Fall seems to be ripe with opportunities for you to donate your work, whether that’s your original artwork or your product, such as a pattern or book. We all receive letters from charitable organizations, including guilds, asking for donations. While it’s wonderful to support so many worthwhile organizations, you cannot support them all. You may not have enough stock nor time to create more. And, if you respond to all the requests, your business could take a serious financial hit. On the plus side, you may get some media coverage and gain a collector of your work. When considering such requests, here are some suggestions/guidelines:

1. Choose a few charities that you care about and give to them. I’m partial to the Alzheimer’s Art Quilt Initiative. Many quilters have given to Fiberart for a Cause. Kathy Thompson with Quilters Dream Batting has started a project for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease). The Quilts of Valor is another popular project. It will be easy to find a charity that touches your heart.

2. If you are an artist who is asked for a donation, consider asking the organization to share in the proceeds if your piece is auctioned. Ask that a reserve (or minimum) price be set for your work. This is particularly true if you are donating a one-of-a-kind piece of a great value. The organization still receives a fair return, and you should be able to recoup the costs of your materials. If you donate a great deal of artwork that sells for lower prices, this could “devalue” your artwork to your regular audience.

3. Remember that you are only permitted to write off on your taxes the costs of your materials. You are not permitted to write off the value of your art and your time. Perhaps you’ll find a better option is to make a monetary donation that you can deduct fully.

4. Consider offering prints or giclees of your work in lieu of the original artwork. Check our blog for the post on giclees or refer to Issue 112 of The Professional Quilter for the full article.

5. Consider who receives your donation. I regularly receive requests from guilds across the country to donate something for their annual show or shop hop. Since our audience is limited to professionals, I have no way of knowing if a professional will win the prize. If I choose to make a donation, I do it as a gift certificate and include information about IAPQ. Hopefully a professional will take me up on the gift.

6. Sending a gift certificate, as I do, is an option for many, particularly with the requests for guild shows. Pattern designers can send a pattern – either new or one that is no longer being produced – or a gift certificate with a catalog. Longarm quilters, already so generous with their time, can offer to quilt a top for someone who is making a charitable donation.

What are you guidelines or suggestions for donations?

The International Association of Professional Quilters offers resources and networking opportunities for you to create a success from your quilting business. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership and join here.

Kaffe Fassett’s Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts
Kaffe Fassett with Liza Prior Lucy
Abrams; $35.00

Once again, Kaffe Fassett and Liza Prior Lucy have produced a book that whets your color and design appetite. Kaffe’s ambition for the book was to draw attention to the basic shapes we use in quilting as they appear in our surroundings. To do this, he uses lots of architectural and nature photographs to highlight shape. The photographs of the quilts then cause you to focus back on the simple shapes, squares, rectangles, triangles, diamonds, quarter circles, and circles. Some examples: Kaffe’s quilt Bounce filled with circles and the photo of the installation at the Keukenhof Gardens in Holland of a “pavement” made up of upside-down flower pots; the quilt Striped Donut and the old door made of concentric squares cut from strips of distressed wood. The book includes instructions for 23 quilts. I believe the book has sharpened my design eye a bit, and I’m seeing even more geometric shapes in my surroundings. Fans of Kaffe and Liza will love the book.

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.

Quilt Market, the quilt industry’s premier trade show, took place in Minneapolis May 21-23. Minneapolis always seems to welcome us with warm weather and this year was no exception. Thursday, I think the temperature was in the low 80s. Here, in no particular order, are some of the things I discovered at Quilt Market:

1. Quilters Newsletter and Quilts Inc. presented the latest results of the Quilting in America™ 2010 survey. This is the sixth in a series of studies done since 1994 with the intent of measuring the amount of time and money quilters spend on their hobby in addition to profiling the key segments of the market. Some findings: Estimated dollar value of the quilting industry is $3.58 billion. Total quilters in the U.S. now exceeds 21 million. In 2010 dedicated quilters spent a total of nearly $2.5 billion. The dedicated quilter has $8,542 in quilting tools and supplies and owns on average $3,677 worth of fabric. Watch for more details on the survey findings in the Summer issue of The Professional Quilter.

2. Demos are becoming more popular and with good reason. Demos sell. If you don’t demo, here’s an idea I saw in the Thangles booth – use a digital frame to play a video. While the sound was low, you could watch what was happening. It’s another way to engage your booth visitor. MB Hayes with Thangles credits Fabric Café with the idea.

3. Do you want to keep your rotary blade sharp? Try The Cutting Edge ruler system from Sullivans and Pat Sloan. The ruler features full see-through, non-skid frosting and a unique red grid system that highlights the 1/2 inch marking. What is most unique about the ruler is it has an inlaid diamond powder edge that continually sharpens the blade that runs against its edge.

