Most favored colors in a quilt
 

I am thinking of making a quilt for a raffle fund raiser. I want this to raise as much money as possible, needless to say. Looking for suggestions on color and pattern. How much should each ticket cost? Any suggestions on how to bring in money for this raffle? It is for a young girl battling a genetic disease that sometimes causes cancer and she has struggled with chemotherapy her entire life.

In my state they make Raffles harder than in other states, there are some very specific things you have to do here. Most groups go for a fund raising auction instead and that gives themes to work with for quilt donations.

Different parts of the country do have different styles, here something that is bright with white or dramatic with black would go over better than something in a civil war or lower contrast look. I think in general people don't go for the super scrappy look, you can certainly use dozens of fabrics but in a more controlled color palette. As a general public fund raiser, I'd avoid a very modern look (although contemporary of squares/rectangles is fine), and in my area I think quilters are more into 30s things than the rest of area.

So my first internal question is "what do I feel like making" and what are my best skills to show. My best skill is not my quilting so I'm not wanting big areas to show off that technique. My next idea is what fabric to use, and it happens I have a lot of blue. Then for public tastes I'd think maybe a Storm at Sea (always a favorite) or a Log Cabin (ditto). Log Cabin has a lot of variations on how you set the blocks. Maybe the heart variation in the Storm at Sea would connect it to the young girl, likewise you could set something into a log cabin setting.

I don't applique but people seem to really respond to an appliqued border, basic flowers and vine or hearts or whatever.

I just had one of my quilts sell on a raffle at a recent event. It was black with bold colors (about 25). The people running the raffle said they had many requests if they could just buy the quilt outright (it was one of several prizes).

They sold the tickets at $20 a piece, and said they were surprised at the number of visitors to the event pulling out $100 bills to buy 5 tickets. They said the raffle raised $1,000 more than they expected, so they attribute that to the quilt.

Wow Cathy, seems like you did a great job. Do you have a picture of that quilt? I'm guessing it was a drop dead gorgeous quilt.

Different states have different ( and very specific) Rules concerning raffles. You need to check your States requirements before going too far. Some require a permit and the date of the drawing has to be on the tickets along with other specific information. Don’t be blindsided- find out what you have to do to hold a raffle before you get too far into the process.
The last one I participated in here in Michigan we sold tickets for $10 each- 6 for $50. We made $1500. On raffle tickets. We sold tickets for 1 month. We had a few local businesses advertising - had a flyer and photo of the quilt and selling tickets for us, along with everyone we could talk into selling them. We also had a booth set up at a little local festival with the quilt hanging for people to see it. Holding a raffle can be a lot of work.

I have read that blue and yellow quilts do well in raffles, also quilts that feature the colors of nearby colleges or sports teams do well. Good luck with the auction, and I hope it brings in lot of money.

While thinking of colours, also consider what you like to work with. There is nothing worse than working on a quilt that you don't like the colours.

What size are you making? This would influence what pattern I chose. I think a Queen would sell more tickets than a throw, but takes more time and materials.

As to a colour, grey with a colour seems very "in" lately. Maybe research trends on the 'net?

Watson

in our area, blue or blue and brown raffle the best

I agree with both points. I'm in the same state as Iceblossom, and it's kind of a pain to do a raffle here because you have to get gambling permits and send in reports to the state.

As far as to what's popular, I also agree that bright, bold colors with white or black background seem to get the most oohs and ahhs.

As someone relatively new to quilting I am always impressed by Bargello quilts - they are just so colourful!

When I first saw them I thought they must be so complicated to make but now that I’ve watched a few tutorials I realise they are not so difficult. (Says she who has never made one!)

Many of the people who buy tickets for the raffle may not be quilters and would not appreciate the many hours you would put into a complex block quilt. Go for an eye-catching ‘wow factor’ design rather than a demonstration of your skills.

Looking forward to seeing the photos - and hearing how much money to raise!