Fellow Quilters,

Today is a fun day! I am participating in a blog hop by One Million Pillowcase Challenge to celebrate the half-way point of the challenge – that means that half a million pillowcases have been made and donated to local charities. Wow! That’s a whole lot of love that quilters everywhere are spreading! If you have donated a pillowcase, reach your right hand over your left shoulder and give yourself a pat on the back.

Last month, One Million Pillowcase Challenge made a Pinterest board of their 20 favorite patterns and asked readers to vote on their favorites by repinning them. By month’s end, the results were in – the most repinned pattern was the train appliqué #32.

Each of the blog hop participants has been asked to make up this pattern and post a picture on their blog. I poked through Northcott’s sample room for samples of our newest collections and chose fabrics from a darling collection called Noah’s Jungle, shipping to quilt shops over the next 2 weeks. Noah’s Jungle, designed by Northcott’s Creative Director Deborah Edwards, includes a crib panel and pre-printed 10” squares, along with a multitude of coordinates. The panel and squares are ideal for quick kids’ quilts (it’s nice to get the quilt made before the kids grow up!). I chose the coordinates for the train pillowcase, and told my talented and trusty sidekick Susanne to go to town with the train pattern. She did a wonderful job, even fussy-cutting some of the animal characters and placing them on the train cars. Here is a picture of our pillowcase.

This pillowcase would be a wonderful complement to either of the 2 patterns on Northcott’s website for the Noah’s Jungle collection – Kate Mitchell’s “One Fish, Two Fish” or Laura Blanchard’s “Follow the Leader” – on a toddler bed. Here are pictures of Kate’s and Laura’s patterns.

    
Laura’s quilt                                                      Kate’s quilt

Now that the pillowcase is made, I need to donate it. First I visited www.allpeoplequilt.com/millionpillowcases/ and registered my pillowcase – the total clicked to 508,700! My quilt guild donates cuddle quilts to a few worthy local charities, including Yellow Brick House, a women’s and children’s shelter (www.yellowbrickhouse.org). I checked out their website and was astounded to learn that 75% of children that witness abuse will themselves be perpetrators or victims of violence in adulthood unless intervention is received. These shelters provide a critical step in stopping the cycle and getting these moms and kids back on track. I clicked on the website’s wish list, and saw that school supplies top the list of items urgently needed, so I will pick some up and include them with the pillowcase when I drop it off. It will help lessen the burden of a struggling mom, and the pillowcase will hopefully be a constant reminder to a child that someone cares enough to make him or her something special.

If you visited my blog before, you know that I like to give things away. Today’s giveaway is a packet of Noah’s Jungle fabrics! Please post a comment telling me your favorite Noah’s Jungle quilt pattern (Kate’s or Laura’s) by August 23rd for your chance to win a packet. I will choose 3 winners. Good luck, and keep making and donating those pillowcases!

Cheers,

Patti