Photo by Ellen Ferrera
Pictured is Peggy Hargis holding the king size Illini quilt that will be featured Saturday.

•November 1, 2017•

Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

An Illini quilt will keep some lucky winner warm and will be presented at the First Christian Church Holiday Market Saturday, Nov. 4.

The bright, orange and blue king-size (102” x 80”) quilt creation has quite a history.

In April, Peggy Hargis sent out a request for U. of I t-shirts, and donations came from Sullivan, Shelbyville, Watseka and even Georgia.

Thirty t-shirts from different U. of I. athletic departments and eras were used to create the quilt. A family of Amish ladies (grandmother, daughter and granddaughter) were contracted for the task. The daughter and granddaughter cut the fronts from the t-shirts and pieced the design together. The grandmother hand-sewed the entire quilt using scrap pieces for the fringe. It is one-of-a-kind, never to be duplicated.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.