I am entering my Red Dress quilt into the 2012 Blogger's Quilt Festival. As most of you remember I am a Chapter Advisor for a fantastic Greek organization, Al.pha Ph.i. Every year the chapter holds a Red Dress Gala to raise money for the Alpha Phi Foundation. Our Foundation donates money in the form of the Heart to Heart Grant and this past year we donated $50,000 to the Univers.ity of Washington to help fund research looking at the gender differences in heart disease. I am very proud of the women that I advise and the tremendous support that they are able to provide to our foundation which does so much to not only support sisters in need, but to raise awareness about heart disease.
If this year's quilt looks oddly familiar, you're right! The women loved the quilt last year and asked me to make another one this year. I used scraps from my 2011 quilt to make another one this year. I did have to purchase some fabric to finish the quilt including some white for the background, the fabulous cherry border and just a little bit of backing material. The fabric is Sew Cherry by A Bee in My Bonnet...you may be able to find some on Et.sy.
That is my little legacy (one of them) at the Chapter House holding up the quilt for me.
Just like last year, I forgot how long this quilt actually takes to make :). There are 30 appliqued red dresses that each have their own embelishing on them, plus the 30 snow ball blocks and the "snowball rectangles" to finish off the outer diamonds. I was sewing my heart out in a hotel room 1.5 weeks before the auction!
I finally finished the quilt and was all ready to baste it and quilt it (in the hotel room) and realized that my batting was 1.5 inches too short. We were heading out of town for the weekend as soon as I got home form my business trip so I quickly called my husband and asked him to get some batting out of the closet so I didn't forget it...well I forgot it and we were visiting his family who lives in a small town....thank goodness there is a craft store (and by craft store, I mean a big box store that starts wiht a W) about 30 minutes away and I hopped in the car and found some great batting.
I got the quilt all quilted up and hand sewed the binding on our return trip. The quilt went to acution and raised more money than I could have expected. I was approached about making a red dress quilt for a different auction next fall. I will definitely be starting that one a little earlier. All in all, my chapter raised $21,000 for our Foundation, an increase of $10,000 from the year before!
Blogger’s Quilt Festival Stats
Finished quilt measures : 54″x 61″
Special techniques used : applique
Quilted by : Me!
Best Category : Throw size quilt, Applique Quilt
