Girl Scouts donate to PL!

Marilyn N's teenage daughter Amanda's Girl Scout troop wanted to do a service project, so Marilyn volunteered to work with them to make quilts for Project Linus. Marilyn helped them "shop" the guild's Project Linus stash, and the girls chose wonderful fabrics for three quilts.
Marilyn chose simple patterns because the girls were just learning to sew. The one above is a crazy four-patch. It's so much fun in the fabrics they chose!

They also made a quilt of squares, but it's lively and fun with all the polkadots and bright colors!

This quilt alternates rail fence blocks with squares for an easy but complicated-looking pattern. A Brownie troop helped with tying the quilts, and Marilyn finished the edges. The girls did a fabulous job, and had a blast doing it! Thanks, Scouts, and thank you Marilyn for putting in the time and energy to make this happen. There are three children out there who will very much appreciate all your efforts.

Project Linus National Conference

Last week was the Project Linus National Conference in Decatur! Chapter coordinators from around the country came to learn new skills and exchange ideas. It was awesome! Mary Balagna and the other organizers did a fabulous job.
Debbi D and Marge P (shown below) and Cheri S volunteered at one of the booths. We taught people to make Happy Houses (see pattern link in sidebar). It was so gratifying to see how much the conference attendees enjoyed making the blocks, and to hear their plans for using them. Several mentioned that they would feature this at their next Make A Blanket Day.
The Conference was held in Bloomington. Here's a photo of one of the exhibit aisles -- BEFORE it became crowded with conference-goers!
Here's our Happy Houses quilt, made by the Linus Committee at a worknight and quilted by Donna R. It has now been donated to Project Linus and soon will be wrapped around some child who really needs it.

June quilts!

Here's a wonderful quilt from Elaine G. It's a simple pattern of 6 rectangles arranged 3x2 per block, then set in alternating directions, but the fabrics really give it some punch! The back is a bright yellow. Thanks so much!

Dorothy B made a sampler quilt that is child-friendly and fabulous! Thank you, Dorothy!

I'm so sorry that I don't know who donated this quilt, but it's a wonderful use of scraps! Those strings will provide hours of fun for a child trying to find all the little designs and prints.
Grammabunny made this simple quilt of squares. Many of the blocks feature a variety of adorable dog prints. Cute!
And she also made two whole cloth quilts. This one is for a child who dreams of being an astronaut...
...and here's one for a cowboy! Thanks so much!
Charlene B did a wonderful job making this Linus kit of Easy Squares. Thank you -- it's certain to be well loved!

Remember, you can bring a finished quilt to guild or Sew Sassy at any time, and there are usually kits available for pick up. Thanks for all your donations!

Quilts from Grammabunny

Grammabunny donates so many quilts to Project Linus -- several each month! All of them are made with obvious love and care, and the finish touch is her personalized label. She always signs them, and either puts them in a cute label, like the one below, or writes a cute little saying. It must be an extra-special treat to receive a Grammabunny quilt!
Her summer quilts have an outdoors theme. There are lots of lizards and bugs and other creepy-crawlies on this quilt to delight a child.
This lovely quilt is made of butterfly fabrics -- and even the squares are put together to look like butterflies flitting over the quilt.
This great string quilt uses lots of outdoors fabrics in the design, and the border and back are full of lizards.
What is more outdoorsy than bears in the woods and by the lake?
On behalf of the many, many children whose lives you have brightened, thank you, Grammabunny!

Quilts received in April

This great heartstrings quilt was made primarily by Talese and also at various worknights and Make A Blanket Day. Talese put it together and Connie L. quilted it -- beautifully, as always. It's lovely!
Cheri made this quilt from a guild kit. For a little extra something in the solid squares, she used cookie cutters as applique patterns. The Needle & I in Rantoul kindly offered their services and quilted it for us.
Two Lion King panels were donated, and Tom (Elaine G's husband) quilted them for us. He did a very elaborate job and it really made the details in the design pop. Thank you!
Tom also did a great job quilting this donated panel. Some child will love this fun quilt.
This 9-patch design is a great way to feature a fun novelty print.
This quilt is lovely -- soft but cheery colors!
And here's another donated panel quilt -- perfect for a preschooler or toddler!
Many thanks to everyone who donated a quilt or the fabric to make one.

Instructions for the Guild Block

Now it's really quick and easy to make something for Project Linus! Guild members can use this pattern to whip up the following block in no time using leftover bits of fabric from your projects. It's based on 2 1/2" strips (jelly roll size). Bring the blocks to any guild meeting, and Linus Committee members will assemble them into quilts. Thanks so much!

Unfinished block size: 6-1/2” x 9-1/2”

Cut the following
Outside color:
cut 2 rectangles: 9-1/2” x 2-1/2”
cut 2 squares: 2-1/2” x 2-1/2”

Contrast color:
cut 1 rectangle: 5-1/2” x 2-1/2”

Sew one 2-1/2” square to each end of the small rectangle.
Next sew one large rectangle to the top and one large rectangle to the bottom. You’re finished!

