Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club’s annual Quilt Show
“In Bloom!”
Sequim Middle School, 301 W. Hendrickson Road
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday-Saturday, July 20-21; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday, July 22.
$5 entry fee donation
Whether she’s setting up ice cream socials at the Sequim Prairie Grange or making quilts with fellow Sunbonnet Sues, Sequim’s Loretta Bilow, 76, has a lot of joy to share.
A portion of her garage is a testament to that.
Since 2008, Bilow, a retired financial expert with Frank Russell Co. consulting firm, has organized the Sunbonnet Sue’s Joy Quilts program creating more than 4,000 quilts with stuffed animals for first responders and medical professionals to share with children experiencing trauma or unwelcome transition in their lives.
To make space for the quilts, Bilow transitioned her garage into her “Joy Factory.”
Inside, friends from the club come every few months to wrap stuffed animals and bag them in plastic for various agencies and nonprofits helping someone in need, she said.
Each Wednesday, they turn in their quilt work to her at the club meeting.
Recent joy quilts will be on display for the 32nd annual Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club’s annual Quilt Show from July 20-22 at the Sequim Middle School where Bilow is also the show’s featured artist.
This year’s “In Bloom!” theme features hundreds of quilts on display along with vendors, demonstrations and more. Raffle tickets for this year’s quilt, also called “In Bloom!” features work from 12 quilters using hand applique and machine quilting. Bilow is one of the participants and a veteran applique hand stitcher, too.
Applying applique
“If you like working with your hands, it’s very relaxing,” Bilow said of applique.
“It’s like painting on fabric.”
Applique, she said, includes cutting small pieces of fabric and layering them, i.e. a rose with five-six pieces of fabric for petals and leaves on the stem.
“It’s a 3-D effect and it doesn’t have to be heavy,” she said.
Bilow said she’s always loved to sew and remembers her first quilt from 1971 was hand-stitched applique. She made two things that first year, she said, and remembers bringing projects to her children’s sporting events in the years following.
In 1997, Bilow said she found her love for quilting grew exponentially. She joined the National Applique Society and became heavily involved helping putting on shows throughout the country. Years later, she retired from the group as president.
Applique has quite the following in the area with nine National Applique Society chapters operating at one point and four officially and a few more unofficially continuing today.
Bilow continues to host an applique retreat “Applique by Seabeck Bay” the last weekend of March. She welcomes about 50 women each year since it started in 2005.
Featured quilter
Bilow said she was “flabbergasted” former featured quilters selected her for this year’s Quilt Show.
“I don’t put my quilts up in national shows. I’m happy to do what I do,” she said.
That’s usually making quilts for her many family members, including three children, 17 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
She’ll feature dozens of her quilts at the quilt show but prefers not to sell them.
Going to the show has been a tradition since 1999 following the tragic death of her husband Dennis Bilow, a Sequim High graduate.
Bilow said two weeks following her husband’s death she opted to volunteer at the show in 2000 because she wanted to stay busy.
“I had to do something,” she said.
The club has welcomed her ever since then.
“It’s wonderful to see everyone’s projects,” Bilow said.
Along with her work with the Sunbonnet Sues, Bilow remains active with the Sequim Prairie Grange.
She and Marie Paddock serve as co-chairmen of its ice cream socials, and Bilow volunteers at each function.
“It’s a great organization,” she said. “I wish we could get a lot more people involved in it.”
People can see more of her work, a 6-foot by 6-foot Barn Quilt hanging outside Macleay Hall at 290 Macleay Road in Carlsborg as part of the Washington State Heritage Quilt Trail.
With help from many parties in the project, Bilow designed the wooden quilt and with Nancy Hutt painted its four corner blocks that represent Washington’s pattern.
While she’s stayed out of the national competitive quilting scene, Bilow has entered and won ribbons for many of her quilts through the Washington Grange’s state convention.
She continues to partner with grange members who supply animals and quilts for the Joy Quilt program.
People can donate stuffed animals about 10”-12” and fabric to Joy Quilts by calling Bilow at 360-582-0100.
For more on the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club, visit sunbonnetsuequiltclub.org or attend a weekly meeting starting at 9 a.m. Wednesdays at the Sequim Masonic Lodge, 700 S. Fifth Ave.
Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
Loretta Bilow’s quilts typically feature applique, small strips of fabric used to create a 3-D effect, such as with these koi fish. “If you like working with your hands, it’s very relaxing,” Bilow said of applique. “It’s like painting on fabric.” Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
Last year’s featured artist Murph Gerber, left, talks about her technique with Trudie Holt of Bremerton at the Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club’s annual show in 2017. This year’s show returns to the school July 20-22. Sequim Gazette file photo by Matthew Nash
This year’s Sunbonnet Sue Quilt Club raffle quilt “In Bloom!” can be seen July 20-22 at Sequim Middle School. It features designs by Eleanor Burns with hand applique and machine quilting by Barbara McArthur, Jan Bartlett, Loretta Bilow, Diane Davis, Nancy Davis, Linda Huggins, Shirley Lehman, Jaydee Price, Ilse Osier, Martha Scott, Nancy Wilcox and Alana Levesque. Tickets are $1 each.
