Newsletter – April 2012

Total donations: 213,578
This year to date: 3,550

Around the Country
Richard Armitage quilt
Apologies for not including in the last issue the splendid eBay auction of the Richard Armitage quilt donated by American quilter Carol Jehu. Jacquie Cranfield organised the auction on eBay with the support of the Richard Armitage UK Fan Club and raised the amazing sum of £650. The second quilt Carol so kindly donated is going to be raffled at the AGM. Please contact me if you are willing to sell tickets. The quilt won second prize two years ago at the Hannah Dustin Quilt Show in New Hampshire – the first time Carol had ever entered a pieced quilt. Carol is delighted it is going to be raffled and hopes it makes lots of money for Project Linus.

Jan Jones (South East Wales)
We had a very enjoyable day at our Quiltathon at Llantarnam Church Hall with lots achieved including donations to the project along with 34 quilts. The quilts donated and made on the day will be part of a package to be taken to the new Crown Bridge School for special needs children opening after Easter. This replaces an older building and hopefully we will be able to supply each class in turn. There are roughly 80 children ranging in age from 3 to 19 years. There are also quite a few knitted quilts which hopefully will be taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital for the stillborn children, to help and support bereaved parents.

It was a very jolly day with people coming from a wide area, with lots of tea drunk and quite a bit of cake and biscuits eaten which all added to the atmosphere. Quilter love cake! We’re now planning another Quiltathon for the future.

Sue Wilson (Ceredigion)
The last three months have been busy for the area – we have had two craft fairs (both at our local woollen mill) and have made items to sell as well as having a raffle. The fairs have raised money and also the profile of Project Linus in the area. We now have regular contact with two women’s refuges as well as finding many sick children in the community. Our main base is the West Wales Hospital where we supply quilts to the children’s ward and SCBU. Liz Coles and myself visited SCBU to present 6 incubator covers, 12 small bags and 21 quilts making a total of 300 quilts donated to the unit since we took over in January 2007.

Helen Scales (East Staffs)
Our Linus Day in March was a great success. There were 20 of us working hard all day – sewing and eating cake! Kim and I had put together about 40 packs to make quilts between 24 and 42 inches square. Several quilts were finished on the day and many volunteers took extra packs to make quilts at home. The finished quilts will go to the local women’s refuge, the children’s hospice and a school for children with multiple health problems.

Val Lillie (Surrey)
I have a wonderful supporting group called Prospect Quilters whose leader Mary is now 94. They have made more than 400 quilts since 2007, and in fact she has just written an article about Project Linus for her local Parish magazine,
Ed – One of our coordinators has confessed she will be 90 this year, but doesn’t want to own up in public! Jackie Molloy says one of her knitters, Madge, is 91. Is needlework good for you?

Ann Smith (North Derbyshire)
Quilt Time, Stannington, Sheffield, have a special day every year to make quilts for Project Linus and this year it was held on Saturday 5th February. It was a hive of activity with lots of fabric and wadding being cut alongside the whirr of sewing machines. There was a lot of chatter (mostly about patterns and techniques) and a lot of hard work, as well as lunch and tasty cakes. There was a ‘show and tell’ of all the quilts given to Project Linus (lots of oohs and ahhs – and ‘how did they do that’). The result was over 20 quilts being donated and the promise of more when the quilts from teh day are finished. The quilts donated were a veritable collection of bright colours, patterns and patchwork shapes, all beautifully quilted by the ladies of Quilt Time.

Quilters’ Guild AGM
Alison Drayson (Tayside) organised a Project Linus activity at this years AGM in Dundee. She had been left a stash of fabric by Dorothy Bell from Dundee who was one of the early quilters in Scotland and a stalwart of the Quilters Guild. The bits from this were cut into angled strips, joined, then cut and cross-joined. A number of volunteers at the AGM came and helped sew – claiming that they were suffering from withdrawal symptoms while listening to the speakers.

The Quilters’ Guild gave us a stand (and provided sewing machines). It went very well and we had lots of donations of fabric and quilts, and our helpers made enough scrap blocks for 5 quilts.

The Guild is struggling with the cost of running St Anthony’s Hall in York. They are hoping to renegotiate the rent in the short term and to run a lot more workshops and other events to make the place pay for itself in the longer term. Otherwise they will have to close the museum.
Ed – The speakers were amazing as always but I can’t imagine being able to produce that sort of quilt. I’m happy making jolly Project Linus quilts!

Do you have any stories or photographs for the next edition of the newsletter? Please do send these in to share with other volunteers.

Happy Quilting.