AudreyB

As chair of our comfort quilt committee (aka charity quilts), I spent a lot of time organizing our fabric and scraps. I found hundreds of strips, sizeable amounts of different size squares, and dozens of unfinished projects as well as tons of fabric. Now I need to get quilts made.

Our guild does a quarterly challenge, so this quarter we did a "grab bag" challenge for comfort quilts. I put together 60 bags of strips or squares or coordinating fabric and the quilters "grabbed" one or more bags. The challenge is to make something from what they find in the bag. They can add from their own stash, or make one entirely from their stash. The goal is to make lots of quilts for our charities.

They are to bring them back to the monthly meeting when they are finished...in June, July or August. Each month, everyone who returns a quilt will get their name in a drawing for prizes, and in August we'll put all the names in a drawing for the big prize.

Of the 60 grab bags, almost 50 were taken! We should have a lot returned over the next three months! I'm thrilled with the support of the guild. They can pick up "grab bags" at the next meeting, too, so I'm scrambling to get more kits put together.

justflyingin

This is a great idea! I hope you get many back. That was a ton of work for you, but I'll bet you felt great seeing all those bags leave the room!

Jammin' Jane

What a creative idea! It's good to hear you've had so many takers! Hopefully, you'll be able to share the end results with us in August! It is so nice of you to do this!

craftybear

Welcome from central Indiana, USA :) :)

earthwalker

What a great idea...but as justflyingin said - a lot of work for you. Would love to see what everyone puts together (not so subtle hint!). May their fingers/machines fly and hope you get heaps back.

Shelbie

As the past chair of Community Quilts for my guild, I found the best way to get quilts stitched at home was to kit up cut pieces and the pattern. This almost guaranteed 100% return. If I set out chunks of fabric, I had very few takers. Each month I demonstrated a new easy to stitch pattern during the coffee/tea break and had the kits ready. Yes this is a lot of work for the Community Quilts committee but it does make for finished quilts. If you have a cutting afternoon with two or three from your group, you will be amazed at how many kits you can get together.

hobo2000

I love the idea of bags of fabric as I love the creativity involved. I so dislike kits, even Jinny Beyers, I use the fabric in my own way instead of the pattern that comes with it. I love the challenge of making something from nothing. I love your idea and wish I belonged to your quilt guild. I would grab the first two bags. Lol

mama's place

What a clever way to encourage and inspire people to quilt for charity. Wish we had a local guild. Only my sister and I to inspire each other!!

Dina

I am in audrey's guild, and I took three of the grab bags. So far it has been fun playing with ideas. I have one quilt top about 1/2 done. I also can't wait to see all the results. We currently need a lot of quilts, as we give quilts to all family members who have lost a home in fires, and the wild fires here recently burned 27 homes. Lots of need at the moment.

AudreyB

We give quilts to all the children as well as the families. We currently need over 45 quilts. We try to provide some comfrot when tragedy strikes and feel that wrapping up in a homemade quilt is comforting.