Quilt Guild fundraiser idea

[calicokat]

I just joined our local quilt guild this January. Yesterday we had the most fun! It was an auction, and from what they said, this is the major fundraiser for the guild each year.

The idea is to go through your studio and gather up stuff you no longer need/want and bring it to the auction. A handful of volunteers bundle things into lots (a stack of fabric with similar color value; a bag of yarn or ribbons, A year or two stack of one magazine; books, ziplock bags- and bigger - of usable scraps; gadgets; hoops; UFO\'s -- these sold very well!; and all kinds of quilt related goodies as well as other hand crafts too) They spent about 1 hour getting set up and bundling lots. There were over 300 lots (and about 50 people there).

Does anyone else do this with your guild?

They said it got started when a long-time member passed away and her DH donated her stuff to the guild. An auction seemed a fair way to distribute the items. That first year they raised over $4,000, wow! This year was over $1,000 (I\'m very proud to say I only contributed $40 of that total, LOL!!!!)

[jajab]

Kat,

That sounds like a great idea. Our guild does a quilt every other year and sells raffle tickets. Last year they barely cover the expenses. I wonder if the auction wouldn\'t be better.

How do they do the auction part and where do they do it? Is it open to the public. Any info would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Angela

[Corey]

Kat,

May I brag.

We raised $11,000.00 selling raffle tickets from Jan 2007 to Jan 2008, (Jan 2008 was our last Quilt Show)

The Opportunity Quilt is always the attraction in our biennial Kern County Cotton Patch Quilter Show. Yours truly is posing with the picture of the quilt, I was given the honor to work with other 18 women applicators, I did one of the borders.

The quilt was also entered in Glendale, Ca show, won best applique/group and also at the Best of the Valley Show last year in Tulare County, Ca. It has about 4 big ribbons.

Corey

[starmona]

At our guild meetings, once a month, we have an auction for the guild members. One person is in charge of collecting donated items and bagging and setting them up. We are able to look over the items before the meeting and then when the business is over, we have the auction. We raise a little each month. Some have even donated quilt tops that have brought a nice price. Our "auctioneer" this year does a neat thing. She puts in brown paper bags several small items that you can\'t really sell alone and then the grab bags go for 1.00 each. Every once in a while she will put something special in some of the bags. It is really fun. I am not sure how much is collected yearly, but I do believe we collect anywhere from 50 to 100 each month.

Romona

[calicokat]

Corey - Congrats! That is just awesome

Angela - This was our meeting for the month, so we had about 30 minutes of business meeting at the beginning (annoucements, etc.) then we started the auction. We don\'t "advertise" as such, but some ladies did bring quilting friends. The public was welcome, but mostly found out through word of mouth.

There were tables lined up against the far left and far right side of the room stacked with the items and each lot had an index card masking taped to it with the lot number on it, we sat at 3 lines of tables in the center. We registered for numbers when we came in and had cardstock paddles like a regular auction with our number in magic marker.

At a table in front were three people sitting facing us. Say there were 60 registered to bid, one lady kept track of the #\'s 1--30 bidders, the other had #31--60. Their sheets were pre-printed with numbers in the first column, and then blank space. So say I won a lot for $4 and I\'m #25. The "Low number" lady would look at her line #25 and write $4. Do that for each lot won. At the end when I checked out, she\'d go to line #25 and see: 4, 4, 1, 1, 1, 2, 6 as my winning bids on say 7 lots total for the day. Add them up, and I owe $19. The third lady kept a log of what lot was won by what bidder for what total. That way if there was any question it could be double checked. So her list had lot #1 & brief description -- total bid -- bidder number. She may have written them down each time because we sure didn\'t go in order, so a pre-printed list would have been confusing. Also, towards the end to speed it up, they combined 2 lots together to sell it, so writing down "lots 239 & 68 -- total bid -- bidder number" would work better than looking for those two numbers in a list.

As to the acutal auctioning. Two ladies stood at the side tables as runners, two others were in front as our auctioneers. The runner would bring up a lot, the auctioneer would call out the lot number, describe it just a little and then start at $1. (She didn\'t talk like an aucitoneer, all fast, LOL!) "will anyone give me $1?" Then "I have $1, I need $2?" And she\'d give "Last chance, I have $4 can I get $5?" "Sold to number - 25!" The runner would carry it to the winner, and the other runner/auctioneer pair would go. The runners were replaced once or twice to give them a break. And, all folks in the room could bid so if the auctioneer had a lot she wanted to bid on, she\'d let the other auctioneer take it. Also, we could only go by dollar increments to make it easier on everyone.

A few times we sold something as "Choice." I remember there was a box with 11 large ziplocks full of thread (way cool!) and so we sold choice of bags. The bidding ended at $7, and he lady who won took 2 (for $14 total), then we did choice again and the lady took 3, then they sold the rest as one lot.

The cool thing was this was SOOOOOOO easy to put on. And such a win-win for everyone. The guild made easy $$$, we got to clean our our sewing rooms, and if you wanted, you got to take home new stuff too!!

[CWBowser]

Our guild has been doing it for about 5 years. We have people bringing in things they no longer need, want or have to have. I was in a hot bidding war with the guild president for an antique quilt. I got it but I also go the prize for spending the most money. I was given a free class from one of the speakers we had coming for the following year. We do the auction at our December meeting. Then we have a potluck luncheon. The food is great. The last two years we have been able to bring in people who may not necessarily be quilters but would be interesting in buying quilt related items. I brought two of teachers from my school who had retired the previous June. They had a great time and want to come back again next year. We have raised money to help fund speakers. It is so much fun and you get rid of things someone else may think is just fantastic.

Charlotte