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"I have it pinned, you just need to sew along this side," Burke explains to each student as she hands them their work.

By the end of the semester, Burke, with some volunteer help from her students, will add the batting, backing and edges to complete the child-sized quilts. As she has for the past five years, Burke will then donate the quilts to children in the Fairfax County's foster care program.

The quilt project predates Burke's arrival at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church in 1999, she said, adding that she wanted to keep the tradition going. Because she had never quilted, she took a class to learn the basics.

"I've been quilting ever since. I love it," Burke said.

The school's geometry students design quilt patterns, and then students in each eighth-grade family and consumer sciences class pick a design with which they want to work. Each student makes a quilt square for a graded project. Students then volunteer their time after school to help assemble the quilts.

"I think it's really cool to give back to people who have less than us," said Natalie Frye, 14, of McLean, as she pressed a block with an iron.

While their work on the quilt project counts toward mandatory community service hours, not all of the students are seeking credit.

"My hours are all taken care of, I just wanted to help," Muneera Hassan, 13, of McLean, explained to her teacher.

At first, Burke selected different recipients of the quilts every year or two, including a battered women's shelter and a children's cancer ward. Then she had a student who was in foster care before he was adopted at age 9.

"He talked about how difficult his life was as a foster child," Burke said. Since, she has donated the quilts to young children in Fairfax County's foster care program in the Falls Church area.

"I thought maybe this would be some comfort to a child," Burke said.

Zohreh Khayam, regional manager for Fairfax County's Children, Youth and Families division, said the handmade blankets serve as a powerful metaphorical and literal connection between the children who make the quilts and those who receive them.

"It creates a sense of safety for the children who end up using them," Khayam said. "It's something they can take with them wherever they are placed."

Burke and Khayam said they believe the students who make the quilts will take away more from the experience than basic sewing skills; they also will develop a sense of "commitment and responsibility to other human beings," as Khayam put it.

"It also gives them a chance to give back to the community," Burke said.