Skagit Valley Sprint

Skagit Valley Sprint

Friday, October 16, 2009

The Raffle Quilt


Amy of Park City Girl is hosting a quilt festival that I'm sure that you have all heard about...I think that I am the last on the list! But here is the story behind my entry:

About 3 years ago, one of my co-workers announced that she was quitting, shocked as we all were, we were even more shocked to find out that she was quitting to have a kidney transplant...it seems that she had suffered throughout her life with a degenerative disease that was affecting her kidneys.  At the time, she was having undergoing dialysis daily and it was placing a real hardship on her family.  Being a very private person, she of course didn't want anyone to know what was going on and surely didn't want any kind of sympathy from anyone.  Wanting to help, a group of us got together (finally with her permission) and decided to make a raffle quilt for her, with the proceeds to help defray the medical costs.  We scheduled a work day, where we first shopped for the fabric and then cut all the strips, then bit by bit, ladies would complete "homework" sections and bring them back to work.  I put together the top, another coworker donated the batting and the backing fabric and a friend of a friend kindly gave us a deep discount on the quilting. Then began the arduous task of taking turns sitting in the lobby of the local Joann's selling raffle tickets.  When all was said and done, we raised almost $1400 for our friend, whose transplant was a complete sucess and I am happy to say that she is healthy and active today and had and added a daughter to her happy family. It's amazing to me that so many women (most of whom had no sewing nor quilting experience) were first able to agree on the fabric and pattern selection...lol and second were diligent in putting it all together so quickly!  It turned out to be a beautiful quilt of which we received many compliments, but most of all it went together with love for another in need.

17 comments:

  1. Very impressive, congratulations:)

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  2. Beautiful Quilt. Thanks for sharing and for participating in the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

    SewCalGal
    www.sewcalgal.blogspot.com

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  3. What a great story. Women are just wonderful when there is a need aren't they?
    Lizzie
    XXX

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  4. That is a wonderful story and a beautiful quilt.I like happy endings.

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  5. Great story, what a blessing her new daughter is.
    Wendy

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  6. what a wonderful story.
    so happy to hear she is doing well and has a new daughter to enjoy.
    Kathie

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  7. That is wonderful! A great quilt for a great cause!

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  8. That does not look like an easy quilt! That was quite the undertaking with a group of women and LOOK at the results! A beautiful quilt, money raised for a friend and a beautiful life. What rewards!

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  9. Wow....the work that went into that, and the love shown....it's so awesome! Hope you win, dear!

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  10. That is an amazing story and an amazing quilt to match. Very very nicely pieced.

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  11. It is a very beautiful quilt, and a very heartwarming story to go with it. It is good to hear about people caring for each other.

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  12. What a beautiful story to go with a beautiful quilt. Thank you for sharing it.

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  13. What a beautiful quilt and a beautiful story. How wonderful it is to have such caring friends. Glad to hear the transplant was successful.

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  14. Lovely story, and the quilt is very bright and fun. My sister also had kidney disease and was on dialiasys for years, you just don't feel good with toxins always in your body. So glad this had a happy ending.

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  15. What a special quilt indeed! Women + Fabric = Power!!! ; ) Thanks for sharing.

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  16. That is a very special quilt! Nice you raised so much amount with this raffle.

    Take care.
    Maksi

    I became your follower. :)

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