July 19, 2023

Dear Friends,

Monday was Linus Day at Fox Country Quilts.  Third Monday of every month, a group of mostly ladies and sometimes a couple of kids, come into the shop to work on their Linus quilts.  During that day, they use of our classroom area for free, and we feed them at lunchtime, doing our part to contribute to this charity cause.

The comic strip Peanuts was one of the greatest comic strips ever, along with Lil’ Abner, Blondie, Uncle Wriggly, and maybe Pogo Possum.  It’s precursor started in 1947 as “Li’l Folks, and morphed into the comic strip “Peanuts” in 1950.  The name came from the Peanut Gallery, the studio audience children in the Howdy Doody show.  Some of you, like myself, may remember being a big fan of the show.  The children in the studio audience were called Peanuts.  In the Peanuts comic strip, Linus Van Pelt, Lucy’s brother, first showed up in September of 1952, while his security blanket didn’t appear until June 1, 1954.  Ever after, Linus always had his blanket.

Inspired by Peanuts’ Linus and his security blanket, the first Project Linus chapter was formed in 1995 by Kathy Loucks in the Denver, Colorado area.  Their mission was, and is, providing blankets or quilts to children in need.  Since that time, Project Linus chapters have been established in every state.  Different chapters focus their mission toward children in different situations.  The group that comes in to Fox Country Quilts donates the quilts to first responders to give out to children involved in emergencies who sometimes have a need for such a quilt.  In this area,  Deb Beaumont, who lives in Daingerfield, Texas, is the head of this very successful chapter that comes here.

If you would like to get in on this, simply show up, sewing machine in hand, at Fox Country Quilts the third Monday of every month from 10:00 am until sometime in the afternoon.

Chip