Showing posts with label longarm quilting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label longarm quilting. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2020

What is Longarm Quilting

What is Longarm Machine Quilting?

Long arm quilting uses a long arm quilting machine. The quilter creates the quilt sandwich (the top, batting and back) onto a metal frame, one layer at a time. Then the three layers are quilted. The machine head rolls vertically and horizontally, allowing it to quilt while the fabric stays in place. Depending on the machine, operation may be manual or run by a computer, which can quilt designs automatically.  Jamie Wallen (one of my favorite quilting teachers) once told me to think of the machine as an electric pencil.  You just hold it a little differently.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Using a T-Shirt Quilt For Fundraisers

Great Auction Ideas

Many organizations use T-Shirt Quilts to help raise money. A great looking and well made T-Shirt quilt will typically draw in donors. There are two typical scenarios for raising money with a T-Shirt quilt: the auction or the raffle.

Auction

Whether your auction is 'silent' or 'live', it is not always the best way to raise the most money for a T-Shirt quilt. Typically, a T-Shirt quilt sold at auction does not bring in as much money as a quilt that was raffled. Also, consider that only ONE person is paying (donating) money in an auction. Although we have word that one quilt we made was raffled for a little over $31,000 for the Ronald McDonald House  a few years ago.   Many schools report that  they can count on at least $2500 for the quilts that they raffle.

Raffle / Tin-Can Raffle

Having participated in many fundraisers with our local quilt guilds over the last 20+ years, I have some experience with what results in a successful raffle of a quilt. Of course, check with your state or locals laws about 'raffles' or 'donations'. As I understand Texas law, we (a non-profit organization) can hold one fund-raiser each fiscal year. That being said, our local quilt guild sponsors a quilt show every other year, and part of the fund-raising efforts include a quilt raffle of a quilt, AND a Tin-Can Raffle. I'll go into both.

Quilt Raffle

You provide the t-shirts pertaining to your school or organization, and we give back a finished quilt for you to auction. This entails selling tickets over a period of time, then culminates in a drawing - usually at a gala or some other event.

Tin-Can Raffle
What our quilt guild finds as a very successful money raiser is the Tin-Can Raffle. The Tin Can Raffle consists of many baskets/packages that you can win with the purchase of raffle tickets. You drop your raffle tickets into your desired item's "tin can" and one winning ticket is randomly
pulled at the end of the night.

Consider the option of a gift certificate for a second 'tin-can' raffle.  Rather than a quilt that has generic t-shirts from the charity, the gift certificate allows the raffle winner to select their own t-shirts to include in the quilt.  We have had a number of raffle winners come and buy additional quilts.

Planning For Upcoming Event

Planning 

It will take more time to gather all the needed T-shirts and to have a T-shirt quilt made than you might expect. Give at least 4 weeks to collect the T-shirts and 6 weeks to have a quilt made. Don’t forget that you need to add in time to display the quilt before the event or gala.

Quilt Topic

A T-shirt quilt used in a fundraiser needs to appeal to those attending the fundraising event. A Mickey Mouse T-shirt quilt probably would not fetch as much money as the high school quilt using t-shirts from the school or charity doing the event.  Be sure to carefully consider your audience.

Type of Event

Since a T-shirt quilt sold at silent auctions generally doesn’t bring in as much money as a quilt that was raffled or at a live auction, you might limit quilts that are donated for auctions.   Of course a raffle is a little more work than an auction. If you  purchase a T-Shirt quilt for your event, then the only way to recoup the cost of the quilt is to sell a lot of raffle tickets, or have a good auctioneer!

Type or Style of T-Shirt Quilt

The style of T-shirt quilt will also determine the amount of money you can raise with it. A T-Shirt quilt from T-Shirt Quilts of Texas are proven winners.  The conservative style  appeals to almost everyone.    Random style quilts are confusing to most bidders and seem to be a jumbled mess.  Most bidders want to see something that pertains to 'their child'  for something safe to bid on.  One of our more popular events is an Auburn Alumni annual gala.  They usually select a 'throw' sized quilt, generic shirts (meaning not a particular focus), but represent the school with commonly seen t-shirts and Auburn orange and blue colors.

Are you contemplating a new way to raise funds for your organization? Consider using a T-Shirt Quilt as part of your plans. Shadywood Quilts does make a limited number of quilts each year at a discounted rate for non-profits.

How can we help you make money with a T-Shirt quilt? Give us a call; we would be happy to consult with you.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Not Quite 101 Uses for Batting

Ever wondered what to do with those pieces of leftover batting? Well on several of my Longarm quilting lists have been submitting suggestions and "Karen O. in Texas" has compoled the list and posted it on her website. She is trying to get 101 ideas, and right now, there are over 60 suggestions.

Here is an Excerpt:
27. Use them in the winter to "chink" leaky windows or make draft stoppers.
28. Then there are biscuit quilts, raggy quilts, raggy jackets, etc.
29. Wrap it around the broom and use it to knock down the spider webs. Just throw it away, no messy broom bristles.
30. Wrap it around that casserole you are taking to the potluck. If it leaks, just throw it away! (96" goes around a lot of times!)
31. Cut it a bit smaller than your lamp base and protect your table.
32. I also use them to clean the wheels and tracks. (on a longarm machine)
33. Removing chalk marks on quilt tops.
34. I use small, potholder size scraps to erase the black marker lines off my white board. When the batting gets dirty, I just throw it away.
35. I give it to a friend that uses it for stuffing in teddy bears and animals she makes to sell at bazaars and craft sales.

Click here for the full ( & updated) list. Don't forget to check out the last suggestion of what to do with packaged batting!!! LOL! Thanks Karen!

Monday, July 30, 2007

New Machine Quilters Resource Website !

Also Suzanne Earley has set up a very nice site to share and learn www.mqresource.com, Suzanne is also a fabulous longarm quilter who has been featured in several magazines and was one of the award winners at MQS this year. She also has 2 books published!

Be sure to check it out!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Custom Quilting - Meandering Paisleys

This has been a fun quilt to quilt. It's custom quilting, and I'm doing a freehand meandering paisley design. It's based on one of the ideas in Karen McTavishes book about McTavishing. Finally finished all the background (black thread on black) today, and used over 30 bobbins!! That's a LOT of thread.

This quilt was totally machine pieced, no paper piecing. It is not appliqued, so the dense quilting makes the flowers and vines pop out like applique would. I'm letting it 'rest' while I decide how to quilt the flowers. I'm thinking just highlights in the leaves and in the petals. Each block is different.

Guess I better get back to the studio, need to finish this one and get it back to the customer.