Blessings and new little quilts

 Sixty-two little critters were Blessed and many more (34) quilts finished  by Nancy (made by Kathy)

Someone donated "Chase" from the paw patrol characters...

Blessed critters... now bagged and ready for deliveries.

 Also, one lap quilt made by Kathleen Strauss and binding attached by Nancy. 

Quick change of course...

 In my retirement, I watch lots of YouTube videos on quilting (among others), but the one thing I come back to, is how our quilting group has progressed, from making throw quilts for catastrophic reasons (chemo, accidents, natural disasters, etc)... to something simple (comforting children).

For the last year and a half, while our focus has been on little quilts,... we do have a few throw size quilts in progress.

What the above blocks will look like below,...

I'd like to get those to a done stage this yr. Once we get them sandwiched (quilt top, batting and backing pinned together), I dont mind doing the hand-quilting at home. 

I think we may have to make a mtg to strictly work on these to finish them. I know they dont get the attention the Comfort Critters do, and they only are given by request, but they play an important part of our philosophy to comfort all who need it.

While we dont distribute many critters in December (police are quite busy with kids doing fundraising, Christmas toys, shop-with-a-cop, etc), we can arrange our Nov mtg to be "throw quilt" mtg (we dont meet in Dec, anyways). This doesnt mean we cant make little quilts, per se, its just we wont be matching them up at the Nov mtg. Now, if we have lots to match up, its not to say we cant plan an impromptu mtg for a couple of hours on another Sat, or at 10:30am on a Sunday (after the 9am service). 

Please let me know what you think. I've still got avenues for our critters to be delivered to,  so there is no shortage of need. All your excitement and enthusiasm for our group is amazing! I can tell you how much your efforts have meant to me....💕 I'm also pleased with all of the support of our followers across the country... all 278 of you. Thanks for your interest in our group and what we do.😘

#peacebypiecequilters

Latest batch of little quilts

 After dropping off batting to Kathy, I picked up 18 of her quilts (just needed a quick stitch to close), and got to finish 5 of my own.  They will get matched up with critters at a later date.

I also dropped off 48 critters to The Villages Family and Children in Hartford, to use in their residential and preschool programs for troubled kids.

Darlene's donations of critters

 Somehow, Darlene found our group and offered her vast collection of beanie babies (114-- all different!).

She's from VT, but since she would be coming through CT at the end of June, she was hoping that we could meet somewhere along her route for the hand-off. We met at the Wethersfield PD and had a successful meeting.  There is a long after story that  I wont post here (its on our FB page), but it IS funny!

Here are all the critters (photoed by species), along with 14 that my granddaughters chose to part with.

Kathys critters finished

 So glad Kathy is machine-quilting these... all I have to do is close the opening. Cant wait to match the quilts that she didnt add critters to.

Lynda W requested a critter for her son (a local EMT) who was having difficulty dealing with the trama of covering a call in which an autistic  4 yr old was hit and killed by a car, after sneaking out of the house at 4:30 am.