We have a label!

This has got to be the cutest, most colorful label ever!


Donna and Debbie L worked on it. It's really a nice touch that new quilt owners will have a place to write their own name. Soon we will be putting one of these labels on every quilt we donate.

Mary's Boo-Boo Kids Quilt

You can see the little Boo-Boo Kid right at the top of Mary S's lovely quilt:

Mary used this year's theme, the Road to Recovery, as an opportunity to figure out a pattern she had been wanting to make -- a Gordian knot. The design provides a fancy road indeed for the Boo-Boo kid's wagon!

Balloon Nine Patch

Judy G quilted this one for Linus. She outlined the balloons with free motion quilting and anchored the seams with stitch in the ditch, then tacked the rest.

Judy has a fast and easy way to tack a quilt. She's written out directions that we will post soon, along with links to other methods of tacking. Quilting doesn't have to take forever -- it just has to hold the quilt together!

Flannel Quilts for Baby

We usually have a backlog of quilts that have been pieced but need quilting. Many thanks to Dixie, who took two baby quilts to finish. This first bright pink one has a combination of machine quilting along the seams with tacking in the center section. It came out great!


Dixie tacked this whole quilt in the corners of each block. This quilt is another example of stretching our creativity when we don't have enough of each fabric. It looks like we meant the design to be this way all along!

Animal Panel Quilts

Someone donated some adorable pre-quilted panels that needed only binding to be finished. Martha bound all four (two were the same panel, so there are only 3 photos here). It was a really fast way to get some very cute quilts!



One of the nice things about the pre-quilted panels is that they have coordinating fabric on the back. Here are the three backings:


Finishing up these 4 panels and the flannel quilt below brings our total to 39 completed quilts since September!

Thirties Kids Flannel

Martha just finished binding this quilt -- I'm not sure who stitched and quilted it. We had a very cute piece of flannel with babies and washtubs, 30's style, but it didn't coordinate with the other flannels in our stash. We decided to make it the centerpiece of this quilt and put a plaid flannel border around it and backed it with the same plaid. Click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see the design.

Watch the NBC Linus report

Here it is! Just click on this link, Linus segment, and you'll see the page with the video.

Watch Project Linus on NBC News!

More great news from Mary Balagna! Here's what she sent:

Project Linus will be on the Friday night NBC news with Brian Williams on January 19th (5:30-6:00). It's the Making a Difference segment that usually airs at the very end of the broadcast. They have been in contact with us over the past couple of months and we're looking forward to seeing what they've come up with. Although Carol and I were simply the "gophers" when it came to providing information to NBC (we're not in the segment) - we hope it will be something that will spark interest in volunteers across the country.

Remember, that's this Friday (Jan. 19) on NBC News, 5:30-6:00!

Make A Blanket Day Information

If I recall correctly, 'Raquel Welch' and a few other screen stars are members of our guild (you know who you are!). For the rest of us, just attending Make a Blanket Day might put us in the limelight. Here's some information just in from Mary Balagna, coordinator of the Central Illinois Project Linus activities and VP of the national organization:

We have some great news about our Make a Blanket Day on Saturday, February 17th at the Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth. We will be filming our new Project Linus promotional DVD. We have a media company that is coming from Nashville to do the taping. They'll simply be taping while you work. Many of you were in our original video back in 2001. Well, Project Linus has changed tremendously over the past 6 years and the new video will reflect the changes. We will be making an 8 minute promotional video as well as a training video for our chapter coordinators. You don't need to speak - just work, have fun and make blankets - just like we always do!

If you are interested in attending Make A Blanket Day, please pre-register by February 10. Email Mary Balagna at mary@projectlinus.org to sign up. You can also walk in to Sew Sassy any time on February 17 and work on a kit. If you want to sew, please bring your machine.

Kim's Boo-Boo Kids Quilt

Every year the Central Illinois Chapter of Project Linus sponsors a Boo-Boo Kids Challenge. They provide the Boo-Boo Kids image (here in the lower left square) and a little fabric (the cloud background) and challenge participants to make a quilt. Entries are displayed at Hickory Point Mall in Forsyth, Illinois, for one week in February. You can pay to vote for your favorite quilt, and the money goes to support Project Linus. Kim, a member of our guild, is submitting this adorable quilt this year. Be sure to click on the photo to enlarge it so you can see the detail -- she did a fabulous job!

The Doggie on the Blanket

Isn't this just the cutest doggie?

We have a lot of donated fabric that isn't what you would normally consider "kid friendly." What to do with it? Debbi came up with the idea to make nine patches and then machine applique a dog or a cat on top -- suddenly you have a quilt any child would love! Donna made this very cute one.

Pooh's Easy Squares

Sometimes we have an adorable fabric, but not very much of it. Here we were able to use squares of Winnie the Pooh fabric (click on the photo to enlarge it and you will see Pooh clearly) in conjunction with another bright print for a lively quilt. The Easy Squares pattern you see is a popular kit -- easy to cut, easy to sew, and the look changes depending on the fabric.

Fish & Balloons Nine Patch Panels

One popular quilt kit uses a central panel surrounded by nine patch blocks. Marilyn made this fish one, and we were lucky enough to have some fabric that looked like ocean waves to put on the back.


Here's another nine patch made with a panel of hot air balloons.

The Hearts for Linus Quilt

We try to make as many quilts as possible for Project Linus. It's a big commitment to make a full quilt from start to finish, so the guild's Linus Committee prepares kits from the large collection of fabric donated by guild members. One guild member may make the entire kit, but often she will just piece the top, then another member will quilt it, and yet another will stitch on the binding. Sometimes we ask guild members to show their creativity and provide just one block, as we did with the Hearts for Linus quilt.


Inspired by the beautiful heart quilts donated to the owners of the Quilt Bus and Hickory Hills Quilts when their home burned, members donated heart blocks for a Linus quilt. The original plan had been to make one quilt, but we collected so many that we'll be able to make three quilts! The first one is done. Members contributed the blocks; the committee cut the background; Marilyn's teenage daughters, Rosemary and Amanda, made the layout; and Connie did the beautiful quilting.

This is the first post.

I am testing out how the posts will look.