You can also make 4 blocks at once if you prefer. Here are the instructions:

Cut the following
Outside color (A):
Cut 2 2-1/2” strips by width of fabric (WOF)
Cut 1 20” x 2-1/2” strip
Subcut this 20” strip into 2 2-1/2” squares and 3 5”x2-1/2” rectangles
Contrast color (B):
Cut 1 22” x 2-1/2” strip and subcut this into 4 5-1/2” x 2-1/2” rectangles

Assemble into a long strip starting with 2-1/2” A, next alternate 5-1/2”B pieces and 5”A pieces, ending with a 2 1/2” A. See picture below:
Next sew the 2 WOF strips to the top and to the bottom of the long strip you just made.
Subcut into 4 9-1/2” blocks. Be sure to even the ends and check your ruler as you go to keep the blocks squared up to the right measurements.
You're finished! Don't they look great?
A word on fabric choices
We ask that you use bright, kid-friendly fabrics. The kids who receive these quilts need love and cheer. Not everything has to be for little children, however, as teens also receive blankets from Project Linus. We will try to match the tone of blocks we receive to make blankets for different ages. But please, be sure the blocks are cheerful!

Fun quilts!

This attic window quilt looks complicated, but it's very simple to make -- we use a half-square triangle in the corner of the block so there are no Y seams. This cute quilt was put together by a guild member from one of our kits that uses donated fabrics. Every window has an animal print. This quilter also did a great job and the two-tone binding is fun! (Sorry, the following 2 photos are sideways -- for the past couple days I have not been able to load a rotated photo.)
This baseball themed quilt was put together with some already-cut fabrics.
The next two quilts were dropped off at Sew Sassy for Project Linus. Both of them have soft, fuzzy minkee in some of the squares -- what a delight for a child to touch! This one has a puppy dog theme.
This dinosaur quilt is bright and really cute! It's just a panel with squares and an inner border, but it's a fabulous quilt!
Thank you to these anonymous quiltmakers! Your work is very much appreciated.

Donations from March 2008

We've gotten some lovely quilts recently! This one from Karen P. is really bright and fun! (The photo colors do not do it justice.) It's a very clever pattern -- the blocks are all the same, but some are turned so the side stripes are vertical and some are turned so they are horizontal. Thanks, Karen!

Debbie D-W is learning the intricacies of her new quilting machine by quilting Linus quilts. She did a great job on this adorable panel quilt.
This was pieced from a committee Easy Squares kit. Looks adorable! I think Charlene B made this one, and I apologize if it was someone else. Charlene regularly pieces our kits and we very much appreciate it!
Diane M made this sweet baby quilt. It's bright and geometric to catch a baby's eye, and the ducks in the border are really cute. Thank you, Diane!
Grandma Bunny made the next 3 wonderful quilts! She donates many quilts each year, all very lovingly made. This is a simple squares pattern, but her border fabrics make it very lively and fun!
This is an outdoors themes quilt, perfect for camp.
Bunny kept the blocks and sashing the same in this fun quilt, but used lots of different, cheery cornerstones. There are lots of kids out there who very much love their Grandma Bunny quilts.
This simple baseball themed quilt is perfect for a sports fan! It has whole cloth on both sides, each with a different baseball design. If you want to contribute to Linus but don't have the time for lots of piecing, consider a donation like this. Let the fabric do the work!
The next two are fringed fleece blankets, very soft and snuggly! The kids love fleece, but please remember if you donate them that SINGLE layer fleece is preferred. The double layer ones look cute, but are quite warm and bulky, so many receiving agencies prefer not to take them. So get TWICE as many blankets by using single layer!

A HUGE thank-you to everyone who donated their fabrics, time, skills, money, and love to make these wonderful blankets!

Pattern links!

Scroll down the sidebar on the right and you'll see a new addition -- Easy Patterns for Linus Quilts! This is a link to patterns for quick and easy quilts for Linus. Many are scrap quilts, so you can just dig into your stash. A few are larger in size than you need to make for Linus, but just make fewer blocks (there's nothing complicated about making these smaller). Linus will accept quilts of almost any size, but their biggest need is for quilts about 40" x 60".

If you know of any easy, free patterns available online that you think would make a good Linus quilt, please send me the link!

And always remember, we give these quilts to children in need to show how much we care, so make them with as much care as you would make a quilt for your own child or grandchild. Always use new fabrics in bright, child-friendly, washable fabrics. And be sure to remove ALL pins!

Two more Boo-Boo Kids quilts

We got two more wonderful Boo-Boo Kids quilts on the theme Lyrics for Linus. This adorable quilt was made by Debbi D.
Her mother, Marge P, who sews the labels on all our blanket donations, created this very cute quilt with a musical theme. Thank you!

Make A Blanket Day at Sew Sassy

Make A Blanket Day was so much fun! The back room at Sew Sasy was full all day long with guild and community members who were busy making blankets for Project Linus. We made enough blocks to make several heartstrings quilts, like the one below, which we recently made at a worknight. We worked on lots of other projects, too.

Here you can see some guild members busy stitching away. In this photo are Diane M, Mary M, Glennys M, Diane D, and Alma M.
At 2:00 we had the drawing for the raffle quilt, which raised $1024 for Project Linus. We are so pleased! Pictured below is the lucky winner with the raffle quilt.