Beat the drum quilt

I posted this quilt on Facebook a while ago, but that was during my extended break from blogging and I just realized that I never shared it on here.

What prompted my memory?

The girls I made this quilt for are in Africa right now!

Two teenage girls from our church decided to raise money so that they could go on a missions trip to South Africa working with HIV/AIDS affected youth.  Pretty incredible, huh?

Somehow – and I admittedly don’t know all the details – their trip was inspired by a movie called Beat the Drum.  Click the link to see the official website for the movie, including the trailer.

I wanted to do something to help and I thought that making a quilt to auction off would bring more money than what I could just write a check for (wrong).

So, I made this:

I didn’t have to buy anything new to make this quilt, I had all the fabric, batting, thread… everything!  I wanted the quilt to be appealing to women and men, that’s why I chose the colors and the pattern, which was essentially the same pattern I designed for this quilt.  Also, red, black and white are school colors around these parts.

The scrappy back.

I loved the swirls that I quilted the last time I made this pattern, so I kept that element, too.  It was a lot of fun to make.

I’d never auctioned a quilt before so after some thought, I decided eBay would be the best bet.  I figured the largest audience would see the quilt on eBay.  Also, as I mentioned before, I posted the information on Facebook so my friends and church family could see it.  I set the auction to run 10 days with a reserve set at $100.  I had no idea what to expect.  When I was taking orders in my custom quilt making business, I would have charged over $300 for a quilt this size (approx. 60” x 70”). 

After it was all said and done, the quilt sold for exactly $100.  The good news was that a family from our church bought the quilt.  The bad news was that the eBay fees ended up being over $18, so I won’t be doing that again!  Ha ha!  Well, I shouldn’t say that… I would definitely make a quilt for charity again, but don’t know if I’d go the eBay route again, or I would have set a higher reserve.

Ah, live and learn.  In the end, the girls going on the mission trip met the amount they each needed to raise and they are in Africa right now caring for the orphans and the sick and the oppressed.  How is that a bad ending?!  It’s not!  And the quilt is now being enjoyed by a family that I love, so classic win-win.