Mariner's Compass

The photo is the Mariner's Compass I made for my old friend Walter Drake for his 91st birthday. It is now at the Felixstowe Museum in the UK, where memorabilia of the Coastal Forces are kept.
He has been an inspiration in my life, the wonderful support and care he gave to me in 1997,when I was away from my own home and in Auckland for some long 6 weeks, his continued friendship from then until his death in April 2010, his many letters which slowly became harder to decipher as his eyesight diminished to almost nil,and his determination in the face of all obstacles,to carry on and write his "MS",so the name of my blog came about from our friendship, remembering his days in HMS in World War 2, and some great help from a friend in Auckland, who just adjusted the words perfectly. Thanks, Marj.
I started the project "Bags for Japan from New Zealand" after reading a comment on a American quilter's blog, and it snowballed from there.The response has been wonderful, and the bags are arriving in the letterbox already.There have been very generous offers for freight from where I live, to Wellington, from NZ to Tokyo, from there to Camp Zama, all people I did not know before this, but thank them so much.
I have learned to condense my lengthy words to 2 minutes. One daughter said this would be impossible for me to get my message across in that time. Well, watch me, if that is the time limit, I will try. I did!!! Cheers, Jean (Nancy J)