“Margarita Czaia works on quilt designs with Evelyn Blair and Betty Johnson at Langley’s Quilting by the Sea.Matt Johnson / staff photoWhenever Margarita Czaia flies these days, she always takes a supply of handmade quilts with her.Czaia, a Clinton resident, is one of the caring faces and willing world travelers at the front of Healing the Children, an organization that brings foreign children to United States hospitals for surgical procedures they cannot get in their home countries. A retired employee of American Airlines, Czaia uses her ticket discounts to travel almost anywhere a child needs medical help.On every trip, Czaia takes a small, warm piece of Whidbey Island to make the long flight back to the United States. With the help of several local quilt makers, Czaia sews a handmade quilt for every child she brings back. Done in what she calls a Hugs and Kisses design, the colorful quilts are adorned with patterned X’s and O’s. The quilts keep the children — many of whom are in pain due to their medical conditions — comfortable during the flight. It’s nice because they have a blanket for the airplane, Czaia said. And it’s their’s forever. Last week, Czaia and her corps of volunteer quilters were hard at work on several quilts in the workroom above Langley’s Quilting by the Sea. The group — which included Evelyn Blair, Betty Johnson, and three other local quilters — was able to stitch together two of the complex, 45 inch by 60 inch Hugs and Kisses designs inside of a few hours. Czaia herself finishes the quilts on her own, adding the batting and the backing at home. Blair said the quilts have to be well made because they have to last through years of snuggling.Some people call them ‘Linus quilts,’ Blair said, referring to the Peanuts character who carried his baby blanket with him through more than 40 years of comic strips.Czaia said the children she brings to the United States have medical conditions that cannot be treated by doctors in their home countries. One girl she recently brought here, for instance, was born with her bladder outside her body. She said the condition likely would have been fatal by the time the girl turned 10.Some of the children Czaia accompanies to the United States are orphans and are adopted by people in this country. The remainder fly home to their own families.More information about Healing the Children is available on the organization’s Web site, www.healingchildren.org. “