THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410110092
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 101 lines
THE CRAFTS PROGRAM at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church has grown from a small, book-cluttered table to a large upstairs room filled with ribbons, bows, fabric, seashells and other crafty materials.
The impetus behind the program is Jessie Blalock, wife of the Rev. Charles K. Blalock. She started the program two years ago with an initial $50 investment.
``We didn't even have a bottle of glue,'' Blalock said.
The first year, the craft program raised $2,000 for the church. So far this year, the program has raised $1,800 and the annual church pancake breakfast hasn't even taken place yet.
Blalock and six loyal workers meet weekly to make the crafts they sell. The crafts include wreaths, frames, decorated hats, stuffed animals, Advent calendars, Christmas decorations, painted sweat shirts and much more.
By reinvesting all the money they made initially, they were able to buy more supplies to make more crafts to sell. The supplies also have increased because of donations.
``Some people have told me that they couldn't do crafts,'' she said, ``but I said, you can tie a bow, you can stuff, you can glue.''
She said that she thinks her enthusiasm for the program has rubbed off on the other workers.
``I get so excited about the things I'm doing because I do things that I love doing,'' Blalock said.
A mother of four and grandmother of two, Blalock brought her love of crafts to the church when her husband was assigned there two years ago.
Over the years, she has supplemented her husband's salary by working as a nurse and by sewing, decorating cakes and making crafts.
``I bought my husband his first easy chair with the money I made sewing Barbie clothes,'' she said.
Blalock met her husband in Norfolk when he was a minister at LeKies Methodist Church, which later merged with another congregation and became Heritage United Methodist. At the time, she was a young nurse at Norfolk General Hospital.
``One of his parishioners was one of my patients,'' she said.
She had begun nursing training when she was just 17, the youngest in the program. ``God called me to nursing,'' she said.
The Blalocks have served many churches in Hampton Roads. They recently bought a home in Virginia Beach, although they live in Wesley Memorial's Norfolk parsonage.
``I have my toothbrush there and my nightgown,'' Jessie said of their Virginia Beach house. ``I could go out there and spend the night if I wanted to.''
She and her husband have four children: Susan Pearman of Virginia Beach; Nancy Bloubaum of Raleigh, N.C.; Douglas Blalock of Virginia Beach, and Michael Blalock, who lives in Northern Virginia.
Daughter Susan, Jessie said, ``doesn't sew a stitch,'' but she has inherited her mother's passion for cleanliness and neatness and her love of cooking. Nancy, on the other hand, ``outsews me,'' she said.
She is now teaching her 5-year-old granddaughter, Morgan, to do crafts.
``I bought her a tiny sewing machine to use when she's at my house,'' Jessie said.
Recently, as she was sewing a nightgown for Morgan's stuffed rabbit on her 29-year-old sewing machine, Blalock said she started reminiscing about when she bought the machine.
While pregnant with her fourth child, Blalock said she had heard that the Singer company would let people try out their new machines before they decided to buy. So Blalock cut out a dress pattern, called the company, and they brought her a machine to try out.
``The machine was wonderful,'' she said, ``but I told them that I couldn't afford to buy it.''
When another model came out, this time the Singer people called her to see if she wanted to try it out. Again she cut out another pattern and had a finished piece by the time the sewing machine representative came to pick up the machine.
``This went on about three or four times,'' she said. ``Then, finally, the boss wanted to come out to my house to meet me.''
When he did, he offered to sell her a machine by paying a little money down and a little each month.
Blalock has been sewing since she grew up in West Virginia.
``We lived on a farm, and we had feed sacks,'' she said. ``If I found two that matched, I would make myself an outfit.''
Not the burlap kind, she said, but feed sacks that had pretty printed patterns on them.
``I would tell my daddy when he went to buy cow feed to be sure to pick up two bags that matched,'' she explained.
The sewing that she learned to do back on her parents' farm has helped her dress her children, fill the church's coffers, and now it will keep homeless people warm. She's in the middle of a project to make roomy sleeping bags for those who have to sleep in the street.
``They aren't made fancy,'' she said, ``but they're made with love and hope that someone gets at least one good night's sleep.'' MEMO: If you know someone whom you feel is deserving of a Thumbs Up! feature,
call Vicki Lewis at 446-2286. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by GARY C. KNAPP
Jessie Blalock is the woman behind the crafts program at Wesley
Memorial United Methodist Church.
by CNB