Pennyhal

Well said, PaperPrincess! Perhaps the job of "fixing up" could rotate between the members of the group so that no one burns out repairing quilts that might otherwise fall apart.

oldtnquiltinglady

This has been an eye opening experience for me this morning. I don't donate quilts to organizations for many of these reasons. I do the best job I can on a quilt, and no one sees the same fabrics and colors together that I do, but all my quilts have been given to family members or friends who had a fit over the quilt when they saw the completed quilt. Neither do I sell my quilts. I cannot justify charging someone for a quilt that has cost me probably $200 or $250--so I just give them away with a smile, and remember their happy faces when they leave my sewing room with it. Just my take on this subject, even though I know the folks who do the donating and preparing quilts for the unfortunate are doing a worthwhile job. To my way of thinking, we give enough through our church efforts.

redbreast

I do have to agree with rottendog. There is no way I can donate a quilt that I am not happy with. I quilt with group of women from the Senior Center so you can imagine the problems we have. The way we solved it is to have only several quilters do the stitching while the others are selected to "monitor"our work. We have suggested that they are very good at checking the work and we are lucky to have them. Every once in a while we do run into a bad stitch but for the most part it works pretty well.

craftyheart2

I make many tops and blocks for charity quilts and sometimes finished quilts. I am currently sewing the binding on a top made with a set of donated blocks but this one will be staying in my house for my grandchildren. My grandchildren live a long way away and don't visit often so this quilt won't require much washing. It is staying with me for two reasons: some of the foundations the strings were sewn on weren't cotton and the group I donate through requires 100% cotton and on some of the blocks the tension was obviously poor. These are things I can cope with with a quilt I know won't be getting much use/much washing but I couldn't donate it knowing the seams are not strong. Both the sewer and I donate much to charity so she is fine with me keeping this one.

CanoePam

A subject I have definitely had experience with! I truly believe there is no ugly quilt, but there definitely are poorly sewn ones. What I think of as ugly will probably be great for someone else, but poorly sewn quilts are good for no one. I used to work with a church group that did baby things - receiving blankets, bibs, burp cloths, etc. Some of the women also participated in a quilting group that mostly donated items to the homeless shelter. The woman who ran it had absolutely no quality control. Seams were sometimes only a few threads wide, the tension on the machines at the church (where many were sewn) was horrific but she wouldn't let me adjust them ("oh no, my husband keeps these perfect"), and she used a stitch length of 3-3.5! I can deal with mis-matched corners and odd arrangements of color, but I knew these quilts were probably going to fall apart in the first days of use. They used to keep asking me to attend their group, but I just couldn't do it.

Oh, and a lovely story that goes along with this. There was an elderly woman living in assisted living who had been cutting 5" squares for these quilts for years and years, starting when she was living independently. As she got older, she couldn't see very well so she used a cardboard pattern and a sharpie marker. She would mark the fabric with the sharpie and then cut it out with scissors. I know she was the root cause of many of the mis-matched seams, but she was so glad to help and such a dear woman that the wonky squares didn't bother me at all.

Pam

My time

Ladies this subject is making me cranky! Who are you donating these quilts to anyway? Do you know that there are people on our streets who have nothing? I mean literally just the clothes on their backs and your worrying about seam allowances and ugly fabrics??

Rose_P

Your heart is in the right place, but a lot of people living on the street are in danger of losing anything very nice to thieves who want to sell it for drug money. Even in nursing homes you hear of pretty quilts getting "lost". The practice piece or one that is made of less than wonderful fabrics or odd colors might actually go further toward keeping someone warm. I try to incorporate something cheerful or use some novelty fabric, especially if it's for a child, but there is nothing wrong with keeping your best work for someone near and dear to you.

I agree that the worst ones can help keep shelter animals warm.

bearisgray

I think the original question/issue is of having the pieces stitched so that they survive being used.

Cheryl7758

Very well put! I totally agree with you - I don't do a lot of charity quilts, but the ones I do I am proud to put my name on.

sassysews2

Our guild has an instruction sheet we hand out for our Block of the Month project which is for our charity quilts. Each month on workday one member presents a completed block, instructions, and enough fabric pre-cut to complete the quilt to be donated. Can be a baby, disaster, military, nursing home, where ever the need is at that time. The members work on it that day with the goal of completing one or more pieced tops. Our instruction sheet is provided to each member with dimensions for each type of quilt, suggestions of fabric to be used, seam size, basic instructions for matching seams, pressing, points, etc. The members are pretty good, some better than others, at following the instruction sheet. We are reminded to check our 1/4" seams, press our blocks, try to match points, follow lay out instruction and all the basic quilting guidelines. No one gets their feelings hurt as we know we all will lapse sometimes. Our charity quilts and the ones we sell at craft fairs are the best we can do, not show quality but service quality and are interchangeable. We may pull from the craft boxes to provide quilts for charity as needed. We, too, put our club name on them and remind members the quality of the quilt reflects the quality of the club & we have a very good reputation for the quilts we make. This system works very well for us & someone is always asking for a Block of the Month instruction sheet as they get torn, worn, used, & misplaced so we keep a good supply of them & encourage everyone to check their sheets. If this is a club I suggest someone make a motion to make such a instruction sheet up, most quilters would welcome it.