Local Quilters Create Third Quilt For Charity

By Nancy K. Crevier

The Sew Together Gals, a local quilting club, has banded together once again to create an original, queen-size quilt to be raffled off for charity.

In previous years, quilters Peg Jacques, Lori Jacques, Fran Ashbolt, Emily Ashbolt, Marian Wood, Liz Arneth, Pat Marshall and Holly Walczak have donated hand-stitched quilts to raise funds for the tercentennial celebration and for C.H. Booth Friends of the Library. This year’s recipient is the Spay and Neuter Association of Newtown (SNAN), which is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2007.

“We think that SNAN is just a great choice,” said Ms Jacques. “They are a group that really does a lot of good.”

While all of the members of the Sew Together Gals take turns piecing, sandwiching and hand-quilting the large bed cover, the design is the creation of Ms Jacques, who used the Electric Quilt design software to come up with several ideas earlier this year. The final design and fabric colors were based on input from the entire group, resulting in what the Sew Together Gals believe is a spectacular quilt. The design is based on a lone-star design and carpenter’s square design that Ms Jacques said she “exploded” for a better effect.

“This quilt is one big star centered on the top of the quilt in gold, blues, and red,” said Ms Jacques. “It is named ‘Celebration’ because it looks like a firework exploding in a night sky. We thought it was a good theme for SNAN’s anniversary.”

The piece is bordered with a dark blue material printed with gold stars, sun, and moon to further represent the night sky.

The cost of making the quilts for charity is absorbed by all of the members of Sew Together Gals, although with “Celebration,” said Ms Jacques, the group was fortunate to have the cotton batting that fills the quilt given to them by Roy Young of Fairfield Processing in Danbury. “Having batting of this quality donated to us was a big savings,” said Ms Jacques.

Raffle tickets for “Celebration” are expected to go on sale at various locations around town in June, with a late summer or early fall drawing to announce the winner.