CSQ Annual Auction

Each year, the Columbus Star Quilters Guild has an auction to raise money for our educational programs.  The other purpose for the auction is to give us an opportunity to clean out our sewing rooms.  Members bring in those items they've outgrown, fabric they liked several years ago when it was purchased but no longer fits in any future sewing plans, books not referenced in several years, and so the list goes.

Jan looking over just part of the stash.

Another section of items going up for bid.  And there's yet another row of tables filled with books, magazines and more fabric.

This year we were blessed by a gentleman bringing in items from his deceased mother's sewing room.  She apparently had indicated that the Guild was to get these items for their use and he showed up the day of our auction.  How fortuitous!  The boxes included several quilt tops, lots of fabric, patterns, silk scarves and other sewing materials.

Prior to the auction, we did hold a short business meeting and had our Show and Tell session.  Lillian, one of our newer and obviously quite ambitious members, had completed 8 UFOs - a record number!  When asked by a show of hands, most members had completed at least one UFO on their list so the UFO Challenge seems to be taking off.  The Calico Team is in the lead with 30 projects reported complete out of their total 309 UFOs.  The Batik Team isn't far behind this early in the Challenge with 21 of their 310 UFOs completed.  This is only a rough count and there's plenty of time left to get those UFOs completed.

Jamie, Lois and Jeannette standing in line with their completed quilts for Show and Tell.  You can see by Jamie's stack that she's made quite a bit of progress in reducing her stash. 

Melissa, excited about having completed her redwork quilt.  Beautifully hand quilted and a lovely quilt.

 Then the fun begins.  Bidders with their paddles are ready to bid on their selected items.  You can see the stash of magazines and some fabric bundles already in front of the winning bidders.

This picture was taken AFTER we had taken most of Ruthanna's items to her car.  Ruthanna's pile was equally as big as the stack in front of June, which keeps getting bigger with auctioneer Cathy adding another item to her pile.

 I wasn't planning to buy anything but couldn't resist this antique quilt top.  This was one of the items from the items donated by .  It's a simple block pattern but nicely done.  The fabrics are wonderful to look at and there are loads of different fabrics, most seeming to be from the 30's - 40's.  It will be fun to learn more about the fabrics that make up this quilt.

Why the blog picture is sideways from the way I took it remains a mystery.  But the thing I noticed in the picture more so than with the naked eye were the dark runs of fabric down the quilt top.

Here's a close up of some of the fabrics.

So another auction comes to a close having raised $880 that will be put to good use for our upcoming educational programs.  We're having Terry White as a speaker in June and she'll be giving a day long workshop on Threadpainting - I'm excited to learn her techniques.  Then in October, Mary Buvia will be our guest speaker and will provide one of her superb workshops on machine quilting.  I've taken classes from Mary in the past and know she's an excellent teacher so will be looking forward to this workshop as well.

Cheers!

Margaret