Whew! Happy New Year everyone! Honestly, after doing the 12 Days of Christmas we wondered if we would EVER blog again. That was quite a feat for a coupla gals in the midst of Christmas preparations and book editing. But we had such a great time sharing traditions with all of you and had fun choosing gifts for our 12 lucky winners! You all should be getting your pressies any day now! Meanwhile, our book is ALMOST ready to send to the printer, and the Lizzie B girls are finding time to catch our breath. Well sort of. As much as is humanly possible for busy quilter mom’s! And to kick off the year just right, I’m working on a little campaign here and need the help of ALL my quilty friends.
After years and years of Scouting, my son Trevor is FINALLY working for his Eagle Scout! For those of you with Scouting son’s, you know just how much goes into getting to this point. It takes a LOT of prodding, pushing and motivating from the mom, I can tell you THAT first hand! And finally, after a few failed attempts at finding the “perfect” project….we landed on one! An important component of doing a project is that it has to involve the community and give BACK to the community. And boy does this ever do both of those! Last fall at a special Sewing Day at one of my local quilt shops, I met a woman who set up a special table to promote this non-profit organization. I’d seen their signs before, and heard bits and pieces about their foundation, but had never really known the entire story. Until now.
Meet Ryan and his mother Cindy Kerr. The Kerr family, live in my town. When Ryan was 12, he was diagnosed with cancer. He fought the disease for over 6 years, he fought through 5 recurrences, 30 months of chemotherapy, 15 surgeries (including the amputation of his right leg), over 150 days of physical therapy and two broken bones in his healthy foot. Despite all of that, Ryan never let it slow him down! He was adventurous and never let his disease dictate his life. Most of all, he lived his life with such joy and courage that he inspired thousands of people in our community and around the country. Ryan is no longer with us and we are very sad to lose one of the best friends we will ever know, but are thankful for his memory, his inspiration and the light he brought to the world. During his battle, his mother Cindy (a quilter, of course!) started making him bright happy pillowcases to brighten his hospital room. Before she knew it, ConKerr Cancer was born!
ConKerr Cancer is dedicated to Ryan and the thousands of children like Ryan who bring such courage and light to the world, despite their life changing illness. ConKerr Cancer is a way to keep their light alive. Ryan was a year older than my son Trevor and went to the same High School. He remembers the effect Ryan’s passing in 2008 had on the kids at school. So when I mentioned the idea of making pillowcases for his Eagle Scout Project for ConKerr Cancer, he got excited. It sounded like the perfect way to give back to the community. Luckily, his Scout leaders thought so too! Trevor met Cindy Kerr, and was amazed by her stories. In just two years, Cindy and thousands of volunteers have provided over 150,000 pillowcases to sick children in hospitals across North America and in South Africa. School groups, sewing circles, church groups and fabric stores have all pitched in and are making pillowcases for the kids. She even told of a story of inmates at a high security prison making and donating pillowcases!
You may have noticed the “Pillowcase Challenge” from American Patchwork and Quilting. Challenging quilters to make pillowcases to donate to their communities. Can you believe they didn’t even know about Cindy Kerr when they started their challenge? But they do now! And guess who’s at the top of their donation list?? Because ConKerr Cancer has a system to get these cases to hospitals that need them, they have chapters all over the US now. And of course, hospitals have very strict rules about what comes into those cancer wards, because they don’t want anything to make those children more sick. American Patchwork and Quilting put out the challenge, but didn’t really tell people HOW to donate all their pillowcases! Well I’m here to tell you exactly how.
On Monday, January 18th 2010, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we will be making pillowcases for Trevor’s Eagle Scout Project. We will be at my local quilt shop, Steve’s Sewing Center at 156 West Dekalb Pike in King of Prussia, PA, who have kindly offered to let us use their classroom for an afternoon of sewing. We’ll be working on pillowcases from 2:00-5:00 that afternoon. If you live nearby….COME HELP SEW!!!
Don’t live in my area but would love to help?? Fantastic! WE NEED FABRIC. Lots and lots of fabric! Our fabric company, Henry Glass, has generously offered to send us some fabric for the cause, but we want to get LOTS of people involved! Trevor has a goal of only 100 pillowcases, but I think he has sorely underestimated the quilting community. I would love to FAR exceed that goal! So I’m calling on all of YOU, my quilting friends, dig into that stash, find some happy fabric and PLEASE send it along! Even better….how about MAKE A PILLOWCASE? Although we only have one day to sew, we will be accepting pillowcase donations until the end of the month when, hopefully, Trevor will get to go to a local hospital to make his donation with Cindy Kerr, and meet the wonderful children who inspire her.
Please send any donations to:
Trevor Hawkins
978 Heatherstone Drive
Berwyn, PA 19312
Pillowcase instructions:
- Use cheery fabrics for kids – colorful and fun as possible
- Remember many patients are adolescent boys and girls, we always need pillowcases appropriate to teenagers
- Cotton or flannel only!
Go to ConKerrCancer.org for more information
Supplies:
- 3/4 yard of fabric for pillowcase
- 1/3 yard of fabric for border of pillowcase
Sewing Instructions:
- Cut the body of the case 26 1/2″ x 40 1/2″ and the border 10 1/2″ x 40 1/2″.
- Fold the border in half lengthwise, with the wrong sides together, and press.
- Place the right side of the border on the right side of the body of the case. Stitch together using a 1/2″ seam allowance.
- Place right sides of the pillowcase together. Stitch down the side and across the bottom. Turn to the right side and press.
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