Bim! Bam! Hot damn! We're the girls of Delta Gam!

Fabulous Client, Part Deux*

The twin of the boy who received the UMD/Kappa Alpha pillow this Christmas is also attending a Maryland college. This young lady attends Salisbury University and is a proud sister of Delta Gamma.

The Salisbury University logo incorporates their mascot and the letters S and U in a very skinny font. The mascot is a seagull which is very logical as Salisbury is on the Eastern Shore very close to the Atlantic Ocean. Their colors are maroon and gold.

Delta Gamma (ΔΓ) is a woman's fraternity founded in 1873. They have a mascot called the Hannah Doll which looks somewhat like Raggedy Ann. Their badge is an anchor and their colors are bronze and pale pink and blue.
I was able to find some blue fabric that had anchor motifs in the right size for the letters so I was thrilled. The recipient apparently is a big fan of hot pink so I kicked it up a notch for the background. Surprisingly the maroon of the SU didn't clash too badly with the hot pink.

* Thank you very much for arranging to meet me at Talbot's Outlet. For any MidAtlantic ladies reading this, the Talbot's Outlet in Fairfax County, VA is well worth the drive: Fabulous deals for the high-quality merchandise for which Talbot's is known.

Sweating like sardines in a flophouse fraternity

Gotta love a repeat client! :) Back in 2009, the wonderful customer ordered 4 custom-made pillows for her 3 sons and the girlfriend of the oldest boy. This year she wanted them for her college-aged niece and nephew who happen to be twins. They were made for Christmas 2010. I'm just slow on the uptick regarding this blogging stuff.

So first things first, the boy is a member of the Kappa Alpha Order at the University of Maryland. I looked around but couldn't find Terrapin fabric (but did spot plenty of UVA and Hokie motifs) on my side of the Potomac. So the client chose the pattern fabric to be a plaid that incorporated the black, red, white , and yellow of the University of Maryland logo.
 


Kappa Alpha Order's colors are crimson and old gold. For once the college colors and the fraternity colors were the same!

The same plaid was used for piping, the outline of the Maryland M and the main fabric of the greek letters. I did both regular and reverse-applique for the M and regular applique for the KA.



This pillow cover was made with a zipper and pillow insert so it could be cleaned easily. My client has a wonderful monogrammer in her town who took care of the machine embroidery.

Factoid of the day: There is a statue of Jim Henson (Class of 1960) chatting with Kermit the Frog on the College Park campus. As a former Sesame Street fan back in the day, I think that's great!

Pi Phi! Oh my! 'Cause them angels look so fly!

This queen-sized quilt was made for an alumna of Wake Forest who is now a law student at William and Mary.  As you can see, she also is a member of the Pi Beta Phi woman's fraternity.  Yay, Monmouth Duo!! 

This quilt incorporated some unusual fabrics. The Wake Forest fans wave around a Rally Rag (lowest row, center) at the games.  This is a small terrycloth towel. Apparently by joining the Screamin' Demons. students can pay $30 per season to sit in the student section of the athletic arenas.  They are given the black and gold tie-dye shirt (top right-hand corner) to wear at the games.

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I cut the greek letters from the extra fabric of the Screamin' Demon shirt. These letters are the same size as the letters that you would see a sorority girl wear on a sweatshirt or jersey. I satin-stitched both the white outline fabric and the Screamin Demon fabric with a stabilizer. The grey was from the back of one of the grey shirts used in the quilt

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As usual, I kept anything 3-D on the blocks if possible.  I was able to retain the pocket on the hoodie block and the drawstring and buttons on the lounge pants.. I used surplus fabric from the lounge pants to make the large WF block.

The neckerchief  (center) had a very large design so it needed to be cut no smaller than 18" x 18".  T-shirt quilt blocks are usually 15" x 15" so I had to find 4 shirts that would lend themselves to be longer than normal and four that could be wider.  The fabric I chose for the sashing, borders, and binding was mostly black and gold but with touches of mauve and grayish-blue which are close to the Wine and Silver Blue of Pi Beta Phi.  I quilted this fabric with a light yellow thread which gave it a cloisonné look.



To All The Mothers And The Sisters And The Wives And Friends I Want To Offer My Love And Respect To The End

I posted about my dear Kappa Needleworkers over a year ago.  Our group recently finished yet another one of our fabulous Raffle Quilts. This queen-sized quilt with its bold plaid thistles not only speaks to me as a sister of KKG, but as a Carnegie Mellon Tartan as well.

The quilt took 3.5 years to complete.  Our group only meets once a month so much of the handwork is done at home.  The thistles are all hand-appliqued  and embroidered with a buttonhole stitch.  It is machine-pieced and machine-quilted.

The proceeds from the yearlong raffle will go towards the Kappa Kappa Gamma Foundation.

My name's D.M.C. with the mic in my hand And I'm chilling and coolin' just like a snowman

My building is having a holiday door decorating contest.  Since we have people of various faiths at our site, I wanted to decorate doors with a variety of images.  The boss gave me a budget and let me go shopping during a time when I would normally be in the office.

Door 1 is in homage to Kamikazi Carl and his love of snowboarding.    You will see that St. Nick is also an avid X-gamer.

Put on your yarmulke, it's time for Chanukah! Door 2 is honoring the Festival of Lights.

And the entry that we hope will win:



My co-worker is so clever.  She said she was going to add gingerbread men but the fact that they are all wearing college shirts is just too cute. And I love the expression on Santa Gorlock... 

"Ready one, you will do this four times with the left, four with the right, then eight times with both, then repeat"

I don't often get to see the quilts being enjoyed by their intended recipients so I am delighted to repeat this quilt since there is a delightful little addition to the picture! 

Since Kitty Kat (no idea if her parents would approve of this nickname for their darling)  Katelyn was born on Cinqo de Mayo, she must be almost 7 months old if the photograph was taken recently.  Her mom even coordinated her outfit to match the quilt. She is too cute for words!!!

Groovy UV?

Hey look me over, rate me a 10
Fill up my beer teacup and I'll chug it down sip daintily again

They say I'm a Kappa, womanly and true,

But wait a minute, I'll ask my mom to see what I can do!

This quilt was made for an illustrious alumna of the University of Vermont.  She is also an alumna member of Kappa Kappa Gamma (yay!).    There were only 5 shirts in total and 3 of them were youth sizes.  One of the Kappa designs was actually from a sleeve.   So I needed a design that used bigger blocks as compared to the usual sashing method.  I used the same design as I used for the Be Prepared Quilt for the Scoutmaster.  This elongated Moon over the Mountain pattern is perfect for a Catamount quilt as Vermont is the Green Mountain state. 

UVM's colors are green and gold. Vermont is known for the cold, snowy winters (that plus the mountains equate to excellent skiing) so I chose a snowy grey Hoffman fabric for the background of the big blocks.  The greens are varied but Ione is a Jinny Beyer fabric and another is a  Debbie Mumm print.  Like the Scoutmaster quilt, I sewed buttons at the base of the triangles.  Again tying in the UVM colors, I used green buttons with gold thread.

I reverse-appliqued all the t-shirts into the larger triangles.   I was thrilled to match the border fabric. Not only does it have green and gold, there are grey owls all over.  Too perfect!

One final homage to Kappas everywhere: