DECATUR - Thursday may have brought picture-perfect weather on one of the last days of summer, but the sun still shone on the fall Make A Blanket Day of Project Linus.

About 160 people stayed inside the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the annual event and either brought or made 708 blankets for ill and traumatized youngsters.

Gesturing toward a gymnasium jam-packed with fabric, tables, sewing machines and blankets in various stages of production, Central Illinois Chapter Coordinator Mary Balagna said, "We've got people coming out of the woodwork to help out."

Among them were experienced quilter Linda Boles and relative newcomer Amy Maxey, both of Decatur, working together in the overflow area between the gym and chapel, sandwiching each of their quilts so the job would go faster.

"This is cute," Boles remarked as they began pinning layers of a design Maxey planned to finish for a child whose mother is imprisoned at the Decatur Women's Correctional Center. "I wish I could say I made it," Maxey replied, "but I'm not as experienced as most of these ladies are."

The stage was set aside for Here's a Hug, a special initiative this year to make blankets ordered by inmates at the correctional center as Christmas gifts for their children.

Balagna said all but 70 of the nearly 800 blankets ordered had been assigned before Thursday to a specific blanketeer, and those forms already had been matched to fleece or fabric and stacked on a table for Make A Blanket Day participants to pick up and work on.

"There are always people who come wondering what they should do," said chapter assistant Cheryl Hughes.

Blanket-making groups participating Thursday included the Christ Care Stitchers of Central Christian Church in Decatur, Decatur and Springfield quilt guilds, Illinois Country Stitchers of Champaign, Macon Stitches of First Baptist Church in Macon, Maroa Library Quilters Group, Mildred's Merry Stitchers of Allenville Christian Church, Sew & Sew Stitchers of Hillsboro, St. Elizabeth Council of Catholic Women of St. Columcille Church in Sullivan, Team 35 of Moweaqua and Women in the Arts of Decatur.

The vast majority of Thursday's blanketeers were female, but Joe Filer of Mahomet was happily helping his wife, Bunny, make fleece blankets in the foyer outside the chapel by squaring them off and cutting the loops around the ledges.

"I do the low-training stuff, whatever I can do for the cause," Filer said.

tchurchill@herald-review.com|421-7978