The quilt girls are at it again! They can’t quite remember but figure this is about the 15th year they have made a quilt for the Fall Festival Raffle in September. Linda Greubel, Linda White, and Kathy Willits started it and a few years later Sandy Schmitt joined them. They say that most years they liked the quilt they made. A couple of years, however, the quilt didn’t turn out quite to their expectations.
Each year part of the challenge is to select a pattern they all approve of. Some of the negatives might be “I don’t like that color”, “Good heavens no, there are too many matching points”, “I just don’t like that pattern”. As the years passed they sort of fell into a pattern so that one year Linda & Linda select it, and the next Kathy & Sandy.
Next, in January, the material is purchased, usually costing the girls around $40 each, and a decision is made as to what part of the quilt each of them will complete at home.
The second challenge is to find a date when all four can get together at the Parish Center with a couple of sewing machines, cutting board, tools, an iron, and of course treats, for the fun & camaraderie of setting all the blocks together and sewing on the borders. Depending on the complexity of the pattern this process will take 5-7 hours, for a combined effort of 20-28 hours. This is usually completed by the middle of February. The quilt then goes to the quilter. At first they used a hand quilter but as machine quilting became more popular, and quilters honed their skills, the decision was made to use that method as it is actually more durable. The quilting itself runs about $150- $200 which the parish pays for. When that is done it is returned to the girls and someone of them, usually Linda Greubel, will put on the binding and a label is secured.
The queen size quilt this year is called Merry Mosaic. It is made of 100% cotton batiks in tones of purple, green and gold. Batiks are a special dye process. It measures 99 x 87. It is very pretty.
About mid June it is off to Gloria Lee for the HUGH job of getting volunteers to sell raffle ticke
ts on it. In the beginning Rosemary Evans had that job until she had a stroke; then Sandy Schmitt did it for a couple years. Gloria and her volunteers seem to get better each year bringing in about $1300 last year. The quilt girls say “how about $1500 this year!”
They are not into pictures but have a picture for this year & a few past quilts to share.
Quilts from previous years:
Irish Chain Nana's Flower Garden
