SWE-CNM Quilting Project

Those that know me, know that I'm a huge fan of sewing (or maybe I just like shopping for fabric?!). When my local Society of Women Engineers section (SWE-Central New Mexico, or CNM) started a charity project that involved making a quilt, I signed right up to help!

The quilt was created to raise scholarship funds for SWE-CNM and folks from around the SWE nation submitted quilted 12"x12" "squares" and SWE t-shirts that could be used to create it. And after all of the donations were collected, myself and 3 other local SWE members spent and entire Saturday stitching the quilt together.

Let me first say another THANK YOU to Fran (and her hubby, Mike - who took a few of these photos - which you can click on to make bigger) for opening up her home for our little quilting party. Fran has a SERIOUS quilting hobby and some SERIOUS amounts of fabric (*jealous*) - we even chose a few to use for the quilt:
We ALL had a great time and I snapped a few photos to capture the memories. Below is a shot of the beginning of the quilt layout (and no, Danita didn't come with the quilt, she was just selecting a few more fabrics to make a few more "squares" for the quilt):
A couple shots of the squares and t-shirts (pre-cut) laid out to make the nearly queen-sized quilt:
(And "my" squares - first time making them! - were the "Pink Ribbon" - for breast cancer awareness - and the "SWEeter Futures Outreach Program" square - top right, which supports the region's outreach program that I helped create.)
A few action shots - me (sitting), sewing; Sarah (left), ironing; and Danita (right), cutting up t-shirts:
Me (left), pinning a few "new" squares that we made that day; Fran (middle), ironing; Danita (right), still cutting t-shirts (she totally had the worst job of the day...)
Sarah - sewing:
The nearly-finished front (can see my "Outreach" square better in this shot; it's two above the Pink Ribbon - which is a 3-D square, by the way...the ribbon stuck out! I'm so cool!):
We decided to make the back super-colorful (or like a "circus tent" according to Sarah...ha!):
Working on putting the back on to the front (L-R: Kerrie, Fran, Danita):
Adding in the batting - Fran (left) and Danita (right) pinning it to the fabric:
And it took three of us to stitch the back, front, and batting together - that sucker was HEAVY:
And took three of us to help "feed" it through my machine (L-R: Danita, me, Fran):And a finished product - Danita, Kerrie, and Fran (Sarah's not in the photo, as she had to skedaddle for a Thanksgiving meal):
I'm not sure of the final numbers, but I think SWE-CNM raised over $500 for this quilt project. I'm bummed that even though I purchased a boat load of $5 raffle tickets, I still didn't win...

Alas, it was for a REALLY great cause and all in all, it was a super-fun experience and I'm glad my talents were finally put to good use!

Thanks to all the quilters that participated and a big congrats to Leslie for winning the quilt! I'm sure it will keep you warm during this time of year!
~kerrie