This year, our Quilt Team opted to try something very different than the past 27 Hawks Aloft Raffle Quilts.  Centered around the Greater Roadrunner, New Mexico’s state bird, the center was designed by Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer.  Hoping for a true desert landscape look, I pieced the center in the muted shades of the desert and sky.  Then, Lizzie Roberts, a long time volunteer and bird caretaker, painted over the piecing and hand painted the faces and feet of the roadrunners.  We thought it was looking really good, but what to do beyond that?

I was inspired by the work of a famous Australian quiltmaker, Jenny Bowker, who uses single geometric shapes and careful shading to create subtle backgrounds.  Cynthia and I worked together to design a simple triangle for the remainder of the quilt design.

Due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to hold our formerly large weekend-long quilt retreats in which as many as 12-14 stitchers gathered to assemble the quilt.  Instead, we worked in small groups to lay out the triangles and then stitch them together, passing the pieces around among us.  Master machine quilter, Tisha Cavanaugh, added another element of design atop the quilt top.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s raffle quilt a reality:  Tisha Cavanaugh, Mary Chappelle, Barbara Deshler, Vicky Harms, Cynthia Figueroa-McInteer, Carol Meincke, Liz Roberts, and Carolyn Sanborn.