Why is it that when you put a quilt up for raffle or small local auction, that it never brings enough to make it worth the thread you've used. Is it better to just sell one outright then donate the money or just don't donate a quilt that you've poured work and love into?

Blessings,
Ruth

Your guess is as good as mine, but it is really disappointing. Maybe people just don't have the money to gamble but they will spend money to buy a quilt. Just a thought...

Until they have made a quilt , most people do not realize what all is involved in making one :cry: The cost of the fabric , thread, batting and then there is the time issue

They just don't get it :roll:

Sorry can't help with the rest of the question

why not make some small items for the raffle, table runners, lap quilts etc.

It is disappointing to have that happen. Most people don't understand what goes into a quilt.

I have had some sell well and those that barely make any money for the organization I donated it too. It fluctuates with different groups and time of the year. I feel like When I put it out there for bids, I am open to making a little or a lot and appreciate the outcome. You really win some and then you lose some. Non-quilters do not know the hours we put into them and the thought and creation. "Lord forgive them, for they know not what we're worth".LOL

I think auctions seldom bring in the value of a quilt. You need some generous donor with deep pockets who happens to like that particular quilt, and it is rare to come up with that kind of combination.

Raffles work better if you set a goal -- quilt to be raffled off after a certain number of tickets have been sold. Without that, *so* much depends on how good the organizers are about selling tickets. If they haven't taken good photos, advertised it well, priced the tickets well, given plenty of people lots of time to sell tickets, etc. the quilt may not earn the amount of work put into it.

As a quilter and a human being, I value my time. I would rather donate $100 to a charity than put $100 worth of materials into a quilt, lots of my time, and have the quilt raffled off for $100!

I've seen it go both ways, be Proud that you are willing to give your time and effort for what you feel is a good cause, If it's too low you can bid and buy yourself. Once I saw an item purchased and redonated multiple times. :)

Not everyone is in love with quilts the way we are, I was asked to put some of my paintings in our local church auction not long ago, I was lucky to break even with the cost of the framing, a couple of miles down the road my paintings sell very well in our local gallery! I think people want something cheap if it is in an auction.

Gal

I thank you all for your great responses. Sometimes I get a brain fogg and can't seem to vision beyond the blurr. Thanks, and Blessings to you all.
Ruth

i try to do my quilts for each individual situation, weigh who gets it , how much work I am willing to do, what thread and what it costs, etc. I have heard give out of love==========so many people dont appreciate what we do. love it yourself.

most of the time, raffles do much better than auctions. people don't seem to mind shelling out between $1 - $5 at a time, but they hesitate to bid a lot.

If one is in love with the quilt, donate the cost of it to the charity and keep the quilt.

(Just my thought)

My guild makes several raffle quilts a year. That's our main fundraiser. We have learned not to put a lot of work in to a raffle quilt. No hand quilting, no appliqué, no pieced borders. Most people buy a ticket because they like the colors in the quilt, no other reason. We do traditional patterns like log cabin and Pinwheel and a lot of scrappy quilts. Bright scrappy colors and Christmas fabrics sell the most tickets. We use members donated scrap fabric and buy a blender fabric to pull it altogether. One member is a LA and does simple quilting free for us. No one has a lot of time and very little expense in the quilt so if the sales are meager, we still make a profit.

I think most people go to an auction to try to get a "good deal" on the items and forget that it is all for charity.