Today is my 10 year birthday of starting my Binky Patrol chapter. 10 years. That's a long time to keep doing the same thing. 10 years of hugs. 10 years of smiles. 10 years of collecting fabric and yarn and meeting great people and hearing stories of kids and helping. Sometimes I wish I had kept track of exactly how many blankets we've made and sometimes I am glad I haven't. I've always been really bad at numbers. The blog has helped a bit because I've been keeping track in shorter time spans, but even then, I don't have an exact number of blankets in and out. I just know it's been a lot. Thousands, that's for sure
So how do you celebrate a big milestone like 10 years of doing something you love? By making more Binkies of course. I wonder if I will still be making quilts 10 years from now and how the group will have changed . When I started, I was pregnant with my youngest. I had three kids at home and didn't live in this house. I was only a crocheter and didn't know how to knit. I had just started teaching high school, my oldest was in middle school. She's in grad school now.
My house was full of birds and guinea pigs and buckets of yarn. I was making about one crochet afghan a week. When I first started, it was just me, making blankets and I couldn't give them away to the hospital because they thought I was a crazy lady trying to sell them baby blankets. They didn't want to buy blankets from me so my mom encouraged me to start a Binky Patrol chapter so I would have a national organization behind me with a recognized name. Once I did, the hospital happily accepted my free blankets. Then, they wanted more than I could make myself. I had my first official drop off meeting in August and had a whole bunch of people come and drop off quilts and blankets. I think I got about 200 blankets at that first meeting. By that time I had given birth to my son and my kids came with me to help me collect the blankets. It was exciting and fun and scary at the same time. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I'm oh, so glad I did it.
No matter what the next 10 years have in store for me, I'm happy for the past 10. I'm happy for all the friends I've made and the new skills I've learned and the people I've been able to help.
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