Stitching for Charity! (brainstorming)

[crabbyman]

Oh my, maybe 4"x4" is a little too small with those sizes. Maybe 6"x6" would be more appropriate? That way we'd need about 70 squares for a full size quilt? From corbin's drawing maybe less due to space in between each square? I'd definitely be willing to send along some money to cover materials cost, I know this can get a bit spendy.

Corbin or tnitnetny, how many squares do you think it would take to make a lap quilt, and how many for a kids quilt, and how many for any other type of quilt? Just so we can see roughly how many squares it would take.

I'd be willing to help organize the stitchings, I'd love to see this happen.

[tnitnetny]

If we do a 6x6 or a 7x7 area, then it is 12 squares per quilt. Don't forget borders and binding. Take a look at the examples of the other charity quilts. For an idea of what the 12 block would look like, take a look at the pink and purple monkey quilts as well as the sunbonnet sue I made on my site. www.tnitnetny.deviantart.com. You can't just sew the squares together, they need to be set in a border and then sewn together.

For charity quilts, they are always lap sized. If you make it any bigger then fabric costs go up as well as shipping costs. I would rather make more then one quilt then one large one.

[crabbyman]

Ugh, this is why I don't do quilting, its too complicated for me, obviously I'm completely ignorant about it . Maybe you and other quilty people can suggest a size and count given that there are about 24 people willing to contribute a square so far? That way we won't ask you to do more than you want and we'll have a decent looking finished product. I'm also going to guess that a lot of people will be very happy to make more than one square.

PS. Sorry if I'm being a bit overbearing, I've given to Child's Play for the past 4 or so years and I'd love to see this done! Feel free to tell me to shut up or chill out

BTW, love the tanooki quilt!

[Lord Libidan]

Hm...I gotta agree, it is complicated. Hows about the quilters (tnitnetny and corbin was it?) tell us what size and count, and we all do it. If you assume everyone is going to make 1, then any more we get we can make more quilts/make them bigger. Makes things much simpler... :/

[corbin]

Assuming we are doing a lap quilt (seems to be the preferred one) I'd say aim for 40x60 if we get more we can up the size or make a small hanging quilt and if we get less we can do a child lap quilt. If we upped the stitching size to 6x6 and did 24 squares we'd be around 38x54 (with 2 inch spacing) and the quilter(s) can always figure out spacing to get closer to 40x60. So currently I'd say 24 6x6 squares would get us one complete quilt. tnitnetny can look it over and make any adjustments since I just got off an 8 hour shift that started at 4 and am a little out of it.

[catdog]

This sounds like a really nice idea - even though I'm new here, I'd like to put my hand up to make a square...just tell me what to do!

[johloh]

rather than everyone spending a few bucks we have some options in that dept. too...One person can front the costs of quilt supplies (me), and if we run our own auction we can just pull that amount back out before we donate it.

so I put in $20 for supplies, auction goes for $100, I donate $80.

or everyone can just donate a few bucks, doesnt matter to me.

[tnitnetny]

Supplies for a lap quilt would be $40-$50 (borbers, binding, backing, batting). If we take the amount out of the auction it defeats the purpose donating to the charity. When I sell a quilt I am lucky to make $50 profit for 2-3 weeks of work.

[crabbyman]

It sounds like it would be better to have everyone just send $2 or $3 with each square they make. That seems like it should cover materials, and any left over can just be donated directly to the charity.

From corbin's math it seems like 16 count would be the way to go and give everyone a decent amount of space to work with.

If anyone still hasn't filled in the spreadsheet please do so. https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key ... y=CMr5xrAJ

I added some columns Game1/2/3. If people fill in the top three games they want to stitch for here we can work on getting games assigned. I also added a few game names further over. If we want to do a themed quilt we should pick a theme. If everyone can just put a one in a game or two they want we'll see what's the most popular, and if we have enough for two themed quilts. I'm going to assume that people who put "1 to X" don't mind making 1 for the big one and 1 or 2 for themed ones, maybe we'll even have enough to make two themed. I tried to get all the super popular games I could think of, but I may have missed some. Maybe this isn't the best way to organize this sheet, so if anyone thinks of a better way be my guest!

[tigressmellora]

Another couple of ideas:

Everyone who makes a block can send what they make to a central person/people who piece them together. This would be helpful for those who are out of country because that reduces the cost of shipping. These people would need to be known as the 'central' people.

Another thought is to put sashing between the blocks. I love sashing when piecing my quilts, and it helps the eye separate the blocks.

And why limit it to one block per person? I suggest those who want to do more than one have at it.

For the blocks: the stitched piece at the limit (6x6 inches is a great size) and it sent in with like, at least a one inch unstitched border of aida.

cannot think of anything else at the moment, so here ya go.

By the way, what is the consensus of what is planned so far?