Charity auctions are a popular way to raise money. Has a quilt or quilted item you've made been sold at auction? Tell us your story, what kind of charity was raising money, how the auction was handled, and show us the item. Did your participation lead to additional sales or publicity for you?

I had one that we sold raffle tickets for. So not an auction. It brought in about $285 for a lap quilt.

I have had several quilts sold at auctions the highest went for $400 lowest a small quilt $100. It depends on your market people go into an auction with the mindset of getting something less expensive they are hit and miss.

I too had one, a large lap quilt that was a log cabin (70x70) that tickets were sold for. The quilt raised $328.00 and the proceeds went to MS Society of Canada. I do one every spring and the tickets are sold at work and the immediate community, and the winner is drawn on Mother's Day. This will be my 5th year.

For the past several years, I have made and donated a quilt or quilts to my dogs national speciality dog show. I breed and show Pharaoh Hounds and the money raised is earmarked for any dogs that end up in shelters or a rescue situation. With todays economy, sadly, there are a few of these very rare dogs that do need help each year. I don't have the exact amounts raised but it is close to a thousand dollars each year. This years quilts are tee shirt quilts using old tee shirts that have been donated by club members around the world. Each year there is a tee shirt designed with the logo for that years theme.....I used shirts going all the way back to the 1980's through last year!!! The 2 queen sized quilts are awesome....if I may say so myself!!

jodi in leavenworth

I have made several for Auctions. The t shirt quilt was for a dear friend with cancer. We sold tickets, made $3000, it was a Harley quilt, king size. The big thing about this quilt was Harley motor cylces.. if you make a quilt that really has meaning for someone they will purchase tickets. I had so many t shirts donated that I made two more that were auctioned for $375 each. And I made one for the Jim, the man with the cancer.

The funniest one I sold went to my SIL, he was at a benefit and was bidding on this quilt. My DD was sitting next to him talking to someone else and watching the sale of the quilt knowing it was mine. She looked to tell her husband, "Look how good Mom's quilt is doing. " And he said," That's your mom's? I just won it! $475 "
All for a great cause.

suezquilts-that is an awesome story! I bet your opinion of your SIL went sky-high with that story :)

I have done a number of auction quilts for my daughter's school in years past. They raised quite a bit of money (over $1000 each some years) for the PTA which funded a lot of school events/supplies/etc. Last year, I missed doing this and volunteered to make a quilt for my god-daughter's class. That raised about $600 and the kids were thrilled with the fun we had (as was I). It was such fun that I was again asked to make a quilt for the new class. I'll be going into the class room in just over a week and am so excited.

Laurie

Yes, it did. A couple years ago they divorced

:-( and I still call him my SIL, wonder what it will be like when one of them remarries. He's the father of two of my GK!

I've had several of mine raffled. Auctions just don't raise much money on quilts in this area.

The two biggest moneymakers I've done were

1) the quilt that is on the header of my blog.

http://wheatridgestudios.blogspot.co...-november.html

It was a floral log cabin and made $1600.

2) Stars in My Garden, also on my blog. It raised over $1700. Pictures of the finished quilt are partway down this post:

http://wheatridgestudios.blogspot.co...caught-up.html

Both of these quilts were given to the Alumni Association where my kids went to high school to help with scholarships.

These are some awesome stories!!! :-)

Here is a funny one. My friend had cut odd shaped pieces out of black fabric for a stained glass window project. She was going to toss the scrap pieces. They were kind of v shaped and reminded me of crows that fill our local park trees all winter so I begged them from her and fused them on a backing and free-motion embroidered black tree branches all over the piece. I donated it to an arts fund raising auction, and the next week someone called to ask me to make a duplicate for his wife! (I didn't--no more scraps.)

i donated a lap size quilt to a local charity call youth for Christ they try to keep the kids off the streets at night and give the kids a safe place for them to hang out after school lots of these kids dond have a very good home life and the auction is to pay for the rent of the biulding they use and daily operating costs. im hopping to make a bigger quilt this year and hopefully raise more money but dont know what pattern is a populare one that would sell and if i have enuogh fabric. if anyone has any good ideas let me know thanks

Once a year our church has a baked goods auction to raise money for our teens to use for trips throughout the year. Some people make items to go for the auction as well. I saw a picture of a star string the baby quilt on someone's blog and loved it. I wanted to totally use my scrap stash for this quilt and only had 1 week to make it from start to finish. I didn't have time to make the star point blocks completely string so I used white blocks for the foundation and only sewed colored strips on 1/2 of the block for the points. I had some muslin fabric that had a design printed on it and used it for the backing. I bought verigated thread and quilted the design printed on the backing fabric on my DM. I got it finished just in time for the auction. It made $75 and the lady that bought it gave it to a lady at church that was having a baby. It was one of the highest auctioned items that night. Everyone loved the quilt at the baby shower.

Diannia

I made a wagon tracks quilt for my guilds first raffle and show, we raised $1100. for our guild. It was the seed money to get the guild. going. even though I moved away they have had a show every year sence and now even have 2 shows a year!

One year I made a sea shore themed quilt for an auction to benefit a pediatric hospice. It was about 75x75. Unfortunately, despite the income level of the attendees, it only made $225, which I thought was not much.

Each year my DH and I do a quilt for our car club to raffle off at our car show. The first year we sold about $300 in tickets, the next year they did it differently, so we didn't get a separate count.

This year I think I will do a raffle quilt for the Relay for Life team that my dear friend heads up. She is a breast cancer survivor.

I recently donated to a silent auction a quilt. The benefit was for a lady who has a brain tumor and needs to go to WA State for treatment. No clue what it raised and don't care. I just feel so sorry for her and her dilemma.

I don't think I could handle an auction. :) I gave a queen/king size Around the World quilt to my church to raffle. (Apparently, quilt raffles have produced a good bit of income for my church in the past.) I bought the top on eBay and put a beautiful Moda fabric on the back and used a lot of feathers and fleur-de-lis and leafy vines in concentric square "rings" around the quilt. The top was nicely made for an eBay quilt and the colors are really beautiful. It's a warm and home-y looking quilt.

The raffle just started so I don't know the outcome - and I don't want to know, actually. If it doesn't make as much money as past quilt raffles, my poor little ego will be bruised and if it makes a lot of money, my poor little ego will puff itself up with pride, so either way, not healthy. :mrgreen:

I did donate on to Bethany Christian Services, an Adoption agency that my daughter used to work for(about 4 years ago). It was a Thimbleberries twin size quilt. I think it brought in about $460 but I'm not sure. I had almost forgotten about that one.