Quilt for a raffle

My husband volunteered at a golf tournament at Haggin Oaks Golf Course in Sacramento last year. He came home and said he offered a quilt to them made especially for this years tournament. One they could raffle off. So time went by and this quilt and its design was in my head often. What design? How big? What fabrics? How can I combine golf and guitars in the design and/or fabric? Finally I started looking for fabric even though I still didn't have the pattern in mind.

I found several I liked and bought some. But now I had to find a pattern that would fit in the amount of fabric I had purchased. A lot of the fabric was purchased from e-Bay, as I looked through there to get ideas. Buying that way often has just a small amount of fabric to purchase, so many of my buys were only one yard cuts.

Finally I settled on a Debbie Maddy design called Labyrinth. Love the design. She says it is an easy pattern to make, plus the pattern had lap, twin, queen and king size instructions. Yeah for me!

So now I had to put the fabric to the pattern, which meant buying a lot more fabric. That was fun, though. I came up with two guitar fabrics with acoustic guitars. I chose acoustic guitars because the people that come and perform at this tournament are usually Country Western singers. The guitars makes up the first round of diamond and square.

I purchased a green fabric with golf balls and tees on it and some black with golf bags and clubs. Those two fabrics make up the second round of diamond and square.

I thought I had purchased white golf balls for the background material. But when I went to cut it, I found I didn't. I guess I found it and thought this is what I WILL buy for it. Well this was in January, so I didn't have time to find it, ship it and sew it. I went to my LQS (local quilt store) and purchased a white on white fabric of little tiny circles. You have to look at it up close (really close) to see them but they look like golf balls. Works!

A friend gave me some old time golfer material - that is new fabric with old time golfers on it. That fabric makes up the star points. Then inside the star is the tournament's logo, which was provided by the golf course.

The backing is green fabric that looks like a picture taken looking down on a golf course. It has greens and flags and water hazards and trees and more. Perfect for the backing. Too busy to be used up front.

I like how it turned out. My husband liked how it turned out. The people at the golf course like it.

A special thanks has to be given to my daughter, Elisa, who long arm machine quilted it. She used a pattern that looks like the ball is going here and there and over here again. It was a perfect pattern for this quilt. It was quilted in white cotton thread, which does not show up too much in the front. But the backing it really looks great being on the bright greens of the golf course.

Good luck, Haggin Oaks with the raffle on this quilt. I was happy to make it for the event. The event takes place in May and benefits "The First Tee of Sacramento" and the "Make a Wish Foundation".

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