Dollars and blankets and quilts, oh MY!

Look what my boys did today:

They wrote a note to Matthew Blanchard on their own hand made cards and slipped him $1. Even Lulu did it, cept she slipped him a $5.

Even my twin's friend, who was here at the time, pulled a $1 out of his pocket and said, "Can I do it too?"

How sweet it was.

And then I sent him a magic blanket.

So excited. Just can't hide it.

You can still join the dollar drive and send $1 to Matthew at 8444 Brody Marsh Ave/Las Vegas, Nevada/89143. Just think, if 1,000 people send a dollar, Matthew will have smiled 1,ooo times. And I've heard somewhere that 1,ooo smiles are as powerful as pixie dust.

Click here if you want to find out more about Matthew.

If you read my post yesterday on my CTD Diaries, you'll also know that I made and delivered three more magic blankets to three little boys who have a very sick daddy. You can read all about it and see photographic evidence here.

And you can read about the sick daddy here.

If you are interested in banging out some magic blankets yourself, let me just say it's SOOO dang easy. All you need is 1 yard of fleece, preferably no-pill because it's so forgiving, and 1/4 yard of a coordinating solid color to tie up the loose ends.

Lay the fleece out flat and on both ends cut strips--1 inch wide and 5 inches long--all the way across each end of the blanket.

Next cut 1 inch wide, 5 inch long strips out of the solid coordinating color.

Tie a solid strip around each strip (aka loose end) on the blanket.

Viola! You're done!


And finally, guess what? Kritta's done it again. She made another Magic Quilt with all the original fabric contributed by the people. And for the people. And of the people.

Ain't it gorgeous!? Mahalo, Kritta.


I'll be back to expound very soon, so don't touch that dial.

Magical Money for Matthew

I need to spew forth a Magic Quilt update before I explode into a thousand tiny pieces. So many, many things to share, which I have neglected to share because I've been pounding the pavement trying to win myself a job.


Win or lose, this job race helped refuel my Magic Quilt fire. Plus I've made a few new friends and reconnected with a few old friends who have turned out to be Magic Quilt muses.

One of them is Dana. I only recently met her but she's been a huge supporter of my SAM-e Good Mood Blogger gig efforts and organized a voting tree with 60 of her most amazing friends.

Turns out she also makes fleece quilts. For friends. In need. (That's probably why she has so many amazing friends.) She has made 45 quilts within the last two years.

Her son made 100 fleece lap blankets for his Eagle project and donated them to the Huntsman Cancer Institute. (Apples don't fall far from their trees.)

(Hmmm . . . my son needs a great idea for his Eagle project too . . .)

Dana got her inspiration for the fleece blankets when her own world was tipped by a medical condition.

After years of medical challenges her husband was diagnosed with Amyloidosis. It's not cancer, but he had to go through Chemotherapy in 2008, plus undergo a stem cell transplant. While in the hospital Dana was given a little fleece blanket, which she and her husband kept on their laps for a month as they went through one of the most difficult challenges of their lives.

Since then Dana has been spreading comfort and cheer to friends in need in the form of what I like to call magic fleece quilts. The quilts are a little different than the blankets. They are twice the size of the blankets and have two layers of fleece, plus batting.

I went to her house last week to go shopping for fleece and learn how to make the quilts and guess what? She surprised me with a quilt of my very own. Me!

And guess what else? My fleece quilt has a twin.

These hands belong to Dana's friend and neighbor who is just like me. A mom. A wife. A daughter. A friend. The only difference is she has a brain tumor and she is almost done with her mission here on earth.

I've always wanted a twin and am deeply honored to share her magic fleece quilt. I will do my best to live up to the responsibility I feel to create a place of refuge and bring comfort to those who are suffering, sad and scared.

And GOSH DARNIT, there are too too many.

We have a lot of work to do.

So Dana took me shopping for fleece at Joann's Fabric. We filled two carts.

I've always said that addiction is BAD, unless you're addicted to oatmeal or IKEA furniture, but fleece is SUPER addicting. If you HAVE to get addicted to something, fleece is a good choice.

We picked out this fabric for a little boy named Matthew Blanchard.

He loves sports, but he can't play them anymore because he contracted a virus which led to chronic Lymphocytic Myocarditis.

Don't you hate big words that make you sick? It's just wrong. And it's just wrong that a 12-year-old boy can't play sports. I have two 12-year-old boys who love sports so I know what I'm talking about.

DeNae Handy, over at My Real Life was Backordered created a foundation for Matthew because not only can big words make you sick, they can make you poor too.

If you click on this button, you can grab a button of your own and post it on your blog. And so on and so on and so on. Plus you can read all about Matthew and make a donation on his behalf. (Don't tell my husband, but I made one when I only had $75 in my bank account.)

Dana gave me another good idea--something she did a few years ago for a friend who's little boy, Spencer got cancer. Yes, she made him a magic fleece quilt . . .

but she also started a dollar drive for him--she told all of her friends to slip $1 into an envelope and send it to Spencer.

Imagine a young, sick boy getting all of these letters in the mail.

And then imagine him opening each envelope and finding a $1 bill. It would be just like Harry Potter. (I bet that's where J.K. Rowlings got the idea.)

They would be like magic dollars.

I was thinking we could do that for Matthew.

It would be like magical money. For Matthew. I bet that would really brighten his Christmas season.

Okay, so you know how you're busy stuffing envelopes with Christmas cards right now? Would you mind adding Matthew Blanchard to your list? It will only take a sec to slip a $1 bill into it.

And tell all of your friends, okay.

His address is:

Matthew Blanchard

8444 Brody Marsh Ave.

Las Vegas, NV 89143

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By the way, Spencer is completely cancer free now. He's been cured!

Just sayin'.