Group Project - Relay for Life Quilt

The Quilting Ladies at work decided to donate time and money to create a quilt to be raffled off to earn money for the 2011 Relay for Life. I volunteered to help, as did Jan, who has less experience quilting than I do. Marcia found a pattern in the McCall's Quick Quilts July 2003 magazine. The quilt is called Guys Weekend [designed by Erin Lawler], and we refer to it as a man-quilt - although in this area there are a lot of people who hunt, fish, and own cabins, so a more accurate description would be something like the Cabin Quilt. Jamie had the floor space to work on this queen size quilt, so Marcia, Jamie, and I met at Jamie's house to cut the fabric.

I assembled four rows at home as "homework."

Due to schedules and time constraints, we decided to tie the quilt, so again we used Jamie's kitchen as our workshop. I felt awkward doing this and had a difficult time with the running stitch through the quilt top, batting, and backing, but once I decided to use the old stab stitch I was okay.

And finally, the binding was added. I went to Jamie's house so she could teach and supervise while I learned the blindstitch. It was fun to learn something new that will in turn help me finish my own projects. I finished one end of the binding and took the quilt home to finish the long side before handing it off to Marcia so she could finish an end and a side. I am particularly interested in the mitered corners for binding. I learned one technique this time and want to learn another technique where you machine stitch the binding to the front of the quilt and then the mitered corner is perfect when you turn the fabric to the back to handstitch. Visual aids are helpful in understanding these things!

The quilt is very fluffy and comfortable. I told Jamie I was going to "test" the quilt overnight to make sure it was worthy of being raffled off. I didn't of course, but I am going to purchase raffle tickets and will hopefully win this wonderful prize!