TQHF Birthday Party Fund Raiser Suggestions

Just imagine your Birthday Party Brick in the Commemorative Brick Walkway that meanders through Marie's beautifully restored gardens!



In sharing my idea to hold Marie Webster/TQHF Birthday Parties across the quilt world, I have had several friends offer suggestions. Here is the first batch of suggestions:

1. Throw a spaghetti dinner and ask for a donation at the door.

2. Throw a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, sell tickets and get a local quilt shop to donate a prize for the cleverest hat.

3. Bake and decorate cupcakes or cookies and sell slices at your guild meeting.



4. Throw a party and hold a mini silent Auction of items each participant brings that day. No fuss, no muss. Just need space and bidding sheets available. (My guild here on the Island did this for the first time in 2005 with approximately 30 in attendance. Members brought or offered everything from handmade items to bundles of fabric to home-baked breads to promised dinner parties for 6. We shocked ourselves by raising more than $1,000!)

5. Hold a box lunch social at the guild or in your home and auction off the boxed luncheons.

6. Hold a Fund Raiser Birthday Challenge within your Guild or personal circle of friends and tell them you’ll match every $ raised up to X number of dollars.

7. Ask your local Quilt Shop to order the new Windham Fabrics Marie Webster-inspired line! Then team up with your quilt shop to hold a Marie Webster/TQHF Fund Raiser Birthday Party.

8. Lead or get someone to lead a nature walk, an architectural tour, a historic tour, a garden tour. Charge $15-$25 or charge $35 and provide a light lunch.

9. Hold a quilt design piggybank/box contest and ask people to save all their change for 3 months.

10. Hold a quilt-in and make small items for the TQHF Museum Shop (doll quilts, baby quilts, quilted postcards, journal covers. Other?)

11. Ask friends who belong to service clubs, sororities, antique collecting groups, support groups, bridge clubs, women’s church group, scouting, 4-H, youth groups, etc. to hold a once-in-a-life-time fund raising event on behalf of TQHF. If theya re not quilters, sell them on the idea of preserving women's history!



Flowers from Marie's beautifully restored garden.


12. Or ask this same group to let you discuss the significance of quilts and TQHF’s Birthday Celebration to their group and then pass the hat for a donation. They may not be quilters but once in a life-time your friends or group just might respond to your special request.

13. Host a wine and cheese party. Don’t charge admission but do invite as many people as you can. Give a short talk about the significance of TQHF and its 30th Birthday Party and ask everyone to consider a gift of $25, $50 or $100 depending upon the crowd. Ask for door prizes from your local quilt shop.

14. Throw a Quilted Style Show where everyone wears a quilted item that they have made or borrowed, sell tickets; have attendees vote for their favorite outfit and get a local quilt shop to donate a prize.

15. With the help of a friend, hold one fundraising event every other month that nets at least $75. This might look like this:
Quilt Bingo Party - raise $50-100
-Like to cook? Fancy Dinner or Lunch (6-8 people at $25) - raise $200
-Sell 50 raffle tickets for the Marie Webster Opportunity Quilt @ $1 each.
-Ask for donations of Used quilt books & hold a sale - raise $50-$100.

Email your Party Pledge soon!

Karen Alexander
Click here to Email me!

~
Karen B. Alexander
The Quilters Hall of Fame
Public Relations
Past President
926 South Washington Street
P.O. Box 681
Marion, IN 46952



PS: Remember the photo of the Marie Webster House at the top of my first TQHF Birthday post? Ever see what it looked like before we began the restoration work? Be ready for a shock! This is the "before" version of what the donated dollars of quilters around the world rescued and what your dollars continue to do today -- help us keep the Marie Webster House in tip-top shape!