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…

Our Project Linus Chapter here in Humboldt is not going to let this VIRUS get us down!  It certainly has posed some challenges for us.  We have been unable to meet as a group for over four months.  The agencies who receive our blankets have had to change their operations which has meant that our blanket deliveries have slowed down. Our Chapter delivered 32 blankets in June so we know that there remains a need for what we provide.  Our Blanketeers had hoped to deliver 1000 blankets by December 31, 2020.  That hope was put out there before the pandemic hit our country and county. To date, we have made…

It is pretty clear that Project Linus Blanketeers in the Humboldt Chapter do not let a pandemic get in the way of their blanket making!  We may not be able to meet, but that has not prevented multiple blanket donations recently.  Again, as you can see, our chapter’s blankets are colorful and come in a variety of styles and sizes. Remember the Find Waldo series?  Well, for those of you who took part in our Orphan Block sewing session or our Dutch Breeze Block making session…can you find those blocks stitched into a few quilts in this “batch” of photos?  One of our Blanketeers not only leads some of our…

I think it is safe to say that one of the things our PL Chapter’s Blanketeers miss most during the stay at home order is sharing what they have made each month at our meetings. We spend about an hour seeing the 20-50 blankets that are donated each month.  Call it a kind of blanket show and tell! From infant size blankets to teen sized blankets, there is a wealth of creative talent stitched into each blanket. Blankets are knit, crocheted, sewn and quilted.  We hear the word diversity a lot these days and I think it applies to our Project Linus blankets. They are all different.  But the one…

What a difference a germ makes!  When this virus (Covid-19) began to show itself in China in December 2019, I did not have my virologist thinking cap on.  I thought: that sounds bad, but I did not connect the viral dots and think this could be bad for us.  It was bad for China and it still is bad for most of the people on this planet now including us. Our chapter did not meet in March and we still do not know when it will be safe to do so. As we have learned from the germ experts, you do not switch off a pandemic like you do a…

Every year our chapter must fund raise a minimum $500.00 to satisfy the requirements of our Project Linus Headquarters.  They provide insurance, manage our fund account, provide chapter guidance and make sure that we, as a non-profit, are in compliance with federal laws. I am pleased to announce that we received notification today from Humboldt Sponsors that we have been awarded $250.00.  Their mission:  “We make good things happen for local  kids!”  Well, our chapter does that as well so this support will help us make blankets that will feel good to local kids. I received the check today from Humboldt Sponsors which certainly made a positive difference on this…

The local agencies who contact me for blankets usually specify sizes and how many they need: infant/toddler, youth and teens.  Recently, I was contacted about the need for a very specific blanket: one with Micky Mouse on it! The request was on behalf of a young child who was not talking, but got very excited whenever he saw Mickey Mouse.  The idea was that if a blanket had Mickey on it, maybe it would stimulate “chat” about Mickey and other things.  I did not have a Mickey blanket on hand, but knew it would not be a difficult blanket to stitch up. I purchased some Mickey fabric, flannel, some colorful…

Those are the words of one of our Blanketeers following our first meeting of the new year.  At our meeting, 52 blankets were collected.  Photos of these blankets were added to our Blanket Gallery page. The pictures below are the blanket “bags” before I sorted by size (infant, toddler, youth and teen) and prepared them for distribution. We have 13 very active blanket makers. Our chapter will have a 2 year anniversary this May.  Since we began, we have made 617 blankets and delivered 593 of them.  Please check out a new page on our website called: Blanket Testimonials and you’ll read about the impact our blankets have had on families…

Our Project Linus Chapter has been welcomed to attend the annual Fiber Fair held in Arcata for the past two years.   This has been a wonderful venue for us to share our mission with other fair goers.  We exhibit our homemade blankets, offer our brochures and other informational fliers and have our blanketers stitching blankets and answering all kinds of questions related to what we do and how we do it! At the fair this past fall, I met a blanketeer who had recently relocated from the Sacramento area.  She made blankets for the Project Linus Chapter there. She shared that she does not use a sewing machine, but…

One of the fun aspects of our blanket making chapter has been the ongoing sharing of quilting patterns, techniques and sewing tips.  At a recent Blanket Saturday, one of our blanketeers lead the group in a quilt block pattern and construction we called:  Shar’s Scrap Stars!  Our blanket makers brought some large fabric squares and complimentary fabric for piecing.  With a few rotary cuts and a few sewn seams, Shar’s Scrap Stars were created and placed up on the fabric wall.  You can see them here. As we did in a previous post, (Bug Jars), these stars will be sewn together to create a finished quilt. You can see the…