Nearly at the end of the year!

Here we are, with Christmas nearly upon us, so I thought I'd update the blog as to progress.  In November, Andrea from Platform Childcare contacted me to request quilts for her looked after children.  She initially asked for five quilts, 'so as not to seem greedy' but when I found out she has twenty children, I insisted she take twenty. We couldn't leave anyone out!

 

 She sent me some gorgeous pictures of one youngster choosing her quilt.  First she's taking it all in.

 Then she's having a proper look to narrow it down.

 And now the final choice!  Good decision.
Then in early December, Chavni from Ward 27 of the LRI contacted me to say they had nearly run out of quilts, and was there any chance of more?   If I have some in my cupboard, I'm always delighted to take them to their forever homes, so on a filthy wet afternoon, Julie and I braved the Christmas traffic and took fifty quilts to be shared out between the children's wards and PICU.

As ever, the staff were thrilled to see the variety of designs, and quickly earmarked several for children they knew.  So far, we have donated 476 quilts here in Leicestershire this year, and we still have another week to go!

October

This month we have had great fun at Project Linus.  First Paula, Maria and I had a little run out to Doncaster.  I know that's a bit out of our area, but we met up with Judy Flanagan, who, while having moved to Hornsea, still works for Fostering Futures.  She was intending to hand over the Linus contact to someone else, but we so enjoy our get togethers (seldom though they are) that we decided to keep things as they are.

It was tipping it down, but Judy managed to choose a quilt, and we sheltered under her boot lid for a photo.  We meet at the Lakeside Outlet Park, which is roughly halfway between us, has plenty of free parking and a nice Costa.  It also has a M&S Outlet Store, so after we had caught up with each others' news and handed over the quilts, we headed over to M&S to bag a few bargains!  

Then a couple of days later we were at The Big Textile Show in Leicester.  We are very grateful to the organisers of this show to allow us to have a free stall, to spread the word about Project Linus.  Julie and I were there on Saturday, and Paula and Maria on Sunday.  It was lovely to meet old friends and make new, and to be able to network with Quilter's and organisations in the locality.  

Some people brought quilts for us, tops and fabric.  So generous.  Well look forward to a slightly quieter November! 

By the way, the current total for this year is 420 - and there are still two more months to go! 

Cooler weather.

While the weather has been so hot, I haven't been contacting people to take quilts.  I know the quilts are only snuggle quilts rather than bed quilts, but still, when the temperature is over 30C, it's not really the time to think about quilts!  So once September came, I was on the phone! 

First stop was Rainbows Children's Hospice, where they were delighted to take some quilts. 

Next was to contact Rosemary from the Diana Service to get some hugs for her very poorly children. She had some thank you cards for me too.  I especially like the one with Santa and a snowman on it!  Very appropriate!  

Then I contacted Asha, who works in the Highfield area of Leicester as a Health Visitor.  She has recently been promoted to head of three teams, so she took quilts to share around.  

Her teams were so pleased to get the quilts (a first in their area) that they sent more photos for me! 

Love the fact that the photos are all taken in staff rooms! 

Thank you so much busy people for taking the time to show your appreciation.  

Getting up to date

I was shocked when I saw that I last updated the blog in February!  Google has decided not to update Blogger, so it makes it quite complicated to post these days, so I have let it slip.  Sorry about that.  Things have been proceeding very wel on the receiving and donating fronts.
In March Jay Fostering rang me to say they were so delighted at how well the quilts had been received by their looked after children, that they'd like more!  No problem.

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We had had a request from the RLI to make some 'wiggly bags' .  Apparently the Hickman lines which are used to administer drugs to poorly people are called wiggles, and sometimes they snag on clothes or objects and cause pain.  If they are in a little bag, they are more contained.  Local sewers made over 100 of these vital little bags. 

Here are more quilts going into the LRI. 

I went over to Shepshed to collect the quilts that 'Quilting Together' have made over the year.  They are a lovely group of ladies and had 88 lovely quilts for us!  One of their Quilter's had sad,y died, so her quilts are yet to come.  What a generous and talented group! 

