100 Quilts for Kids
Welcome to my stop on the 100 Quilts for Kids blog hop!
You all know about 100 Quilts for Kids, right? My friend Katie at Swim Bike Quilt and the D.C. Modern Quilt Guild co-host this annual charity quilt drive. It's really easy: Just make a quilt and donate it to a child in need, locally if possible. Then link up your quilt online for a chance to win some prizes. Katie has even announced a 100 Quilts Quilt-Along, with a really cool pattern to boot! What a rewarding way to use our skills and creativity, right?
I've made several quilts for charity, but my favorite by far is this one, which I made for a 12-year-old girl named Alissa as part of the Wrapped In Hope program through Margaret's Hope Chest.
Wrapped In Hope is such a wonderful program—they provide quilts as birthday gifts for kids who have a parent in prison. Quilters can select a child from their list and make a quilt with that child's favorite colors and/or things. (There are still a few kids left on their 2012 list, including one whose birthday is coming up soon on September 5!)
Alissa liked dogs, horses, art, and the color blue—so I knew right away that I wanted to use Aneela Hoey's Sherbet Pips line for Alissa's quilt. The pattern is from Elizabeth's Sliced Coins Quilt-Along. It's quick and easy to make, and it's layer-cake-friendly, so if you're looking for a pattern for your 100 Quilts For Kids quilt, I highly recommend it! And I used my favorite easy-peasey quilting strategy—wavy lines, using my walking foot and my machine's decorative serpentine stitch.
I hope Alissa is still enjoying this quilt today, even though her 13th birthday has now come and gone as well. And my fingers are crossed that Alissa's mom has finished serving her time and is back home with her daughter. Thirteen would be such a tough age to be apart from your mom!
There are so many kids who could be helped by a quilt—sick and injured children at hospitals, traumatized or abused children like those helped by Project Linus, orphaned kids overseas like those helped by Wrap Them In Love, and the Wrapped in Hope kids with incarcerated parents. A charity kids' quilt doesn't have to be large or complicated or made from fancy fabric—it just has to be made with love. So are you ready for 100 Quilts for Kids? Let's turn out some quilts! Thank you to Katie for organizing it again this year!