For those who want to do something for our deployed military families I have learned about Operation Kid Comfort. The family of a deployed military person provides pictures of the child with parent which are transferred to fabric. The organization makes up kits, with everything needed for a comfort quilt including the pictures, to quilters who are willing to put the quilts together within 8 weeks. The quilts are given to each child as comfort while their parent is away. The only thing not provided is the batting. I should add that these are small quilts. I forget the exact size but about 30X40.
Our local quilting group just got 15 kits from the Watertown, NY group. Each of us is doing one quilt. I just finished one for a 1 year old boy. I loved seeing the pictures of him and his dad together.
This is somehow connected to the YMCA. Here is the link to the organization. If you don't have a local chapter, I believe they will mail the kits out.
< http://www.asymca.org/what-we-do-3/n...n-kid-comfort/>

What a cool program. I wish this was up and running when my children were small. Their father went on 6 deployments.

I signed up to get a kit.
Thanks!

Coming from a Marine Corps family, that's an awesome thing to do :)

I'm an "Army Brat" also. My dad was in for 22 years. I was born in an Army hospital and he retired just before I was married. He was deployed without us 3 times. We would have loved such a gift. I was so glad to be able to do this.

From a military mom that is a marvelous idea. I am going to make one for my GD for when my son goes back to Afghanistan. I will also look for local chapters in the area and see if they have anything going. Thanks for sharing this!

the link is giving an error message

this link should work

http://www.asymca.org/what-we-do-3/n...n-kid-comfort/

thanks for fixing the link. The other one was copied from their page.

I just signed up also. Such a neat thing to do. and what a comfort for the kids.

I signed up for a kit.

This is so great! I've been doing Quilts for Kids from Downy but I'm going to do these as well.

Thanks so much for the chance to help!

The members of the board are such great people. I'm proud to be a small part of this group.

Thanks for the link and the info. I just signed up, too!

I signed up, too. Thanks for letting us know of this great opportunity.

Just signed up too! Since they give you most of the supplies I can definitely afford this. My time I can give, money is iffy. Thanks for sharing!

I am doing one right now!!!! It's a great operation for the kids :thumbup: :thumbup:

Thanks for the info!

I am going to let my quilt guild know about this worthwhile project as well as sign up to do some myself. I had heard of Quilts of Valor and planned to do one when the currently started projects are done. But this will be so easy since a lot of the prep work is done.

And the directions for the quilt are so easy. A local company did a service day and had a bunch of their employees working on it. Our group helped out.

It was so cool. We put together about 30 kits minus the photo blocks. While the others were piecing, then towards the end of the day we did the quilting part, finished about 15 or so.

Me too. Thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Former Navy wife with 10 years of deployments. I signed up to do some.

I got an e-mail today saying my materials are on the way. Can't wait to get started!

My pictures arrived yesterday, cannot wait to get started.

I received my pictures Monday. Such wonderful pictures, and the quilt is going together fast!

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a great program.

I also signed up. Do they tell you what pattern, what kind of quilting they want done? Can you tie the quilt? Do they want a certain kind of batting? Do you just sew the blocks together? Thanks for any information. Hopefully they don't have to be fancy. I am not good at fancy. Thanks for the infomation. We all need to do what we can. BrendaK

They do give you a pattern, but you can use a different one. The only mention of quilting I remember is not to quilt over the pictures. I would ask before you tie it, it certainly doesn't need anything fancy, SITD would be fine. They give directions for using fleece instead batting and backing, though you can use them too. It is a pretty easy quilt.

:thumbup: Thanks Faren. I did receive some information from them. My only problem now is how I am going to get copies of the pictures onto the fabric. I'll deal with that but I do thank you for your reply. BrendaK

Yes, this one does work. Thanks for posting. :thumbup:

Oh, no, you don't have to worry about that! They send you the pictures already printed on the fabric! You just peel the backing paper off (go slow!), then cut them to 8"X8". The pictures I got if they weren't 8X8 (which no picture is square) they printed a green border around the picture to make it 8X8. They pretty much figure everything out for you.

Finished my first one today! Picture here:
http://debzpicaday.blogspot.com/2011...96-of-365.html

Looks really nice Deb. Thanks for participating

ok I have mine finished as well...here you go.
What do you think?

BTW it is not wavy but my puppy pulled all the tacks off of my design wall so it is wavy and not flat any longer.

Kristie

Forgot to add the plain white square in the top right is for the kiddo to draw his own picture and I am going to include directions for it and a fabric pen if they would like to add descriptions in the white portions under each photo.

I love the pattern! Is that your own or one they sent you? And what a great idea for having the child draw their own picture!

I just finished my quilt so thought I would add it here too!
http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-153030-1.htm#4208689

Those airplanes are so cute! Love the kid drawing a picture too! Do you guys wrap it up like a present before you put it in the mailer?

[/quote]

I love the pattern! Is that your own or one they sent you? And what a great idea for having the child draw their own picture![/quote]

The pattern is my own creation, I picked the airplane block and resized it in eq5 (it is paper pieced). I felt that the white block in bottom left made the quilt look off so I added the other white block to even it out.

I didn't think about wrapping it like a present. Did you? Such a good idea!

I haven't yet, thought it might be nice for the child to have a present.

Number two finished! Picture here:
http://debzpicaday.blogspot.com/2011...98-of-365.html