Pat O'Reilly came to bring some quilts she had made.  Her sister (Lynda Hill!) came with her and it was great to meet them both. She had some gorgeous quilts to donate. 

In June I went back to Ward 10 of the LRI dto take some quilts to the poorly youngsters there.  Pip is in the middle of the photo and a doctor agreed to add his thanks to the quilters too! I love quilts coming in, but best of all are quilts going to their forever homes! 

Sewing day with Quilting Together

Today I loaded my car up with fabric, wadding, kits and tops as Quilting Together had invited us to a sewing day in Shepshed.  We were looking forward to it, as these ladies are all so friendly and talented, and they were also promising us lunch! I particularly wanted to get some of the tops layered and quilted, so took quite a bit of backing.

There were nineteen of us all together, including Maria and Caroline.  Paula has been due to join us, but unfortunately was laid low with a cold.  What a shame,  get well soon. 

You can see that everyone had plenty of room, and they had made sure there were enough extension leads etc. The big table for layering up was very handy. 

Lunch was fabulous! They had thought about sandwiches or a buffet, and then decided it would be easiest to do baked potatoes, and provide a selection of fillings.  The potatoes were bought out of funds and the fillings and deserts were brought by each member.  What a great idea! 

Here are people ready for food! 

One lady had brought her granddaughters, who did sterling work.  One of them felt she had done her bit by lunchtime (quite understandable!) but the other one got hooked on these scrappy pinwheels and was determined to make 25 blocks and join them into a top. 

Success!  What a great job!  Even better, she’s taken it home with her to finish!  You are a star! 

We also made some wiggly bags for Ward 27 at the Royal Infirmary.  These are for the cancer patients to store their Hickman lines so they don’t get pulled or knocked.  Over the day, there were 42 made!  Great total. 

We had a wonderful day and were very grateful for the members of Quilting Together for inviting us. I will see them again soon, to collect the quilts.  Hooray! 

2019 donations

The quiltshave been steadily coming in, and so they need to go to their forever homes!  This week I went over to Whetstone to Jay Fostering to take 30 quilts.

Here I am with a lovely quilt and a member of staff (I’m really sorry, I’ve forgotten her name!). The organisation gives welcome packs to their children, and they were keen to include the quilts in them.  I’m sure the children will love them. 

Then on Thursday I went Ito the Leicester Royal Infirmary Ward 27 to take 53 quilts for the youngsters there. 

We have a system worked out now, where we unload the quilts in the car park pick up area, then load

 them in a cage for easy transport to the ward.  This is a great method, except that this cage had a mind of its own!  Luckily my husband was in charge of it, and managed not to kill anyone! 

Usually it’s very difficult to persuade people to have their photo taken, but this time Chandni (second from the right) must have advanced persuasion techniques and managed to assemble a great crowd this time!  Chandni was very enthusiastic about the quilts and the positive feelings they bring with them.  Good times. 

Sewing in Barwell.

Paula and I were delighted t be invited to Barwell earlier this month to sew with the lovely ladies from the U3A Craft Group.  They invite us every year and beaver away to make a Linus quilt or two! All equipment has to be PAT tested on their premises, so they aren’t able to bring their sewing machines.  No matter, all our Linus equipment is tested, so we took five sewing machines and let them loose! 

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Most of them were unfamiliar with patchwork techniques and rotary cutters, and some with sewing machines, but they soon got the hang of it. 

They had to share machines and sit near power sockets, so were a bit spread out! 

Everyone had a go at making some scrappy windmill blocks and were amazed at how quick and easy they were! 

They completed enough blocks for a complete quilt and half a quilt.  Good progress!  We need to get the quilts finished for when we go back to see them later on this year.  Thank you ladies for all your hard work! 

Happy New Year!

I'm a bit behind with my posts, but the quilts still come in - and go out!  Our 2018 total was an amazing 448 quilts to give hugs to young people in Leicestershire.  Many thanks to all those who have sewed, donated stuff or bought stuff.  Every one of you is a hero!