ffq-lar Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 I promised to report back after my guild auction and quilt sale. Sixty quilts were offered for sale and we sold 28. There were very reasonably-priced quilts that were donated by members and also more-realistically priced commission quilts. The members gave back 15% to the guild if their commissioned quilt sold. I don't know the breakdown but the organizing group was very happy and plan to do it again--even bigger next time. I can't share the total amounts raised by the whole event, but we were stunned--about $5000 more was raised than our last auction two years ago. Pros and cons of the quilt sale itself? Pros--excitement among the members to finish up charity work and see it hanging for show. Excitement among the visitors. One woman showed up two hours before the show started to call dibs on some larger quilts she wanted for Christmas presents. The organizers of this worked very hard with advertising the show so the sale would be a success. This brought extra people in to buy things at the auction. Guild members who would make beautiful quilts but never enter shows had a chance to see if their work is "good enough" that someone else would want to purchase it. Cons--this extra room needed extensive set-up time from lots of people and needed to be manned throughout the show. Those members missed the fun and rewards of the other auctions. The main draw-back is if we do this again is we will need a big and well-organized committee to pull it off. What we learned? People wanted bed-size quilts or they wanted art pieces. Wall hangings didn't sell well. The price-discrepancy between donated and commissioned quilts was huge and needs to be addressed next time. Two quilts the same size were priced $150 and $850. People were confused. It's a lot of work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
witha'K'quilting Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Well, all in all, it sounds like it was a success, despite the confusion amongst customers and your guild raised a fair amount of money. to sell half the quilts sounds great to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrandmaLKB Posted October 20, 2012 Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Interesting ! Sounds like it was a success for your first try and will improve over time with more planning. In our area if you price a quilt over $150 the color drains from their faces... ....even when we try to explain that most good fabric is $10 a yard and up, the cost of thread, batting, quilting...........all they can see is they can get a whole "bag" at Pennys for $29.99..........any size. We had two quilts for sale at our quilt show this summer. One was made and donated by a member and we had $150 on it - which didn't even cover her cost. It didn't sell............recently we were asked for a donation quilt to be used at an auction for a medical fundraiser and that same quilt brought $150. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffq-lar Posted October 20, 2012 Author Report Share Posted October 20, 2012 Yes Linda, we were afraid of sticker shock as well. The group decided to price the donation quilts low and hope to educate the public as we go. The donations were priced by a committee and the commissioned ones by the owners, of course. I think we sold two commissioned quilts--both vintage pink-and-whites made in the thirties. The owner had priced them on the low side and the same person bought both. I would hate to see them on someone's blog stating what a steal they were and the people selling didn't know what treasures they were! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RitaR Posted October 29, 2012 Report Share Posted October 29, 2012 Linda, it sounds like the guild did quite well, sans the pricing. I made a green and white quilt, I think 3 years ago.. It was "donated" a clinic who helps those with very little $$$ get meds,. treatments, etc. Being nurses and Dr.s of course they didn't have the time, nor the $$ to have publications covered. Try to tell the big people in the guild, that Medical staff do NOT have time, is like turning your back on a brick wall. Doesn't get anywhere. They finally gave the quilt back to the guild, with a big thanks for the donation, etc.. Our guild finally took responsibility, had typing paper size posters made up and and started selling tickets. They were so working to get big sales.. the queen sized quilt with warm & natural batting, raised $1500.00 for the Helping Hands Clinic. I'm just glad that the quilt I worked so hard on, so long ago, is finally raffled off and the money donated.. Rita Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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