame the entire Banner Section with gold paint, please be careful to paint inside the sewing lines on the ends where  it will be attached to other banner sections. Paint on the lines will make sewing difficult. If you are working with children or groups, please protect the sewing lines with a strip of green painters tape.

Fabric Paint often comes in small, squeezable bottles with an applicator tip. You may squeeze the paint along the edge, then use a brush to smooth it out to the edge. This is available in craft and fabric shops as well as the craft section of Walmart, etc. and is quite inexpensive. (A 2 oz/59 ml bottle cost me $3-5. A 1 oz bottle is more than enough to do several banners.) You may also use a regular acrylic paint, mixed with “textile medium” to make an inexpensive fabric paint (see photos at end of instructions.)

There is no specific width for the paint, it simply needs to go along the cut edge of the fabric – it can be narrow, wide, plain or fancy – up to you!

4.  DECORATE and PERSONALIZE

You may add paint, magic marker, fused fabric cut into shapes, dye, embroidery, appliqué, etc. to personalize your Banner Section as long as these are flat to the fabric.

Please do not use three-dimensional embellishments (for example a teddy bear or other larger memory items), as the banner sections must lie flat when piled up.

Be creative:

• Use a quote about organ and tissue donation,
• Dedicate the Banner Section to a donor or recipient,
• Draw, paint, express your feelings about the importance of organ donation ,
• Have your group autograph the banner,
• Paint images that make you happy; Print images onto fabric and add,
• Finger paint, stamp, make handprints, footprints...use your imagination!

 5. SEW

If you are making multiple Banner Sections (e.g. a school or group project), please sew your banners together along the sewing lines before sending/bringing them in. This will ease the burden on volunteer sewers in the mad rush leading to the Guinness Challenge.

Information for those unable to attend the Parade of Banners:

Please try to join and support a team from your province and bring if possible bring them to the NOTDAW Walk in your province.

For those that are mailing in their banners to Peace River:

6. SEND / DONATE to:

World’s Longest Banner 2012

Town of Peace River, Community Services

PO Box 6600

Peace River, Alberta, Canada   T8S 1S4

Mailed contributions must be received by: April 1^st 2013

For those that are mailing in their banners to Peace River –

Once the Guinness Book of World Records Challenge has been met, the banner will be divided into sections and your banner/banners will be given to a team or individual from your province. These banners will then be shared amongst Canadian organ and tissue donation education and support groups for future use in awareness efforts.

7. FIND MORE INFO about the Banner Project at:  

            Facebook:  World’s Longest Banner for Organ & Tissue Donation

Blog:           worldslongestbanner@blogspot.ca

Twitter:       longestbanner20

Web Page:  worldslongestbanner.org (under construction)

World’s Longest Banner for Organ and tissue Donation, 2012

????? - Canadian Challenge

 Dear Readers...

As you know, Allen and I were looking to attending and volunteering at the games. Therefore it was disappointing, to miss out on this opportunity to be with everyone and taking part in, what has been for us, a life altering event.

Another thing that was upsetting about not being able to attend this event is that, I was looking forward to personally introducing and promoting the banner project on a national level.

One of the things that I was hoping to do, while attending the games, was to issue this challenge .

BANNER CHALLENGE

What I wanted to ask was-

If individuals, groups or teams would like to help Canada set a world record for the longest banner?

What they could do -

They could get sponsors - have special T shirts made etc. and start collecting banners from their area and have them sewn together.After banners are done -If possible, send someone or a team - to Peace River on the weekend of May 5th 2013 -

We could then add their collection of banners for - the longest banner attempt for a Guinness World Record -

After this event they (the team or individual) could take all their banners home to help promote in their community and or province.Using Banners to promote in communities - 2013 to 2014

Since we want the banner recycled and we are hoping it will be used--(as Art work, made into quilts or clothing or accessories)

We believe and hope that by doing this, it could also help with promotion and fundraising for the 2014 National Transplant Games

It would be fun to find out which team, school, community or province has the largest collection of banners by May of 2013.

My personal Challenge - I've already personally bought enough material for the first kilometre and I am hoping to have a Kilometre done by May 5th

I would love it if someone could meet or beat my challenge !!

God bless and have a great day.

Maria 

Donor mom 

May 7th 1993