Every child should have a warm, colorful blanket to snuggle into. And Anne Schreivogl of Anacortes and Teri Bever of Sedro-Woolley have made it their mission to provide new, washable blankets to needy children in the area.

Schreivogl is leading an effort called A Common Thread to create or collect 200 new, handmade blankets by April 30. The blankets will be distributed locally through the national Project Linus organization to children of new moms in need in Skagit and Whatcom counties.

Schreivogl, 37, is a full-time painter and former owner of Insights Gallery in Anacortes. She said she gave up knitting 10 years ago to devote her energy full-time to painting.

Although she had been knitting or crocheting for only a few years before she gave it up — “I knitted socks” — she missed that aspect of creativity.

Overjoyed at the rainbow of colors she saw in a yarn store last year, she experienced an overwhelming desire to share those colors through the comfort of a blanket.

“To do something you love and share that with others is an unbeatable combination,” Schreivogl said.

She sold the gallery in April and then picked up her nearly forgotten knitting needles long enough to create an afghan she hoped would benefit someone.

Seeking a place to donate her afghan and others she wanted to make, the artist founded A Common Thread and created a Web site, http://www.blanketsforcharity.com.

The response was encouraging. Schreivogl needed a way to distribute the blankets and discovered the national nonprofit Project Linus organization (http://www.projectlinus.org) about nine months ago.

Local Project Linus coordinator Teresa Bever, 53, teaches quilting and works as a clerk in the Quilt Shop in Anacortes. She also makes about 10 big quilts every year, in addition to four or five smaller quilts and numerous other crafts.

“I’ve been sewing since I was a little girl,” she said. “Quilting was natural for me.”

But she can use just so many quilts herself. So, years ago, Bever sought out Project Linus as a way to share those extra quilts that she and other women in the community make each year. She has volunteered as the Project Linus coordinator since 2004, helping to provide security and comfort to local children who are sick, traumatized, or otherwise in need.

Schreivogl said Bever distributes about 300 donated blankets a year to children and newborns through her contacts at the Department of Social and Health Services, Skagit County Community Action Agency and nurses at area schools, filling a generally unrecognized need in the county.

Susan Will, infant case manager at Community Action in Mount Vernon, said many people don’t like to ask for items like blankets.

“We see the need in the homes,” she said by e-mail. “The appreciation is evident when you offer a mom a blanket for her baby or child. Often times, to see the expression of gratitude in their faces is felt beyond any words they could possibly express.”

Bever used to distribute blankets only in Skagit County. But when she learned Whatcom County didn’t have a Project Linus coordinator, “I adopted them too,” and now has a following of Whatcom women who bring blankets to her. Some even mail boxes of blankets to her for distribution.

“I’m amazed every day by the women in our community and their willingness to give,” Bever said, who recently opened a package to find 10 quilts.

“We are so thankful that there are people ‘like that’ who bring us beautiful handmade quilts for our moms and babies,” said Wende Dolstad, the Women, Infant and Children program manager at Community Action.

Newborns aren’t the only people who benefit from the blankets, Dolstad said, noting that the bigger blankets often go to toddlers because their homes are cold. “The gift is much appreciated by all of them,” she said.

Bever herself is part of a small group of women, three from Sedro-Woolley and one from Conway, who make quilts on a regular basis for Project Linus. The blanketeers, as she said they are known, also host a community quilting session at least once a year for anyone who wants to join them.

This year’s work party ends today. Bever said the group gathers at noon at Betheleham Lutheran Church in Sedro-Woolley.

Bever said the effort that Schreivogl started fits perfectly with Project Linus’ goals. By calling it A Common Thread, “I think she’s referring to the thread we use,” Bever said. “It is common among all three (quilters, knitters and crocheters).”

Schreivogl has exceeded her original goal of collecting 100 blankets by March 31 — she’s already collected 110. Rather than distributing blankets before the valley’s tulips bloom, her goal now is to collect and distribute 200 blankets before the tulips finish blooming by April 30.

And her knitting needles are still clacking. It took Schreivogl a month to complete her first afghan last summer, and she recently finished the nine 12-inch squares for her second blanket.

“I may be able to do another,” she said thoughtfully. The new deadline may make it easier. Either way, she joins many other caring knitters in the valley, some of whom are depicted in her recent painting called “Chicks with Sticks.”

“I was inspired after speaking with someone I know who’s getting together with their knitting group, each knitting a square, then sewing the pieces together into an afghan,” the artist said. 

A Common Thread and Project Linus are “cool,” Bever said, because both allow women a way to help children, without need for thanks or recognition.

“We do it because we love kids and love to knit, crochet or quilt,” she said. “We don’t know the

Kathy Boyd can be reached at 360-416-2153 or .