Happy 15th Birthday Project Linus

Happy Birthday Project Linus! The National Organization, started by Karen Loucks Rinedollar, is now 15 years old! Way to go, Karen! What a vision she had! Our local chapter was 8 years old in November, and although we are not as busy as most urban chapters, and some rural chapters, we serve our communities well.

Happy New Year!
This past year was a good one for my Lower DelMarVa Chapter, partly because so many people were motivated to help the children in Haiti, following the earthquakes there. At this time I have one more box of blankets for the Haiti children, and will be working with UMCOR to get them to the kids who need them.
To usher in the New Year, we held a small MABD in Pocomoke yesterday, at Robinanne's quilting service. Only 3 ladies came, but we had a warm and cozy day making paper-pieced sailboats from the pattern in Quiltmaker Magazine. These will be made into blankets by Carol Greer, and quilted by Debbie Pierce-Dunn. Nice!

Snow Day!

Snow Day! Although I braved the cold to take some nice photos this morning, I have been inside since then. Snow days are so good for tromping around in those bulky down jackets, warm boots with the fur around the top and silly looking hats that are just too warm to leave in the drawer. Snow dampens the sounds on the highway and quiets the world in a peaceful way. My husband and I took a walk around the downtown area here so that I could again shoot pictures of the great old Chesapeake Skipjack temporarily docked here, by our river front museum and the historic old bridge. Houses and churches, covered with snow and untouched by previous footsteps motivate me to record the beauty that God has dumped on the southern half of the East Coast today! Well now I am indoors enjoying the warmth. Since I am leaving on another far away job assignment soon, I have to finish some undone projects and put them somewhere, preferably in storage with other blankets to be delivered. I thought of the mission of Project Linus and the warmth and comfort of our blankets.

It's Yours to Keep Forever
by Sonya Uhler

Linus has a blanket that's all his very own,
It comforts and sustains him when he's feeling all alone.

He knows others love him for 'twas made with special care
And because it means so much to him, its carried everywhere.
You too can have a blanket that was made especially for you
To comfort and support you when you're feeling kind of blue
Its yours to keep forever so you may always know
That others out there love you and to you our wishes go

Poem borrowed from Mary Balagna's blog

Frog Quilt Challenge

"You've been frogged" was a challenge we did about 2 years ago. My sister had sent me a crazy cast iron frog with instructions that told me I could not get rid of it until I did something nice for someone else, and she DID NOT want it back! It became a Project Linus challenge with a new twist. I made a frog themed quilt block, then wrote a set of slightly altered rules. The recipient could only get rid of the frog by making a frog themed quilt block. She then could "Frog" another quilter. When we had enough frog blocks for a teen sized quilt, I added sashing to the blocks and completed a top. Recently the top was quilted by Debbie Pierce-Dunn. I completed the binding last night. In the meantime, the frog was passed along to a PL coordinator in Great Falls Montana. I am so anxious to hear of the frog's cross country travel! If anyone knows where the frog is, please share! The ladies asked for a new challenge-- so we are doing the "Funky Chicken" . Blocks must be 8.5". Anyone can do a block and send it to me at 1400 Cedar St, Pocomoke City MD 21851

We love Thank You notes:
This one was addressed to a very prolific volunteer, Betsy.
Dear Ms S___
Thank you so much for the blankets you made for the NICU babies at PRMC. Our twins stayed there for about 2 months and used your blankets. The Project Linus blankets are a wonderful idea and make the NICU a much warmer place. Thanks again, Love Stan and Jennie B

Remember when? When we shopped for fabric they ran the folded edge through a machine and we loved to watch the dial turn. Next the lady would click the machine and a slit would be nicked in the fabric. She would remove the fabric and either tear or cut the fabric. When you got home, you measured it again, and there was always more than the amount you asked for. Before you could cut out your dress, blouse or curtains, it was necessary to straighten the grain. I remember trying to find one thread at each end, that was complete all the way across. Mom taught me to pull the thread then cut along the line formed by the missing thread. Now the fabric was "straight". It often would not fold evenly, but at least you knew it was "straight"!

Project Linus of Lower DelMarVa held 2 workshops this weekend for making blankets for the children we serve. At the Shorebirds Quilters' Retreat in beautiful Silver Beach on Friday, there were 30 ladies quilting by the Chesapeake Bay. What a view and such perfect weather!! I presented directions and a demo of 2 quilt patterns. Zip Strip by Prairie Sky is a colorful "Fun & Done" quilt-as-you-go pattern which can use up some of your small pieces of stash fabric. Any age child would love this bright quilt with colors that dance across the blocks!

The other pattern is "Basically Kids Stuff" a scrap-happy free pattern on the Connecting Threads website. I pre-cut the squares and rectangles with scraps. The 3 1/2" squares are all from leftover dog and cat prints.

The ladies in charge of this event had high tea for all of us at 3 pm. Such a clever idea to have an assortment of tea cups and saucers for us to keep. The Irish tea was wonderful, Regina! I've been bragging on you!

Saturday there were 13 ladies at Salem UMC in Pocomoke. We were prepared to teach the same 2 blocks as the day before, but the crochet teachers held everyone's interest! Thank you Debbie Quick and Anne Bottino.

