Blanket Chronicles

  • Blanket Chronicles

    91 And Still Stitching Away

    When our Project Linus chapter was meeting at The Bunny Hop Quilt Shop we had a locker there for blanket drop offs. It was always a special surprise for me to see a bag in there with blankets along with the name of the maker. One of the blanket makers was a woman named Lorraine.  She made blankets of all sizes, using happy fabrics and most were quilted with a long arm. Maybe if the pandemic had not happened, I would not have met Lorraine. My home became the blanket drop off site when the quilt shop closed in May of 2020. Lorraine contacted me and we arranged for her…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    A New Year Bag of Blankets

    January 2021, what a month!  As the days went by in this new year, somehow Happy New Year did not seem to fit with what was actually happening. A deadly riot in our nation’s Capitol, an Inauguration surrounded by National Guard Troops and fences with barbed wire on top, a Covid vaccine rollout with numerous shortages, reports of mutant Covid virus strains globally and the news that this is one of the driest winters in California in twenty years. The latter certainly does not bode well for fire season. Getting back to normal seems like a moving target which makes having patience for that even harder. I think many of…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    End of 2020 Year Blankets

    Humboldt Project Linus is alive and well in spite of the raging pandemic.  In 2020, our chapter made 375 blankets and delivered 366 blankets to agencies working with children in our community. We did this following pandemic guidelines to keep people safe from virus transmission: masks, distancing, and hand gel. We start the New Year with more blankets coming in and more blankets going out!  I continue to be proud of our Blanketeer’s commitment to the mission of Project Linus and the time they invest creating beautiful, new homemade blankets.  Here are some of the blankets I received during the last few months of 2020. There is so much talent…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    December Blankets 2020

    It has been a challenging year for all.  Due to the pandemic, our chapter is still unable to meet and a number of the agencies we donate blankets to remain closed for blanket deliveries. In spite of these challenges, our Blanketeers have continued to make blankets and deliver them to me wearing masks while having brief contact.  I have continued to reach out to agencies and am realizing that there is even a greater need for a warm blanket or 2…make that 34! This month we donated 34 blankets to children from birth to age 17.  While I am at home following Covid guidelines, many of the children we delivered…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    Soroptimists Support Humboldt Project Linus

    (Note: The following was written by one of our Blanketeers, Jeanne Sapunor.) The Humboldt County Chapter of Project Linus, a non-profit organization providing “security through blankets,” is slated to receive a $500 donation from Soroptimist International (SI) Humboldt Bay chapter, thanks in part to the fund raising effort and dancing talents of Cooper Avila,10,of McKinleyville.         Through his GoFundMe page,(https://www.gofundme.com/f/cooper-avila-high-heels-for-healing), Cooper posted his tap routine to “Do You Love Me” by The Contours.  A student at Pacific Union in Arcata, he put his dance number online, in lieu of performing it live at “High Heels for Healing,” Soroptimists’ annual fundraiser that was cancelled due to COVID restrictions.…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    Fall Harvest Blankets

    We have our Covid blanket delivery protocol in place and it works each month!  A Blanketeer contacts me with blanket making information.  We arrange for a delivery date/time at my home.  Once arranged, the Blanketeer drives up, I go out masked up and transfer beautiful blankets into my home.  This is not nearly as much fun as we had when we met on monthly Blanket Saturdays. Pre-Covid, we could get together, share blankets, chat, laugh, eat and then have a sew day and create more blankets. I know we all miss that. I think about what one Blanketeer said about our Humboldt Chapter a while back:  “We are small, but…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    Another Scrappy Quilt

    Project Linus has been fortunate to receive fabric donations from local community quilters.  Sometimes a health issue forces a quilter to stop making quilts or a quilter decides to downsize their fabric cupboard and may donate to us.  Sometimes, we get fabric scraps leftover from a quilt project.  Many of our Project Linus blankets have been made from fabric scraps. I think the word “scrap” has a negative connotation as it conjures up landfills or things people may not want.  But for quilters, fabric scraps are like pots of gold: treasure! I recently received a donation of some fabric in bright, happy colors.  Some of the fabric was in larger…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    100 Blankets

    What does Mint Chocolate Chip have to do with: Purple Passion, Log Cabin Jumble, Mosaic Granny, Strawberry Patch, Blueberry Hills, Flowering Tea Leaves, Posey Patches and Hydrangea Cloud? These descriptive names are patterns in just a few of the 100 blankets Blanketeer Susann has made for our Humboldt Co. PL  Chapter. Susann and her husband are planning on relocating to southern Oregon. Susann had the goal of crocheting 100 blankets for our chapter before she departs. She has successfully met her goal despite incurring a bad fall which resulted in a broken wrist (repaired with surgery) and a fractured pelvis.  At about the 80th blanket, I told her that her…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    Smith River Blankets

    Usually I know where our chapter’s blankets are made: Humboldt Co.  But, sometimes they come from an unexpected place like Smith River, Ca.! I received a call from a woman in Smith River who has been a blanketeer for decades.  She used to live in the Bay Area, retired to Smith River and had continued to donate her blankets to the San Jose Chapter.  Given her current distance from San Jose and the pandemic, she looked for a chapter closer to her home and found Project Linus Humboldt.  This blanketeer said she had 19 crocheted blankets and wondered if our chapter would be interested in them.  Of course, I said:…

  • Blanket Chronicles

    Blankets in July

    I delivered 36 blankets to local agencies in July and dispersed our inventory of youth and teen sizes.  This is a good thing as it means that a blanket is out there wrapped around a kid, not stored in a plastic bag in my sewing room!  When I let our Humboldt Chapter know that I was out of these blanket sizes, they came to my blanket rescue!  Within a few weeks, I had multiple deliveries of youth and teen sizes and all deliveries were made safely with masks and social distancing! For a small chapter, our group is exceptional in both productivity and in the quality of construction of each…