We usually have a couple of hundred quilts in the show

Aurifil supported  “Metamorphosis.” on May 1 and 2, 2009 at the Timberlane Middle School in Plaistow, NH. The Penny Raffle was a big hit, due in part to the basket full of Aurifil thread —

Janice Taylor says : “This year’s show is over, it was held on May 1 + 2, 2009. This show was our quilt guild’s 29th, next year will be our 30th! Each year different members of our guild volunteer to be Show Chairmen and Show Committee Chairmen. We usually have a couple of hundred quilts in the show (all made by our members), about 20 vendors, a display of our charity quilts for the year, a lunch kitchen, and booths/tables for White Elephant, Quilters’ Boutique (where the maker and the guild share in the income from sold items), Demonstrations, Raffle Quilts 2009 and 2010, Penny Raffle, and this year we had a Silent Auction of small quilts to benefit both the individual quilters and this year’s charity — Neighbor’s Helping Newborns.
   
As Penny Raffle Chairperson I began in January asking our members and about 150 local quilt shops, quilt magazine and book publishers, on-line quilt shops, and thread and fabric manufacturers for donations to be used as prizes at the show. Some of the items donated were amazing: the best part of this job is receiving all those packages in the mail, and at guild meetings. About two weeks before the show, I started working at making attractive, exciting prizes from all of the donations. Some are easy: whole quilt kits, a whole basket of Aurifil thread, gift certificates (including one for free membership in our guild next year). Some are a whole lot harder, like trying to find a common theme for many, many random pieces of fabric (which had to be removed from their salesman’s sample cards first). Due in part to a carton of fabrics that arrived too late for last year’s show, I was able to offer 90 prizes at this year’s show. Participants buy a sheet of 25 tickets and choose which prizes they would like to try to win by placing tickets in the paper bags numbered to correspond to the numbered prizes. Some prizes are more popular than others — like the Aurifil basket — but it only takes one ticket in each bag in order for the prize to be won by somebody. Some participants like to put one ticket in each of many bags and spread out their chances, some people decide that they want one particular prize so much that they put all of their tickets in that one bag. Near the end of the show 2 people mix up the tickets in each bag and pick one ticket from each bag. That ticket number is logged as the winner of that basket and then stapled to the basket. Then two more people look up the names that correspond to the ticket numbers and the winners are announced. I’ve done the Penny Raffle for two years now, and both years I’ve had to take about half of the prizes home again for later distribution. I guess that’s a good thing, it means that we really mixed up the tickets well and half the winners weren’t present at the end of the show. We only had 307 paying visitors to our show this year — that’s pretty low for us — nevertheless, the Penny Raffle sold nearly 400 sheets of tickets — a little better than last year. We made a profit of nearly $900.00.

Next year the Merrimack Valley Quilters’ Guild will be working hard to make our 30th Anniversary Show a really special one. I’ve decided to change jobs and will be in charge of Show Publicity so you’ll be hearing from me again. You’ll probably be hearing from the Penny Raffle Committee too, I believe that I’ve left it in good hands.

Thank you and the rest of the folks at Aurifil USA for your generous donation. ”