SEQUIM — Raffle tickets are on sale now for a quilt that will be the highlight of the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club’s 31st annual quilt show set July 21-23.
The quilt is honoring the late Muriel “Kitty” Niles, a biologist, ornithologist and artist who designed quilts and taught quilting until her death in 2012.
The raffle drawing will be held during the show planned from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. July 21-22 and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 23 at Sequim Middle School, 301 W. Hendrickson Road.
Tickets for the raffle are $1 and can be purchased until July 10 at the Sequim Farmers Market, Art Walk, Swain’s General Store and Doodlebugs.
Admission to the show is a requested $5 donation, with proceeds going to the club’s charitable endeavors.
For hours, Niles observed the flora and fauna at Carrie Blake Park in Sequim, sketching them in her notebook.
Those nature sketches transformed into fabric as Niles began to sew 25 quilt squares.
The annual Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club raffle will honor Niles’ memory during the show with a quilt that features her 25 colorful squares, checkered in five rows atop a marble gray backdrop.
The squares were purchased by Sequim quilter Lydia Nelson at Niles’ estate sale.
Nelson sewed batik blocks in green and beige to enlarge the finished design. She and Ilse Osler completed the piecing process and the project was machine quilted by Mary Anne Clayton.
The raffle prize possesses special meaning to those who knew Niles and can attest to “Kitty’s art and spirit,” according to a news release.
This year’s theme will be “Don’t Bug Me, I’m Quilting,” a play on words that exemplifies Niles’ interest in the insects on the Olympic Peninsula.
Proceeds will benefit the club’s community service projects and activities.
