Fabric and thread go a long way for friends

KINGSTON — Quilter Andrea Rudman said it’s a feeling that most quilters can identify with — when making a quilt, sometimes, they just know they won’t be keeping it after it’s completed.

That feeling came to Rudman at the end of the summer last year while in Virginia helping her mother through a tough time. She was working on a large piece for her guest room but realized the quilt wasn’t going to make it there after her husband called her the night of Sept. 21.

“The (Kingston) Inn is burning,” he told her.

Rudman and her husband were part of a group of regulars that went down to the Inn for breakfast and recognized the situation the Inn employees faced following the fire.

“When I heard American Marine Bank started up a fund for (the Inn employees), I kind of realized where the quilt was going,” Rudman said. “A lot of the people, they worked there for forever. A lot of them said, ‘Where are we going to go?’”

She decided to raffle the quilt to raise money to donate to them and since December, the 90-inch by 104-inch bedding has been hanging on the wall of Kingston Mail & Print. Business owner Carolyn Seim said 200 tickets have been sold so far, at $1 a ticket.

The quilt will be moving to different locations in the area soon, Rudman said, such as Coastal Coffee, Hood Canal Brewery and the Kingston Quilt Shop. Heirloom Quilts in Poulsbo gave Rudman a discount on the quilting and donated the batting. It took about 75 hours to create and is valued at about $1,000, including materials and labor at $10 an hour. The drawing for the raffle winner will take place Feb. 14 and tickets are available at Kingston Mail & Print and wherever the quilt is being shown.

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