All Saints Quilters group provides comfort blankets for traumatised youngsters

Children in distress have been given a special “hug” by nimble-fingered needlewomen at All Saints.

Members of the village quilting group have been busy creating colourful comfort blankets for youngsters who have suffered a range of traumas.

They have been presented to Linus UK – a charitable organisation which passes them on to children who need some extra loving care.

Last week 26 blankets, created by the 14 group members, were handed over to the charity’s East Devon co-ordinator, Yvonne Johnson, at a ceremony in the village hall.

Group leader Catherine Hutcheson-France said members had spent a year creating the blankets to provide a little comfort for the youngsters.

She said: “The children who get them often leave home with nothing so they all get one to keep.”

Mrs Johnson told The Herald she was very grateful to the All Saints Quilters for their efforts.

She said: “Our charity provides quilts for youngsters who need a hug. They go to bereaved children, to CLIC Sargent children, who have cancer, or to children in local safe houses.

“We collect the quilts from ladies who love to quilt and give them to the children who need them and we keep a record of every quilt to say where they have gone.

“The children are just so pleased – they may by just a blanket but their emotional value is huge.

“To date we have delivered over 21,000 quilts and blankets. We cannot reach out to every distressed child but we can help provide them with tangible evidence that someone cares, along with the physical reassurance that comes with being snuggled up in a quilt.”

*Project Linus UK is a volunteer organisation named after Linus van Pelt, a character in Charles M Schulz’s comic strip Peanuts, who always carries his comfort blanket..

It aims to provide a sense of security and comfort for sick and traumatised babies, children and teenagers through the provision of new home-made patchwork quilts and knitted/crocheted blankets, giving volunteers across the country the opportunity to contribute to their community.