Sister Act

Today I'm sharing a beautiful project undertaken recently by my friends Jane and Linda, who many of you know by now also happen to be sisters. They dug deep into their stashes to make this beauty for a raffle in support of their local food bank. I'll let Jane tell you about it in her own words:

"Last fall, our friend Donna Marie asked Linda and I if we would make a quilt for the annual food bank raffle. We agreed to do it as long as we could choose the pattern and fabrics, and that it would be a sofa quilt, or wall art rather than a bed-sized quilt. Our goal was to have it finished by March 1.

Donna Marie is a tireless volunteer for the Killaloe Food Bank (note to reader: we all grew up in Killaloe) and she organizes an event called “Mild to Wild” the weekend following Victoria Day in May. The event features a hot chicken wing eating contest, hot sauce sales, and a dance. To promote it, she organizes a raffle with several great prizes. Winners are announced at the event.

Linda and I wanted to use some of our wildest fabrics in the quilt and we chose a pattern called Cascade to showcase a collection of rich purples and greens. Using fabrics from our personal stashes (and vowing not to buy anything new!) we settled on a collection and started cutting blocks on Sunday, January 19.

We laid the blocks out on Linda’s spare bed and moved them around till we were satisfied with the arrangement. Each block was carefully pinned together and then we each took home half of the blocks to assemble by hand.

By Saturday, February 15, we had completed and ironed the blocks and the quilt top was ready to assemble. The rows were sewn together by machine and the final top given a good press. For the backing, Linda had a bright purple and green floral that was perfect, but not quite wide enough. We added a row of blocks bordered by a bright fuchsia to it and then it was ready to go to Roberta for quilting. We went with the panto called Moulin Rouge.

Roberta completed the quilt in record time and on February 27, Linda and I got together one last time to bind it. We used a purple with tiny orange and fuchsia dots. I dropped the quilt off to Donna Marie on February 28, just in time for the ticket launch! 

The quilt is on display at various locations where tickets are sold, including the drugstores in Killaloe and Barry’s Bay. I hope whoever wins it will love it as much as we loved making it!"

I say it all the time - quilters are just the best, aren't they?....M