Most of the time, most of us go through our days without stopping to be grateful.

But then—once in a while—you receive the gift of a magical day, one that you know makes life worthwhile.

I had that experience on Saturday at our first annual Piecing for Parkinson’s day.

I founded the Parkinson’s Comfort Project in honor of my Mom and Dad at the end of 2010, the year my Mom died of complications of Parkinson’s disease. The last quilt I made for her was smallish—quilters call them lap quilts—because the bed quilts I’d made for her had become too heavy for her to manage.

After Mom died, I looked around for an organization that would take  quilts I made in her memory and distribute them to folks with Parkinson’s disease.

Well, no such organization existed. So I had to start one.

The Parkinson’s Comfort Project is now growing into a full-blown nonprofit that provides comfort in all sorts of way to people with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers.

One of the other members of our board, Annette Houston, is a quilter as well. We had been talking about putting together a day of quilting for Parkinson’s. But the woman pictured here, Maureen, is the one who got it jump started.

Maureen lost her Mom to a rare form of Parkinson’s disease last year, and like me, was looking for a way to give support to those similarly afflicted. She heard about the Parkinson’s Comfort Project, and emailed me to ask: Do you ever have sewing days to make quilts? If you do, I’d love to be involved.

So Annette and I got to work, and the result was a magical day with a lot of stories brought to us by the people who came to help. I’ll be telling them all week long, right here.