I love you truly KKG

Let me be the first to say that I did not make this quilt. Rather, this beautiful wallquilt was created by the Needleworkers Interest Group of the Northern Virginia Alumnae Association of Kappa Kappa Gamma (ΚΚΓ). These sisters of mine took time out of their extremely busy lives to create this beautiful quilt for me when I needed it most. Needless to say, I was overcome when they gave this to me.

For all you Kappas, you will recognize the fabulous symbolism that was incorporated into the design. A fleur-de-lis medallion was appliqued in the center. The inner border has gold key and light blue owl appliques. Each key and owl has a Kappa Needleworker signature along with her undergraduate chapter. The next border is a modified Virginia Reel which not only ties into our Commonwealth but also references our 2001-2004 Philanthropy Quilt. You can't see it in the picture but the machine quilting on the quilt incorporates beautiful fleur-de-lis, hearts and the crossed-over loop of an issue ribbon. On the back is a hand-lettered label embroidered with gorgeous long-stemmed blue irises. In case you non-Kappas haven't figured it out, the owl is our mascot, the key is our badge, and the iris and/or fleur-de-lis (technically a stylized iris) is our flower. Our colors are "the blues of the sky and the sea".

Our Needlework Group membership transcends age, birthplace, career status, etc. We were born in different decades, went to different colleges (and pledged different chapters of Kappa)came to the DC area at different times, yet our love for Kappa and for needlework transcends these differences and renders them unimportant.

I will treasure this quilt always!

Fennel I

The Fennel is a quilt that sizes nicely on a full-sized double bed. It also works great for a college twin bed that has been slightly lofted with cement blocks or those plastic cup riser things that you can find anywhere that sells dorm supplies in August. The extra width hides whatever the student is storing underneath the bed. Fennels are usually grids of 5 x 5 or 5 x 6. This Fennel was based on a 5 x 6 grid but 3 shirts (column 1 top, column 3 middle, column 5 bottom) had designs that were longer than the grid, so I used mini-designs from the front of shirts, or in some cases the mini-logos from the recipient's shorts.

In any case, this Fennel was made for a female high school graduate, who also was a Gold Award Girl Scout, Governor's School Student, Girls' State Delegate, a varsity athlete, officer in several school clubs, and was involved in state and federal politics. These quilts are like mini-resumes. I learn so much about the recipient based on the provided clothing.

Thyme I

I'm a decent needleworker but only a so-so-at-best computer geek. My fellow Tartans would be appalled as our school is fairly well known in the computer world. In fact, I just recently discovered that it was at Carnegie Mellon where the sideways smiley :) evolved. This was back in the days when we had bboards and computer labs instead of PCs or gigantic mainframes with cards. In any case, I am not so great at formatting these posts but I will keep plugging along and hopefully I will get better. Thyme marches on....

The Thyme is a tote bag that uses both the back and front of the uniform. This Thyme was made for a Coast Guard wife who incorporated the colors of her sorority by selecting two shades of blue (and yellow) for her coordinating fabric. With the additional yellows and the blues, this color choice would be ideal not only for sisters of Kappa Kappa Gamma (ΚΚΓ) but also members of Alpha Xi Delta or Sigma Gamma Rho. The recipient opted for an exterior side pocket so she could put a water bottle in it.

BDU shirts have 4 patch pockets with flap closures. My designs always use the two breast pockets on the exteriors of the Thyme, Marjoram and Pansy and I use the lower pockets in the interior of the bag. Since the Coast Guard utility uniform only has 2 pockets instead of 4 like the DOD service uniforms, I made interior pockets from the patches on the arms which I am assuming are there for reinforcement.

Wasabi I and II

The Wasabi is a wallet. It has 6 pockets for credit cards and IDs and it has 2 long pockets for cash and a checkbook. It is made from little pieces of BDUs and coordinating fabric. You will notice that these two Wasabis coordinate with the Parsleys from a couple of posts ago.

Lavender II

Another Lavender laptop quilt was made for a female high school runner. This Lavender was designed as a 4 by 4 grid of 16 blocks. One block (Row 2 of the right-hand column) had a very long design so we shortened another block so the long design wouldn't have to get cut off.

In the left-hand column, 2nd row you will see 3 mini designs sewn together as one block.

The sashing fabric is very appropriate for this quilt theme as it depicts female runners (and a couple of guys) in a race.

Watercress I

The Watercress is a wall-hanging sized quilt incorporating any number of shirts up to 12. This Watercress is composed of 9 blocks in a 3 by 3 grid. It was designed for a Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumnus. He played baseball at MIT and was a member of the Massachusetts-Iota Tau chapter of Sigma Alpha Epsilon. His shirts are mostly his MIT baseball shirts but you can see an SAE Christmas Party shirt in the center.

This client only had 8 shirts but didn’t want a 4 x 2 quilt. Luckily 2 shirts had mini motifs on the front that coordinated with larger designs on the back. I was able to incorporate the breast pocket designs by using plain sections of the other t-shirts. The result is the left block on the top row. The middle block on the bottom row was actually a child’s shirt so I added triangles and strips to size it up to the other blocks. The sashing fabric is a mostly purple and gold batik which represents the colors of SAE.

A little-known factoid about MIT’s athletes: The Tech mascot is the Beaver. Do you know why?

Because the Beaver is Nature’s Engineer.

“So we turned to Mr. Hornaday’s book on the animals of North America and instantly chose the beaver….The beaver not only typifies the Tech man, but its habits are peculiarly our own. Mr. Hornaday says, ‘Of all the animals in the world, the beaver is noted for its engineering and mechanical skills and habits of industry. His habits are nocturnal, he does his best work in the dark.’ “
—Lester Gardner, Class of 1897

Basil I and II

The Basil is a kid-sized backpack made from the combat uniform. These two Basils were made for two military dependents from their dad's US Navy uniform. One bag is customized with the NAMETAG found over the breast pocket. It was appliqued with pink thread to match the frog fabric. The other Basil utilized the US NAVY tag (also from the uniform shirt). The straps can be made from the waistband as it is depicted in the Bug version or from a thin strip of uniform fabric backed and quilted with the coordinating fabric as is shown in the Frog version.