The Penguin Quilt
June 22, 2002At the second Penguin World Conference (Burlington Vermont, May 2000) I won a gorgeous quilt by Kitty Cole. (During that conference Kitty also qualified for Boston.)
I was unable to attend the third conference in Eugene Oregon (July 2001) and that was quite disappointing.
When it was announced that the next conference was going to be in Toronto - well, I wanted to do something special. My mom, her best friend Barb, my best friend Julia and I set out looking for Penguin fabrics. After many trips to various fabric stores the basic supplies were acquired. Julia and I met on 4 different occasions to cut out and sew together the quilt top. While were working on the quilt Julia gave birth to her second child. Despite being busy with a 2 year old and an infant she continued to help me with this quilt project which is why I refer to her as Saint Julia. After the quilt top was sewn together I sandwiched the quilt with the batt and backing, hand sewed the edges and tied the quilt with multi-coloured yarn.
The quilt went to the conference and was signed by all attendees. It became one big postcard for the encounter. Raffle tickets were sold and $350 was raised for the Achilles Track Club of Canada.
On Saturday June 22, 2002 the Toronto Penguins and Achilles Club Toronto encountered for a group run. The Penguins presented a cheque of $1,000 CDN to Achilles. Part of the donation was raised through the Penguin Quilt raffle at the
Toronto Penguin World Conference in May 2002. (From left to right: [FRONT] Maureen N (kneeling), Emily [BACK] Mikhail, Richard, Brian, Steve (holding cheque), Dimetre, Glenn (holding cheque), Kelly (holding son, Nathan), Warren, Catherine, Deb from Buffalo, Bonnie, Leanne.)
And here are some photos of the quilt we made for the Penguin Conference.
Gini Vance (the lucky winner) and Carlene Paquette (quilter)
The raw quilt top (before getting hand tied)
Close up of the penguin fabrics
The finished quilt, with signatures by conference attendees
