Our local guild creates and raffles off a quilt every other year. This year the gal in charge came up with something different than our just doing a fancy quilt. The quilt this time is done in neutral colors and is very simple. The fancy part is the pillow toppers, twelve of them; one for each month of the year. These toppers basically are long enough to cover the pillows and are meant to be decorative. Three of us agreed to do March and May. We're not quite finished but I wanted to share with you the May pillow topper. It's close enough to finished that you can get a good idea of what it will look like finished. It was such fun to do and I've put so many hours into it I am going to end up buying a ton of raffle tickets to try and win it! :lol:
~Tiffany

That would make a great wall piece- beautiful!

When is the raffle being held?

WOW .. totally a different idea .. Great work

The raffle will start once everyone has turned in the toppers and they've been quilted. We'll sell tickets for approx. a year and it gets raffled off in April of 2009, which is when our next quilt show is. Previously all of the money was donated to charity but this year the Board has voted to put half the money back into the guild to bring in national instructors. I believe Sandy Bonsib will be teaching a workshop right around the time of the quilt show. Wahoo! I'm very excited about bringing in more nationally known instructors and having more workshops. I can't complain now though because we have an amazing amount of local talent to draw from, so we really have the best of both worlds.

The May pillow topper isn't far enough along for me to post a picture of it yet. My friend Marsha came up with the concept, created the pattern, and now we worker bees are appliqueing it and bringing it to life. I'll post a picture once it is actually together. I agree with you and if I won, I'd turn both of them into wall hangings! :!:
~Tiffany

That's in some category beyond quilting... WOW!!!!

WOW! That is gorgeous!

That is awesome....

That is gorgeous! Such talent!

How beautiful!!! Looks like a LOT of work!

M

That looks like a work of art! Good, no Great job! What a neat idea to do one for each month, very creative!

WOW!!! :P

Gorgeous piece of art! I can't wait to see the others.

What a beautiful piece!

wow beautiful

Thank you everyone! Another 3-5 hours and we should be done. I emphasize the 'should be'. :lol: I got to see a preview last night of the other months. Wow! (We need a drooling icon!) Now I'm really going to have to buy a ton of tickets. Once I get photos I will definitely post them. And if anyone is interested in raffle tickets, which I should have by April, PM me. :wink:
~Tiffany

This is absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful work.

I'm curious about the 'construction' of a pillow topper .... is it just thrown over the pillows, or is it 'fitted', like a sham? Could you tell me the dimensions?

What a fun idea! I hope you post pictures of all the toppers when they are done.

Will you offer us a chance to but raffle tickets?

YES! Lol.

Thank you. I sure hope I win too. Most of the toppers I saw were quilts I would hang on a wall instead of using to hide my drab pillows. So many of us have put in so much work that my guild is actually seeing about putting out a calendar using one pillow topper per month or something like that. This way, even if we don't win the quilt we have something to remind us of all the work we did. I am really excited about the idea!!! And once the pillow toppers are actually finished and I get a picture of them I will post it. The work that these ladies have invested just amazes and inspires me.

Does anyone here belong to a guild where they raffle or sell off a quilt for charity and/or workshops?
~Tiffany

By all means, do a calendar!

I hope so! I know I'm really pushing for the idea. :!:
~Tiffany

Tiffany, I'd think long and hard about the idea of doing a calendar. From experience, I can say that it is very difficult to sell enough to cover the costs involved, let alone make a profit.

Lisae, it sounds like you had a bad experience. Were the sales what did it in?
~Tiffany

The sells were less than we estimated. Research the costs carefully and be very realistic about the number of calendars you can sell.

Thank you very much for your advice! I will bring this up when I speak to my friend next time, though I imagine she's probably already considered such things. She's pretty amazing and I always feel like I'm running four steps behind her. I am blessed in my friendships!! If the opportunity presents itself I will also make sure to mention this at the Board Meeting.
~Tiffany

Tiffany, I love the pillow topper, its beautiful! I had a thought about your calendar. I know that some of the photo sites like snapfish.com can make you calendars. If your guild doesn't think they can sell enough to make a profit, then you could take pics of all the months and have 1 made up on that type of site. Then the folks that want 1 can buy one there...it may be cheaper in the long run due to no minimums.

Can't wait to see all the other toppers! What a great idea!

That is a great idea! Thank you. I think our guild feels pretty confident they can sell enough calendars. We have over 150 members and it's amazing how generous our ladies and gentlemen are within the guild. Of course I've noticed that with quilters in general, they're just a better quality of people all around! :thumbup:

Thank you for the compliment on the pillow topper. Tomorrow I need to pull it out and finish it before I take it back to the other ladies on Thursday. We're turning it in to be completed at the guild meeting on the 21st. There's a gal who is a professional longarm quilter who is donating all her time and materials to quilting the top and each pillow topper. Like I said, quilters are amazing people! Hopefully by the March or April meeting they'll all be done and I can get pictures to post here.
~Tiffany

Can you give us an update on this? Pictures of the other contributions?

Wow--that is really gorgeous. What a neat idea!

Yes, Tiff...do you have pics?

Oh!! Very Nice !!