Saturday, October 23

Make A Blanket Day

10 am - 3 pm

at

Salem United Methodist Church

2nd & Walnut Sts

Pocomoke MD

All are welcome! Bring a friend.

Fabric and yarn provided

noon time speaker will be a nurse from one of our recipient facilities

Come and hear her stories!

Bring sewing machine and/or crochet hook.

For the quilters:

new Scrap Happy patterns will be taught

For the crocheters, we will have lots of fleece to finish with crocheted edges.

Congratulations to Helen Lines of Pocomoke, who won the Shorebirds Quilt Guild raffle quilt.

We had a fabulous time at the Pacific NW Project Linus mini-conference. Thank you Jodene for making this temporary Oregon resident so welcome! We all left this 3 day weekend event, full of new ideas, fabric, lessons, projects, door prizes, patterns, inspiration, enthusiasm, warm & fuzzy feelings, new friends and happy exhaustion! It was such a nice touch to be able to listen to the leaders of recipient organizations. They told about where our blankets go and how they are loved by the children, and by the adults who give them. Teen moms get a help with new baby needs while learning about loving and caring for their infants, grieving kids get a blanket to wrap up in while learning to deal with the loss of a parent or sibling, a child whose house burned down, or kids new to foster care may all get a blanket. Sick kids in hospitals get blankets too. It is a wonderful outlet for those of us who sew, knit or crochet. One volunteer thanked the organizations for giving us an outlet for our talents, or fabric stash, and our need to serve the community.

Just needed to share a photo that J...' mom sent me of her little burrito boy wrapped up so cozily in his Project Linus blanket. thanks again to Joan Try of Portland/ Vancouver for stitching the quilt and coordinator Jodene Cook for getting it to me so I could give it to a child in crisis.

A big thank you to Ashley Davidson from the Volunteer office of Salisbury University! She organized a group of Freshmen during orientation week, and we now have a large donation of soft, comfy, colorful fleece blankets! Also thanks are in order for Mrs Barbara Phillips of Salisbury who graciously allowed the college kids to drop the blankets off at her house. Then, another thank you goes out to Pat Rebman and her husband who filled their pick up truck and brought the blankets to Pocomoke where a few other volunteers will label them. Deliveries to hospitals will be made in October.

I recently had the pleasure of giving a blanket to a 5 year old cutey whose house burned down on Sept 1. He was fun to watch. First he pulled the quilt out of the box I took it in. He shook it out and spread it on the floor, then smoothed out all the wrinkles. Next, he flopped on the quilt and stretched out to see if it was a good fit. All smiles the whole time, he studied the bright prints and found that it had race cars, orange flames and bright stars all over it. He is a big Oregon Duck fan and loves orange and black, the team colors. J. wrote a thank you note to the maker using lots of bright colors for his pictures. The first morning after sleeping with this perfect quilt, he came downstairs in his PJs, wrapped up like a burrito in his new favorite blanket!

Blankets for kids in Haiti

70 blankets! In just 2 short weeks the ladies of Lower DelMarVa have made 70 blankets which are already on their way to kids of Haiti. I was fortunate to be able to give 2 young Haitian girls their own warm quilts. These girls were adopted by a family in Glendive MT where I am working for a few weeks. The other 68 blankets made on DelMarVa have gone to UMCOR ( United Methodist Committee on Relief), who will ship and distribute them on Haiti. Much of this effort is due to the energy of Barbara Williams and Patti Woodhurst. Thanks to all of you!

In general, our Project Linus blankets go to kids on DelMarVa, then occasionally to other parts of the US where there is a special need. The Haiti disaster is so big that many of us felt like the kids there would really be comforted by a blanket. Please do not forget that we are still trying to serve all the hospitals and organizations locally, as we have done for the last 6 years.

Make A Blanket Day
Wattsville United Methodist Church
Saturday Feb 20, 2010
10 am - 4 pm
kits available for sewing blankets for Haiti kids

Blankets for Haiti

We have a great way to spread the love with our blankets by sending some to victims of the recent earthquake in Haiti.
Barbara Williams and others have been moved to hold blanket days for making simple blankets of flannel and 100% cottons. Because of the very warm climate, all blankets for this mission will be 2 layers-- flannel on one side and 100% cotton on the other side. One ideas is just a simple blanket-- stitch 2 pieces together rights sides together, leaving a small opening for turning right side out. Turn, then press the edges neatly. Top stitch around the edges then stitch in the middle-- an "X", a decorative stitch, or whatever else your imagination lets you.

Second idea is a simple blanket made from strips cut across the width of the fabric x 6". Put the first 2 strips wrong sides together, then place the next 2 strips right sides together-- one on each side. Stitch this seam about 1/2". Flip the second pair and press seam. Continue until the blanket is as large as you want. I suggest between 42 and 72".

Blankets should be delivered to Robinanne's Quilting Service or Salem United Methodist Church in Pocomoke before Feb 6. On that date they will be taken to the Peninsula Conference HQ for shipment and distribution by UMCOR to needy kids in Haiti. ( United Methodist Committee on Relief).
Contact me by email or call Robinanne's Quilting Service @ 410-957-4766 for dates and times of the workshops.