grannie cheechee

Take PETTHEFABRIC's advice. Choose a simple design, buy all the fabric (unless your doing a scrapy), some cut, some sew, some lay the finished blocks, some put them together, and then quilt. It seems the like the simple designs and the basic colors do the best in raffle quilts. Like Yarn or Fabric said about the 1/4" seam is sooooooo true, its not that they don't believe in the 1/4" seam, they just can't seem to stay in the line. LOL

Cathou

It's great to wake up and find great advices. Thank you so much everybody. Some quilts described sound so good looking. Would love to see pictures!

Pat625

When I did a group quilt before, we all had to make a 12" square in matching colors. You could choose the pattern for your square, which gave flexibility for the different levels of ability. When all put together is made a beautiful sampler quilt.

Dolphyngyrl

I have seen applique style like baltimore where everyone makes a blocks. I have seen paper pieced where everyone makes a block, or maybe a sampler that way everyone can contribute a small amount without being overwhelmed

dunster

I notice that you say you intend to raffle the quilt at your quilt show. Do you mean that you would only sell tickets at the show? Most of the time, guilds sell tickets throughout the year to bring in more money, and then the winning ticket is drawn at the quilt show. If you only sell tickets at the show, I would recommend spending less money and time on making the quilt, since you will need to at least cover expenses. I've only participated once in making a raffle quilt, and that when I was a very new quilter. One thing I learned is to have extra blocks made, since some of the blocks you receive may not be of the size or quality needed for the quilt top. (They might go on the back, or be used in some other creative way.)

luci4

The group I belong to does a raffle quilt each year. We have discovered over the years that scrap quilts seem to sell more tickets. Also the guild buys the background and each member donates some fabrics. We usually try to have one person do the cutting and piecing to keep things the same size. One persons 10 inch block is not the same as the next persons 10 inch block. It is so much easier that way, than trying to resize a bunch of them. Good luck with your project.

needles3thread

Sometimes, if some quilt blocks are smaller than others, they can be bordered with a solid to make them all the
same size. (even if borders on some blocks are not the same width as others)

eparys

We have just done one and faced the same challenge. We have ladies that do exquisite hand work, some that can piece complicated bocks in their sleep (smiling here - but you know what I mean) and the rest are beginner to intermediate quilters.

We did a churn dash two years ago in blues and greens. It was beautiful but several of the blocks were off size and could not be made to fit. This year I was involved and we chose "Four Patch & Friends" from Debbie Caffrey's "Can of Worms". We provided the squares and every one dug into their stash for the rest. Easy Peassy pattern - lots of fun and the best part is out of 86 squares I got back, there were only two that were unusable. Here is a picture of it. Each block is two four patches and two snowballs.

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Cathou

To eparys: WOW, Magnifique! Thanks you for your insight.

petthefabric

I was the coordinator of the raffle quilt at a young progressive guild (Orange Blossom Quilters Guilt). I announced that the quilt would be from my best abilities and that's landscape art. I asked for volunteers to be the committee to produce the quilt. I drew a rough design (in my artistic way) to size. The committee caught the vision, two got together to make pieced and painted oranges and blossoms to measure 36" sq. The background was a sceen of the citrus orchards to the east and the foothills and distant mountains. Each person was allowed to have ownership in the project. It was a success and raised a lot of money from the public (non-quilting) domain.