Alpha Phi Red Dress Quilt 2013 is Finished!

The Red Dress Gala is tomorrow evening raising money for the Alpha Phi Foundation, an organization that is near and dear to my heart.  I have served as the Chapter Advisor for the Alpha Chapter for 5 years and this is the third quilt I have donated to the auction.  Last year the quilt raised almost $500 for the Alpha Phi Foundation.  I am hoping that this one raises a boatload of money as well. 

The quilt was made with Kona solids in white, orange and marine.  It was quilted with white, dark orange and yale blue thread by coats and clark (not my usual, but in a bind I have used the 100% cotton with no issues).  The backing is Good Morning by Me and My Sister Designs in Bow Dots Orange.  I linked up to the tutorial I used for the pattern in an earlier post and I strongly recommend using Best Press when making this pattern as everything is on the bias.

 

The quilt measures 60x72.

 

I am linking up with Fabric Tuesday, Show and Tell Tuesday , Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop? and Finish it Friday.



Blogger's Quilt Festival

Happy Halloween! 

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

 

 

Red Dress Quilt

After I finished the quilt for J I started this quilt.  I am a Chapter Advisor for Alpha Phi and wanted to donate something for our annual Red Dr.ess Gala.  Parents and sisters attend this event to raise money for the Alpha Phi Foundation.  I knew that I needed to make a quilt that was fun and symbolized our philanthropy.  I found this cute pattern on Etsy and went to work. 

I am proud to say that the quilt brought in quite a bit of money (not sure of the exact total) and one of our sisters is the proud owner!  I was so happy to find out that the women love the quilt so much that they used it as a decoration during one of our formal recruitment events!

(I love a pieced back!!)

The fabric is "Sew Cherry" by Bee in my Bonnet with bamboo batting and quilted with a meandering pattern.