One was won by Janice at the Christmas Luncheon last year and the other will be used as a fund raiser this year.
Betty has written an explanation about the Charity quilt process which will soon appear below.
Our sincere thanks to Betty for her untiring work that has resulted in a brilliant quilt. Thank you to everyone who helped in assisting Betty in the cutting and distribution etc and everyone of our group who made their two blocks.
Betty's explanation of the ins and outs of this quilt.My inspiration for the 2006 charity quilt came about from a wonderful 6 day trip to Japan that Miranda organised just the month
before. We mainly went to see the Tokyo Quilt Fair plus the lovely city of
Kyoto, where I saw lots of beautiful ladies wearing kimonos.
A “Charity Quilt” committee of 5 women was formed to come up with ideas for the
quilt. Four of us went to Japan, hence the theme. I thought of the kimono
design as it was lovely, but it was not enough, so one of the others thought of
the fan design also. On returning home I started designing and sizing up
the quilt.
At the time we had 42 members in our quilting group who participated in making the two quilt tops. It was quite a task to fit that many blocks in the one quilt and then repeat it. So I came up with the idea of each member making two blocks, one of a kimono and the other of a fan,(I saw a fan quilt at the Tokyo show and had a photo of it), therefore each quilt top comprised of half the members blocks.
With each member paying $30 towards the making of the quilts, the committee provided
the backing square and the strips for the border, the members then provided
their own material for the kimono and the fan appliqués. The fan was to have a
section with the kimono material sewn on, enabling them to be kept as a pair on
the quilt top.
I proceeded to cut all the squares and strips for the members so that I knew they were all cut the same. The border of each block was done in a log cabin design, so they had to be cut correctly.
The committee then got together at my house and we packed all the cut pieces along with instructions and diagrams, bagged them up in a zip lock bag with a number from 1-42. When they were completed and returned, they would then correspond with my numbered block design.
The response to this design was wonderful. Within the first week, many members had made them already and thought it was a quick and interesting set of blocks to make,
some members even learned new techniques from it. The members had to return
their blocks in the same bag so that I could match the block placement to my
design.
I was pleased some members even enhanced their kimonos and fans with special stitching patterns which gave it their individual look.
By piecing it together I separated them with a 2” sashing, and then bordered the entire quilt with 8” of Japanese blue indigo, with the idea of stitching sashiko designs on it.
Editor’s note: You will agree that it is a stunning quilt and Betty took the whole project on board and put hours of behind the scenes work into it. AMAZINGLY at the same time Betty was completing her Award winning “Out of the Blue -Steve Irwin Died” quilt, which those of us who were on the Charity
Quilt committee were privileged to have previews of it being worked on, before it’s public launch. Betty we all thank you for guiding us, teaching us and inspiring us..
