How do you...
 

budget your time and materials between personal quilting/gifts and charity quilts?

I've been thinking that as my quilting gets better and I'm not ashamed to admit I made a certain article, I need to start making some charity quilts.
My question to those of you who have been quilting longer and do charity work is: how do you split your time between quilting for personal use (your home, gifts for family, etc) and charity quilts?
Also, how do you dedicate fabric for charity quilts? In this economy, I know that charities need donations more than ever, but, it's harder for lots of use to get a quilts worth of fabric/batting to give away, let alone MANY quilts worth. I know that the charities aren't really picky and don't need the latest designer fabrics, but, decent quality fabric is still not cheap.

Just curious how you all manage your time and materials.

I sell a few things and have a account set up for the proceeds, and use that to fund the cash requirements of charity quilting. Additionaly I have a seperate stash of scraps and fabric donations that I use. Once you let people know you do charity quilts the fabric donations start to find their way to you.
As for the time aspect ... thats tough to define... I probably do about 1/10 of my total sewing quilting time to charity quilts. I don't specifically set a certain time or amount of time per day, its more of a time available. Often after finishing a large project I need to" brain purge " and work on something completey different so thats when I will make a charity quilt.
When I donate them , I very specifically tell the agency to use them to best suit their purposes. Several have been used as a raffle item, as the agency needed more cash for such essentials as food , and had sufficent quilts/blankets.

I have a hard time dividing my time. I make 4 charity quilts a month with donations that I am given or find at Good will. I make gifts with material that I have mostly bought. I now have lots of scraps I have cut into squares and some time will have enough to do something with. I do a lot of small things to gift with what is left over.

I will make a charity quilt with something out of my stash that I'm no longer in love with, something I bought because it was so cute (kids patterns) and had to have but didn't have a plan for or as a way to get rid of lots of small leftover pieces. I fit them in when I am between projects and want to do something quick.

Whemn I see a new pattern I want to try I do it in a charity quilt using my stash that I no longer care about.

I joined three groups that sew charity quilts. One meets quarterly. We get a kit, sew that day, and bring the quilt home to finish. The other meets monthly. We sew quilt tops at a LQS. The tops get finished by another group. The last meets weekly. We work on quilts there, and don't need to bring things home unless we want to. This gets me out of the house, having fun with fellow quilters. Other than finishing the quilt from the quarterly group, I don't do much other charity quilting at home.

Almost all of my quilting is for charities. This year I am making more of an effort to increase my skills, so the challenge is balancing my time between some of the simpler charity quilts and those projects that require much more time. The more difficult projects usually end up being charity quilts also, but I feel guilty that I didn't make a greater number of quilts during the time I spent on the more difficult ones.

All of the fabric in my stash is available for any project I choose to do. I have a couple of pieces set aside for something special while waiting for inspiration in design or coordinates.

Dayle

I wish I could afford charity quilts. I can barely afford for me and family and friend gifts. For me my money either comes from overtime at work or leftover money after bills are paid, and I usually get myself something with tax money

You can also request a quilt kit from Quilts for Kids then all you supply is the time, batting, quilting and thread. They do have a time requirement on them getting done. For more information here is their web address: http://www.quiltsforkids.org/. :)

Try to make soldier quilts each year plus a few baby quilts for the hospital. For me I have made quilts for all my family members so now it's just making smaller quilts for donations.

I buy fabric on line when I find a clearance sale. Seems one of the thousands of online quilt shops is having one all the time. I am close to a fabric warehouse that sells to quilt shops and I can buy name brand fabric by the bolt most times for less then $3 a yard. Connecting Threads has great clearance sales ongoing all the time. It's very good fabric and good for gift quilts and inexpensive enough for charity. I rarely pay LQS prices for fabric and I don't shop at JoAnn's or Hobby Lobby or buy Walmart fabric since it it over $6 a yard. I can buy it cheaper online and get better quality.

I'm like a lot of others, people seem to find others who quilt and the fabric comes. A whole lot of quilts are donated fabric. If it feels like you "have " to give quilts, maybe you can help others make quilts for others, like, I really like binding and finish up quilts others start. I still am helping and short on money. I do have the time since I am housebound.

I'm using up all my kid novelty fabric that I bought way too much of when the kiddos were smaller. Can't believe how much I have...what was I thinking!!!
Timewise I'm back at online college so I have some free time. I usually make a smaller quilt in the middle of a project that is boring me or whhen an idea gets me going. I made a peek a boo I spy a couple weeks ago..turned out cute!! Also a yellow brick road with some minky nixed in cause I saw a fabric and wheels started turning. I found some snoopy soccer fabric the other day and found a pattern for a braid border so i think I'm going to practice with those and make a kid quilt. I would say start by using what you have and mix it up!

You all have some great ideas!
I do feel I should be involved with something. Didn't know QFK supplied kits! Never thought to offer to do part of the quilt (I like to bind!!).
Thanks for the input!