4. Ruffles, ruffles and more ruffles. Michael Miller Fabrics introduced white, raw-edge ruffles, cut on the bias at 3 inches. To showcase the idea, they had a tuffet made from ruffles. And, once I saw the ruffles here, I was seeing them lots of places, particularly on patterns.

5. Clover introduced a new wrap ‘n fuse piping. All you do is cut your fabric, wrap it around the piping, press to fuse and when cool, you have instant piping. It comes as small as 3/16 inches. Clover also introduced a line of eco-friendly bamboo handled notions.

6. Lots of wonderful fabrics: Rue Saint Germaine, Robyn Pandolph’s new line from RJR; an organic cotton line from Kauffman; Ricky Tims’ new Oodles of Doodles line from Red Rooster; Timeless Treasures‘ Tonga Treats, 2.5 inch strips and 10 inch squares from its Tonga Batiks line;  a color wheel line from Avyln; wonderful new pieces from Kona Bay, Moda, Benartex; Clothworks, Northcott, and others. We are so lucky to have this much quality fabric to use.

7. Kaufmann has released an ipod app that’s a quilting calculator.

The International Association of Professional Quilters offers resources and networking opportunities for you to create a success from your quilting business. Learn about all the benefits of IAPQ membership and join here.

It is definitely spring in my yard, and it is so welcome after what I would call an excess of snow. Here’s the magnolia tree that is right outside my office window.

Last weekend was busy quiltwise for me. On Friday I stopped in at the new AQS show in Lancaster, PA. It is the new convention center, a nice facility filled with three floors of quilts and vendors, as well as a satellite location about a mile away. Shuttle buses ran between the buildings and parking areas. Practically the first vendor I ran into was IAPQ member Lisa Reber of Dippy Dyes. Lisa does wonderful hand-dyed fabrics and was thrilled that three of the quilts in the show featured her fabrics. They also worked wonderfully in Woodland Lei from Pacific Rim Quilt Company, which is shown in the back on the left. And, she was wearing her IAPQ pin!

For the first year of the show I heard lots of positive comments, and the quilts were wonderful. I know first hand that the bus situation needs some work – we waited too long for it to arrive – and I heard that Bonnie Browning was riding the buses to get ahead of any complaints. Way to go!

Following the stop at AQS I headed off to Bird-in-Hand where I was the guest speaker for the weekend at the Quilt Professionals Network. I had a wonderful time with this very talented group of quilt professionals. Saturday I taught my three-hour Quilting Passion to Profit class in the morning and then in the afternoon I shared my Open House: Quilt Studio Tour slide lecture. Don’t you just love to see how other quilters work? On Sunday I presented my Time Management (Mastery) for Quilters program. Along with educational opportunities, the weekend included plenty of networking time, and it was a joy to reconnect with quilters I’ve known over the years and also meet new professionals. Thanks QPN for inviting me!

And, during my three-hour class, we discussed selling benefits vs. features. One of my examples included buying if you think something will increase in value, and I shared the story of a gnome I have, only I couldn’t remember the artist. It’s Tom Clark and I purchased this because he created this gnome in honor of my cousin Gene McEver. He’s actually a first cousin, twice removed, and was an All-American football player at the University of Tennessee, in addition to being a coach at Davidson College, the home of Tom Clark. This collectible gnome is named McEver and is now retired. Here’s my gnome:

On my way back home, I fit in a stop at the Lancaster Arts Hotel to see an exhibit of Sue Reno’s quilts. Those of you have been to my booth at the old Quilters Heritage Celebration will remember that I always featured one of Sue’s quilts in my booth. This exhibit showcased quilts Sue made to celebrate the old Watt & Shand department store in Lancaster. This Beaux Arts building was transformed into the convention center. I’m a fan of Sue’s quilts and it was a real treat to see this collection. I did have a hard time picking a favorite! If you get a chance, make time to visit the exhibit.

A Bird in Hand: Folk Art Projects
Inspired by Our Feathered Friends
Renée Plains
Kansas City Star Quilts; $26.95

This book title caught my eye since I will be in Bird in Hand, Pa., teaching this weekend. Renée has put together a varied collection of folk art projects all featuring birds. You’ll find nine quilts varying from lap size to wall pieces; eight sewing “needfuls,” such as pinkeeps and roll-ups for small projects on the go; and four accent pieces, including a pillow, hooked rug and notebook cover. My favorite accent piece is the pair of jeans that became a tote accented by a bird on a vine with leaves and berries. The book is also filled with fun quotes, such as the following Chinese proverb: “A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.”

Here’s a link, if you’d like to add it to your library.