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-   -   KKG Quilt (http://www.greekchat.com/gcforums/showthread.php?t=107098)

alum 08-29-2009 11:03 AM

Sisterhood in your alumnae years
 
Our Northern VA Alumnae Association of KKG is large enough to have Interest Groups. One of the Interest Groups in which I am involved is the Kappa Needleworkers. Our 2 main projects are the annual making of badge boxes for the new initiates of the GW-Gamma Chi chapter and also creating a benefit quilt to support KKG Philanthropies which takes about every 3 years as we only meet once a month.

In any case, the Needleworkers floored me last month with the presentation of this beautiful wallquilt. It has fleur-de-lis, owl and key appliques in the center square and middle border. A modified Virginia Reel is the design of the outer pieced border. It's not visible in the picture but the keys and owls are each signed by a Needleworker with her chapter letters under her name.

The plain blue exterior border was intricately quilted, incorporating designs of hearts, fleur-de-lis, and the crossed-over Medical Issue Ribbon in the quilting.
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/b...KGoriginal.jpg

I am not overly emotional, but this made me almost cry in public. How these sisters found the time to make such a beautiful gift is beyond me. Our Needleworkers range widely in terms of age, professions, etc yet the Kappa bond is clearly stronger.

LucyKKG 08-29-2009 01:01 PM

Wowwww that's beautiful!

ihearttrisigma 08-29-2009 04:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LucyKKG (Post 1841118)
Wowwww that's beautiful!

Sorry for the crash, but I have to just say that is just beautiful!! What talented women! I can definitely see why it brought a tear to your eye!

You said it was needlework - does that mean it was all assembled by hand and no sewing machine?

Thanks for sharing, alum! I love seeing things like this, and perhaps will consider starting to learn how to do this so I can make one for my sorority to provide at our next Convention (after 2010) to raise money for the Foundation or RPM!

Greekgrrl 08-29-2009 07:03 PM

That is astonishing and lovely. My (non-Greek, fleur-de-lis-loving) mother would kill for that! What a wonderful gesture.

alum 08-29-2009 09:31 PM

It was hand-pieced but machine-appliqued and machine-quilted. Obviously the signatures were done by hand. There is a beautiful label on the back that is hand-written explaining who did what. One of the needleworkers who is very skilled at machine embroidery embroidered long-stemmed blue irises on the label.

Kappa Needleworkers tend to do our fundraiser quilts by hand. This means hand-piecing, hand-applique, and hand-quilting. This coupled with the fact that we meet once a month results in a quilt once every three years. We then raffle that quilt for an entire year (Year 4) which overlaps with Year 1 of the next quilt.

In terms of a fundraiser quilt, quilters will buy raffle tix no matter what. Many non-quilters will buy tickets for a raffle quilt only if they think it will "go" in their house. For a fundraiser quilt, you want to design for the mass audience while still utilizing your org's motifs. I personally love all the bold symbolism on my quilt and the Needleworkers knew this when they designed this for me. They've seen my home and my personal projects over the years and knew what I liked. Back to fundraisers: Our 01-04 raffle quilt was Kappa-themed but more muted. We did an all over VA Reel pattern in various shades of blue. If you looked carefully you saw that the hand-quilting motifs were keys, owls, fdl, but you did have to really examine the top to see the designs. Our 98-01 quilt was a traditional pieced iris block set in sashing strips. However we used various pastel shades of hand-dyes rather than just blues.

If you put a hanging sleeve on the back after completion, it will be easy to display. If it's a bedsize quilt, put it on the correct bed and take a pic. That way the nonquilters will realize that it can be used in their home rather than just wall art.


The Gamma Chi initiation presents are made by hand.


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