Linus Quilt Exhibition.

I helped Mrs TD set up her exhibition in our community cafe; it looked quite good but there were a few distractions, so there wasn't as much interest as we would have liked. We did sell a couple of home-made instruction booklets - neither buyer wanted their change and one of them didn't even want her booklet; the money was for the Linus charity so we didn't refuse.

A long time ago I was surprised to discover that what I took to be common knowledge was not at all well known, it's a common misconception, we all think everyone knows what we know. When we visit Mrs TD's sister, the conversation is of quilting in general, and Linus in particular; similarly when we visit Sis. There were people who dropped into the cafe with a similar range of conversation topics; however, there were many who didn't know of LInus and one who said what nice embroideries they were. So here is an extract from one of the leaflets that were being given away:

"Christmas Eve 1995 USA. An article appeared in 'Parade' magazine entitled 'Joy to the World' by Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist Eddie Adams.

"Part of the article featured a little girl who had been undergoing chemotherapy who stated that her security blanket has helped her through her treatment.
Karen Loucks decided to donate home made blankets to Denver's Rocky Mountain Children's Cancer Centre…. Project Linus was born.

"It was named after the little boy in Charles Schultz's 'Peanuts' cartoon strip who was always featured carrying his security blanket.

"Schultz generously gave his blessing for Project Linus to the use of images and the name "Linus" in their publicity

"It started in the UK in March 2000 and there are now groups making Linus quilts all over Britain."

Linus quilts are made and donated by many local quilting groups and individual stitchers; in the last six months, Mrs TD and a couple of her colleagues have distributed 256 to children in need; this is about a tenth of the total number of Linus quilts made in Scotland in that time. Even now, our sitting room is full of quilts awaiting delivery.

I’ve just posted the entry for April the ninth, “Number 10.”