October 6, 2010

The Fall Into Fall Quilt Bloggers Giveaway is in full swing! If you haven’t checked it out yet, by all means do so. Winners will be drawn on October 15. Visit my giveaway here.

Now to today’s topic. I recently received the most amazing message from Rebecca Hoffmann of Plant City, Florida. It made my day and then some!!

I am a member of Feather Princess Appliqué Guild of Tampa, Florida. One of the sewing circles of the guild is “Sewrority Sisters Appliqué Sewciety.” We meet once a month for four hours of sewing and fun at one of the local libraries. We wanted to give something to the library for allowing us to use one of their rooms, so we decided to make a raffle quilt and donate all the proceeds to the Riverview Library.

I contacted you last year about using your basket patterns for a raffle quilt, and you gave us permission. My group has finally finished the quilt and I’m sending a photo of it.

Basket Quilt by the SSAS,  80 x 100

Basket Quilt by the SSAS, 80 x 100

Is this not a masterpiece of a quilt? I am totally blown away. This is a group of gals who are not afraid of appliqué! They enlarged the blocks, designed a new setting, and embellished many of the blocks in a most delightful fashion, I love it!

Rebecca continues:

Each person donated $10 towards the cost of fabric, batting, etc., for the quilt. Sixteen women volunteered to make blocks, one person did the piecing, another the quilting and another the binding. We used your 16 patterns from Baskets to Appliqué, and I designed four more to make a total of 20 blocks.

My friend Shari Gillis and I designed the sashing for setting the 12″ blocks. Some of the women added their own designs to the baskets and one person changed it completely. The quilt is finished, and we are now in the process of selling the raffle tickets. This is a beautiful quilt, I wish you could see it in person. Thank you so much for allowing us to use your patterns. We are hoping to make a large donation to the library.

Oh my goodness, I should think so! Huge thanks to you and your group, Rebecca, for choosing my basket designs for your quilt. I feel honored. You have elevated the designs and you’ve inspired me!

Here are some closeups of the blocks.

4-blocks

2-blocks

I’m so glad Rebecca sent me closeups so that I could see the delightful sewing doodads that were added to these blocks. How fun! My hat’s off!

4-more-blocks

6-blocks

rebeccas-blocksHere are the four blocks that Rebecca designed herself. As I told her, they’re so lovely and entirely to my taste. Do we see a new pattern designer emerging here?

Here are two labels for the quilt that Rebecca did up in EQ7.

sewrority-label

label bask (2)Great job with the computer work!!

basketscover
Now a word of news about Baskets to Appliqué. Gentle quilters, it’s very nearly out of print. That’s right, there are now exactly 14 copies left in captivity. But never fear, the designs will still be available once these copies are gone. I’ll be offering all 16 designs in a different format, an unbound pattern pack in a baggie. There won’t be any color photos or instructions, just the designs for your appliqué pleasure. The baskets will go on!

Until next time,
Kay
By Kay Mackenzie

Comments

5 Responses to “Florida appliquérs do bang-up baskets”

  1. Sarah Vee on October 6th, 2010 11:58 am

    Beautiful quilt. Beautiful baskets! This just may quench my need for a new basket quilt and an applique quilt – two for one:) Too bad I think it would take me more than a year to do on my own! Someday, maybe. Thanks for sharing. I hope they sell lots of tickets!

  2. Kim Jamieson-Hirst on October 7th, 2010 9:41 pm

    It’s stunning! You must feel proud that they took your designs and created something so beautiful. I agree with you that the extra 4 blocks are lovely as well. How can we get raffle tickets? :)

  3. Debbie St.Germain on October 9th, 2010 7:41 pm

    I love that quilt and all the different baskets.

    Debbie

  4. Karen Beigh on October 10th, 2010 2:13 pm

    The basket quilt is a beauty. The group does very good applique work.

  5. Raewyn on October 14th, 2010 2:46 am

    I have just come across your blog and Oh how I love this quilt!! Your baskets book looks amazing – I think I will try to order one!!