By ROCHELLE A. SHENK

Lancaster New Era Correspondent

Amy Ike holds her son FH as he and his sister Zoe, Moses Madavaram and Landis Homes residents Frank and Wanda Wislon examine one of the five blankets using squares made by the children at the Children’s Learning Center at Landis Homes.

Day care center children at Landis Homes are reaching out to other children through quilts they’ve created for Project Linus.

The recently completed project was begun last April during the Week of the Child by Amy Ike, whose two children attend the Hildebrandt Children’s Learning Center at Landis Homes, 1001 E. Oregon Road, Lititz.

Ike has been a member of the Lititz-Lancaster Project Linus for a number of years. It aims to give people in the community who have special skills such as quilting, knitting and crocheting an opportunity to use those skills to help children who are seriously ill, have been traumatized or are otherwise in need.

They create blankets as well as hats for children in neonatal-care units, and all of the blankets that are made in Lancaster County stay in Lancaster County.

“We readily agreed to support Amy’s idea, since Landis Homes and the Children’s Learning Center community are committed to demonstrate love, commitment and concern in our relationships. Also, since this project benefits children, the children at our center are actually helping other children in the area,” said Jo Ann Pringle, director of the Hildebrandt center at Landis Homes.

Each of the 30 children ages 3 and 4 involved in the project created a square for a blanket by using fabric markers on white fabric. Ike visited the learning center several times to assist students in making their squares.

“I encouraged them to sign their names to the square they created,” she said.
After the squares were completed, she used them to create five different quilted blankets.

Each blanket top features six blocks created by the children, interspersed with colorful fabric squares featuring children’s characters such as Hello Kitty and Clifford the Big Red Dog.
The backing matches the children’s characters on the square, and each blanket is hand-knotted. The binding is hand-stitched.

“I enjoy making blankets and had fun with this one,” Ike said.

Project Linus has a nationwide Make A Blanket Day each year during February. The Lititz-Lancaster Chapter will be hosting a quilting bee at Brubaker’s Sewing Center, 20 N. Roberts Ave., New Holland, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 16, and Ike intends to have the five blankets on display there before officially donating them to the chapter for distribution.

Earlier this year, Pringle and Ike discovered that the children at the learning center are not the only members of the Landis Homes community involved in Project Linus. Landis Homes residents Frank and Wanda Wilson have made more than 165 quits and have hosted a number of “Make A Blanket Day” quilting bees on campus.

The Wilsons have four sewing machines, three of which are embroidery machines set up in their home. Mrs. Wilson also makes afghans for Project Linus. They read about the project in a magazine and began participating in 1999 when they lived in Florida.

Mrs. Wilson has been sewing and knitting all her life, while her husband’s interest developed nine years ago.

“I was 75 before I started to sew, he said. “I like to make things and decided to see if I could sew. I made my first blanket three months later, and we’ve been part of Project Linus ever since.”

“We think it’s great that children that are part of our community have become involved in Project Linus,” his wife said.

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