DESCRIPTION: This winter [1999-2000] we made quilts and delivered them to the sick children at the Inova Fairfax Hospital. We used the computer to look up the website for Project Linus, http://projectlinus.org. It's an organization that collects quilts and blankets for the children. The children at the Buckman Road Center called up the website and found out who was the person in charge of our area (Alexandria, Virginia). We contacted her and got the project underway.

We also searched the web for the easiest quilt to put together. I also got books out of the library on Machine quilting. This was my first time making a quilt. I looked for the simplest technique to use. The quiltchannel.com has a section on beginners that was very helpful. There are hundreds of websites on quilting. Using fabric paint, the children designed and painted quilt panels. I sewed them together. This was a great project. It was a way for the kids to give back to their community during the holiday season. We plan to do it again next year with more adult volunteers to help with the sewing. Ten kids and two adults participated and made 4 quilts. It should take about 3 weeks per quilt. Two weeks for the making of the squares and another week to put them together. However, this was an open-ended project for us. They made squares until we ran out of material, and then we put them together, but three weeks is a good estimate.

Our quilts were made up of 12 squares. The children designed and painted. We put together the ones that went together. Example . . . We put together one that had similar colors. Another, had cartoon characters that the children made. One of the older girl (13) made squares with encouraging saying like . . ."reach for the stars" and "nothing is impossible." We mixed these with squares of flowers and hearts. We would have liked 5 more adults to help with the sewing. Next time, we will plan to let the children make individual quilts. This time we did it as a group and put them all together as one.

SUPPLIES:

cotton fabric
Lightweight quilting batting
quilting thread
quilting pins
fabric paints and markers

STAFF MEMBER: Patricia Cooper