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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.