14 intrepid members attended another 'Wow!' guild meeting featuring talk by Sue Hall on Project Linus UK, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. To illustrate her talk Sue showed and passed 'round an assortment of different sized quilts, all recently completed. It was useful to learn that our quilts can be of any size: teeny-tiny for premature infants, or for crib, pram, pushchair, play-mat, lap-'rug' for children in wheel-chairs or single bed size (4ft x 6ft) for older boys and girls. "So, any size, really!" said Sue. Guidelines for quilt construction include it must be tough, very well-sewn: sewn to last! No buttons or ribbons or frilly bits. Brightly coloured cottons are best, animals are favourites. Plain or fancy, you choose. Polyester wadding from Boyes is fine as it is washable and light-weight. A quilt can be used at story-time as every quilt tells a story.
Our American cousins initiated the scheme of donating quilts to children in hospitals, neo-natal clinics and various care homes. This idea quickly spread across the Atlantic. The name Linus comes from the Peanuts comic-strip by Charles Schultz. In it Linus is always featured clutching his blanket.
After question-time we viewed Julia's 'crazy-patchwork' squares, artfully constructed from her scrapbag and Jacqui's zany dinosaur-print fat-quarters.
Check out website projectlinusuk.org.uk for lots more inspiration and inspiring data, like "in 2012 over 20,000 quilts and blankets were delivered within the UK".
submitted by Judy on 26 Jan 2013
