Applique Wall Hanging as an Auction Quilt

As quilters we are often asked to donate a quilt for an auction or raffle.

And as willing as we are, sometimes it is difficult to come up with an idea for a design that will generate money for the cause.

(It’s easy to come up with the design – the “generating the money” part is tricky.)

Years ago I made a quilt for a political organization. I spent hours designing the quilt, cutting, stitching and quilting.

When it was finished, I was pretty proud of the quilt, and I thought it would be a very popular item.

As I wandered past the silent auction tables at the event, I saw that the quilt was folded up – not allowing anyone to see the design, let alone see that it was a handmade quilt.

And I realized that most of the items weren't generating many bids (translation - people weren't that interested in donating money to the cause).

At the end of the evening, it wasn’t too surprising to me that the winning bid on the quilt was $90 – not even the cost of the fabric in the quilt.

It occurred to me that I would have been better off just writing a check to the group.

Recently another opportunity presented itself, and this time, I knew that "getting the money for the charity" would be much more successful.

It's an unusual group of entrepreneurs who continue to improve their businesses under the guidance of business genius, Dan Kennedy.

The charity is New Vocations – a re-training and adoption program for injured or retiring racehorses. And – although I personally love racehorses – my guess is that for most of us, it’s not the specific charity that is important.

It’s the notion of supporting a cause that is important to the person who is helping us achieve success. And because of those differences, I believe the wall hanging I donate will generate loads of cash for the charity.

Just a couple of things to keep in mind as you make your quilts for a charity auction:

• Do the people attending the auction appreciate the value of a handmade quilt?
• Are they willing to part with significant amounts of cash for your quilt or wall hanging?
• Can you create a something that is so unique that several of the attendees just “Have to have it?”

In this particular case, my wall hanging is a spin-off of Dan’s logo / brand – something he protects diligently.

And because all of us owe much of our success to him, I believe that the design of the wall hanging will generate a lot of interest from the attendees.

Therefore, the question of whether people appreciate the value of the handmade wall hanging almost becomes irrelevant.

The people attending are successful entrepreneurs who understand the value of giving service and money to charities.

Now – to the wall hanging:

My idea was to use his logo (with his permission) to create a wall hanging.

The dinner is during the time of a seminar he is putting on about attracting wealth, and the particular book he is using as a basis for the seminar is called No B.S. Wealth Attraction for the New Economy. His earlier book is called No B.S. Wealth Attraction for Entrepreneurs. (You might get from the titles that he is a pretty straight-shooter when it comes to advice!)

With his permission, I started working on the wall hanging. Since the event is next month, I knew I didn’t have very much time to work on the project, so “small, quick and fun” was the order of the day.

The first stop was my computer scanner, where I scanned in the logo – the No B.S. circle including the little bull.

Then I added the rest of the words on the wall hanging, and printed it onto a letter size piece of paper.

It needed to be larger, so the next stop was the office supply store where I had them enlarge the picture (in black and white) so it was about 17 inches by 20 inches.

The idea was to use the larger images as templates for the letters and the logo.

Initially I was going to create the little bull completely in fabric. However, after cutting out the pieces, I decided it would take way too long, and decided to simply print the picture onto a piece of white fabric.

The bull is the only piece which is hand appliquéd onto the backing fabric. The remaining pieces were placed using double sided interfacing, and then machine stitched, using a simple straight stitch.

Follow the steps below. It is now ready to be layered and quilted.

I’ll use a piece of bamboo batting and machine quilt the piece.

	The first step was to soak the white fabric in Bubble Jet Set in order to "set" the computer ink in the fabric. Once the white fabric was soaked and dried, I printed the logo onto the fabric. It needed to be touched up a little, since it was in black and white. Knowing that I would fold the edges under in order to hand applique it onto the backing, I wasn't worried about the red that went "outside the lines."
The easiest way to make a circle is to sew a simple running stitch around the outside and then gently pull it until the seam allowance folds under. The small section around the bull's tail was basted separately from the larger circle.
	This is the right side of the logo. I used a glue stick to secure it to the backing so it would stay in place as I hand appliqued it. Since I didn't have the right color of red thread, I used white silk thread for the applique and was careful to keep all of the stitches between the layers so they could not be seen.
This is one section of the enlargement that I used as templates for the letters. I simply cut around the letters (or $$ in this case) and then cut a piece of double sided interfacing about the same size.
	Even though this double sided interfacing has been around for some time and is all wrinkled up, I cut a piece the size I needed and ironed it to the wrong side of the fabric.
This interfacing has a glue-type finish on one side, and paper on the other. You simply iron it onto the wrong side of your fabric, cut the pieces out and then peel the paper backing off and "glue" it down to the backing fabric.
	I pinned the paper templates onto the right sides of the fabric and then cut the piece out. It still has the paper on the back.
Once all of the pieces were cut out, I layed them out on the backing fabric.
	You'll need to peel off the paper before you iron the pieces to the backing fabric. If it is not properly secured, both layers will come off. Place them back together and iron again to secure them in place.
This is after all of the applique pieces have been sewn in place. The green fabric was hand dyed, and still had some dye. (Bummer.) There was a spot in it, and as I tried to remove the spot, I realized that the green was bleeding into the white. Too late for ColorCatchers or Synthropol. I could re-do the little bull logo, but since I will use green thread for the machine quilting, I believe I will simply do some quilting in that background - which will somewhat mask the mistake.
Dan's book - No B.S. Wealth Attraction in the New Economy Dan's got a load of other great books, check them out on amazon.com	Dan Kennedy and me at his Super Conference

Now for the borders. I will be choosing a quilt block to use for the border.

 

Happy Quilting!

Penny Halgren

www.How-to-Quilt.com
www.TheQuiltingCoach.com
www.QuiltBlockLibrary.com

 

 

©2010, Penny Halgren
Penny is a quilter of more than 28 years who seeks to interest new quilters and provide them with the resources necessary to create beautiful quilts.

This article courtesy of http://www.How-To-Quilt.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.

 

 

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