To Raffle or Not

My family and I have participated with the Out of the Darkness Walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for the past two years. This year, we (Team Brianna) decided to try a new way to raise funds and to help raise more awareness. I thought a good idea would be to do a quilt raffle. Of course, I wasn’t sure if would be able to sell tickets let alone how much we would raise, but decided we should go for it.

A few months ago, I made a Strip Butterflies quilt by MSQC (Missouri Star Quilt Company). I picked something that I thought would be a beautiful, but a relatively “simple” quilt. And wanted to pick something that Brianna would have liked. Since she loved butterflies, this quilt was a no brainer!

Picking material, in my opinion, is the fun part. I absolutely love color! And who doesn’t love colorful butterflies! This particular quilt design required a jelly roll for the butterflies. MSQC had the perfect roll, it was called Mariposa Meadow. I’m not sure if it is available anymore, but it contained beautiful colors, watercolor, medallion, plaid and some butterfly prints. Purrfect for this project! I used a bright yellow (my son, says it’s orange. You decide!) for the sashing and binding and a nice green batik for the border.

Since this project was for a raffle, I decided I should have it professionally long armed. Of course, I took it to my favorite quilt shop, Simply Stashing Fabrics & Quilts. When I told Deb (my quilt guru) about what the quilt was for, she donated her time and long arm expertise for free. This was her contribution to help our cause. Which was way more than we could have hoped for! She graciously quilted butterflies in rainbow thread, edge to edge on our raffle quilt. It turned out amazing!

I rarely, if at all praise myself, however I am super proud of myself and this quilt because we far surpassed my wildest dreams and were able to sell 236 tickets and raised $950! Plus, what makes it even more special is that it’s the first thing our raffle winner (Kim D.) has ever won!

If you have ever considered making a quilt to raffle for a charity, I would say do it! It is not just a great way express your talents and creativity, it’s good for the soul! And this day in age, couldn’t we all use something that just makes us feel good?