Sometimes Life is not sunshine and Lollipops. Life hands us a blow to the head when we are not expecting it. I have been trying to find a way to share the death of Whip Up Designer/founder Kathreen Ricketson and her husband Rob Shugg ... who was not only an industry friend, but a personal friend. They died in a scuba accident (read about it here and HERE at CNN)
It's important to celebrate her life and all the amazing things she has done to support the Quilt, Sewing and Craft community.
Today a little rainbow popped into my mailbox with 'The Plan' from Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne of masondixonknitting.com Read on for my memories of Kathreen and watch the entire globe of blogs posts over the next few days.
Kathreen and I met online. We never actually met in person, but we have been friends since she started to blog, somewhere back in 2004. I found her craft blog http://whipup.net and was hooked!
What got me hooked was that Kathreen was showcasing projects from around the globe on her site. You know.. things you can just 'Whip Up'.. wink! We started an email friendship that has lasted through these many years.
Whip Up was a place of sharing, a place that built community, a place with heart.
I just wrote to her last Tuesday, she was doing an interview of me for a magazine.
There are many great tutorials from so many awesome designers on her site. And through this year the scheduled posts will still run. You can pick up this fast fabric necklace to 'whip up' at THIS DIRECT LINK
You can Read my interview with Kathreen HERE
Their two children.. son Orlando and daughter Otilija, are with family. An education fund has been set up by Kathreen's brother Jonathan for them. I hope you will donate a bit to the fund, to help with the education of her children. This will honor the name of a person so very special to the online crafting community.
Information on that fund can be found here: http://whipup.net/2013/05/20/thank-you/.
The email address for PayPal contributions is [email protected].
And you can just use this button right now.
Learn more about Kathreen's work HERE at her personal website
As the difficult announcement post at Whip Up says at the end "hug your children extra tight tonight, kiss your partner good bye, call your family and friends and say I love you."
PLEASE
share this at Pinterest, your Facebook page, retweet and reblog it if
you like. I can email you the code for the button, just write me at
[email protected]
