Mid-winter ponderings.....

Wow. What a crazy few weeks it's been! I went to the Great Falls blanket day with so many things to share, I actually made a list. And, of course, everyone wasn't there, so it must be time for a blog post! Since the last one was in August, it's probably time anyway. 😲

Project Linus Shirts

PL Headquarters is trying a new way of doing T-shirts. They found a company that will make T-shirts - short sleeved, baseball shirts, and sweatshirts for a very reasonable price. Anyone can go in and place an order, and the item(s) will be shipped directly to you from them. There is a bit of a catch though... the window to order is only open for 2 weeks 4 times a year. The first window is open now through February 4, 2019. If you would like a PL shirt for yourself, please go to the Western Associates PL site at plstore.mybrightsites.com/  Website models are men, but the sizes are unisex... as most T-shirts are.

Project Linus Mystery Quilt Contest

The 2019 Project Linus Mystery Quilt Contest registration is officially open. There's no race to register your quilt - you have until 5pm CT February 2nd to finish your quilt, take a picture of it and submit your registration form with photo. Please read over the contest rules before your submit your registration just to make sure you have all your ducks (confectioneries) in a row! Even if you've already given your quilt away, if you have a good quality photo and your quilt meets all of the contest requirements - you can still enter. Here's the link: www.projectlinus.org/contest/entry/  I know we had some adorable ones made from our area volunteers!!!

PL Great Falls and Helena Chapter Fabric Challenge

We again did a chapter fabric challenge, and if you haven't gotten your fabric and turned in a quilt, there is still time! There was a changing of the guard of some sort at the library, and some things got missed in the shuffle, so instead of being on display in January or February, we won't be displaying the challenge quilts until June... much better for me considering the weather differences! If you haven't gotten your challenge fabric, we still have some available! One yard cuts are a $15 donation to the chapter, 1/2 yard cuts are $10. If you are interested, please let me know, and I will get a Challenge Packet to you. And please remember, this is a fund-raiser for our chapter. And! There will be prizes!!!

Closer Ties with Joann Fabric and Crafts

JoAnn Fabrics will be doing a PL partnership roll out on January 31. Additionally, they are planning to do an event on February 16 - PL National Make A Blanket Day, for 4 hours, in each store. As I understand, during the event each store will have one employee dedicated to showing people 4 different techniques for making fleece blankets (I do hope they include cutting off the selvedges!) We are not required to be there, but if you are out and about, think about stopping in a local store. That is the day of our Great Falls Blanket Bee, so chances are I will miss it.

This partnership building began some months ago, and we do now have drop-off totes in both the Great Falls and Helena stores.

Numbers!

PROJECT LINUS 2019 'DID YOU KNOW?'
Here are some interesting facts and figures about Project Linus as of January 1, 2019...

• Karen Loucks started Project Linus on December 24, 1995. 
• Project Linus National has had nonprofit status since May 12, 1997.
• Project Linus nationally has officially collected over 7,302,762 blankets as of January 1, 2019. If 70% of them are fabric (30% fleece), assuming each one is 3 yards, that translates into over 15,335,799 yards of fabric. If 30% are afghans, based on 6 skeins per blanket, that is over 13,144,968 skeins of yarn.
• If each blanket is an average of 60" long, and we laid them end to end, they would stretch 36,513,810 feet or 6,915 miles. That is as tall as 1,258 Mt. Everest, or 20,560 One World Trade Centers or 29,211 Empire State Buildings or as long as 92,680 football fields!
• As of January 1, 2019, Project Linus has about 294 chapters in the United States. We have 299 wonderful, compassionate coordinators.

For our chapter, we delivered 1964 blankets in 2019, and have delivered a total of 13,297 blankets since our chapter opened in March 2006.

Patterns

We have three patterns left in our 2018-2019 series 'Simply Sweet!' These three are... Night Sky, Cupcake Frosting, and one I haven't named yet. I have been loving seeing all the different interpretations of the patterns this year... you guys are so creative! I know these upcoming ones will spark even more imaginative designs! I'll leave the details of these next three for another post.

NICU Blankets

It was mentioned at one of our recent blanket days that NICUs are now favoring fleece over natural fiber blankets. I hadn't heard that, so when I made my most recent delivery to the Benefis NICU, I asked. There were three nurses (or other medical professional) on duty at the time, all joined in the brief discussion, and none had heard this. One stated she felt the fleece ones are more linty. So, for now, for us, nothing has changed.

Blanket Quality

I want to thank everyone for their diligence in keeping the quality of the blankets they donate high. I'm finding fewer pins... but still some, less pet hair... but still some, and a lower number of blankets that need some repair... but still some. This is saving me a great deal of time, and allowing for a faster blanket in/ blanket out turn around. It is obvious many are using the Guidelines handout...Thank You for that!!! If you still need a Blanket Guidelines handout, please let me know.

Labels

I also appreciate those of you who are sewing the labels on your blankets... this, too, is saving me a great deal of time. There are still some that are being put in the wrong corner, or on the back. It happens... I've done it myself. You just have to really look at the blanket and fabrics, front and back, to see what is the top. A few of you are using very fancy stitching to sew on the label. For this, simpler is better. There are times when I feel the label really needs to be moved, and the complex stitching is a bear to remove. A straight stitch, small zigzag, or blanket stitch (with the straight part of the stitch going along just outside the label and the teeth or bars pointing in toward the label) are all that is necessary.

Let's Wrap This Up!

Okay... that's a fair bit. I still have more on the upcoming patterns to share, and some Thank You notes to share... more to come on those topics soon.

Meanwhile, it is really snowing out... I'm skipping my class in town... so I am going to go work on getting some blankets ready to deliver instead.

Stay warm... stay safe! and Blessings to you and yours
gina