ARTISTIC Whitefield youngsters are certainly creating the right image in a unique fundraising quest to help a pre-school in far flung Belarus.

For panels painted by children during their Stickybobs messy play sessions will be sewn into quilts and money from the sale of the bedding will go towards toys and equipment for the pre-school in the former USSR republic.

Now Naomi Fisher, who runs her Stickybobs classes from Whitefield Methodist Church as well as in Greenmount and Bolton, has appealed for local quilters to help her achieve her fundraising goal.

"By selling the quilts, we hope to raise £5,000. We want to transport toys and equipment over to the pre-school in Belarus," she said. "Fundraising is taking place to refurbish the premises and our contribution will be to provide toys and other goods."

Naomi was inspired by the fact that her mother was avidly involved in work for Belarus ten years ago. Now, the youngsters attending her play sessions are creating their own images to adorn the quilts.

"I like the idea of childrens images which are quite beautiful and fabric painting is such a lovely thing to do," she added. "What the children are doing at the moment is painting the panels which will then be sewn into the quilts. I estimate that ten panels will make up one quilt. Now, Im looking for quilters in the area to actually do the sewing. I hope that we can create 20 quilts at least."

The images include birds and even the foot and handprints of their young creators and each quilt will be unique in terms of the make-up of the individual panels.

Naomi continued: "We are planning to have as many quilts as possible completed in time for Christmas so we can sell them to raise the money. They will make a lovely present for children. Our target for the conclusion of our fundraising for the Belarus pre-school is April next year."

Any quilter who would like to help can contact Naomi by e-mailing her at naomifisher@stickybobs.com or by ringing her on (0161) 796 3652.