I know I have a charity quilt Ideas blog post in the works - where you all have submitted sample quilts that you have made for charity and allowed me to post them (I’ve not finished that one yet).

But this one is more simple than that.

Sometimes guilds or groups want to put together some charity quilts for a hospital, a group home, a women’s shelter, or something similar. You need a “bunch” all at once.

Enter this idea.

Did you realize that we have some quite inexpensive panels?

Yes, she does! Oh yes, she has some that aren’t so cheap, but she has some “nontrendy” ones - call them “classic” if you want - that would be possible for you to make a charity quilt without blowing your budget.

I thought, why not just add a piano key border from your scrap pile - around one of those panels to make it the size you need? Just choose fabrics that “work with” the colors in the panel?

I thought I’d show you.

While I don’t actually have most of the panels that my sis has, I do have one or two. Let’s take this Batman panel.

It is for sale here -

I made up this layout for you (and me). It will make a finished quilt top t

As it is, it finishes at 62”x 82”. For me, that is a perfect size for a charity quilt for a single person. It’s actually a bit bigger than the single duvet cover set they sell.

If you want it smaller, maybe a throw size, about 54”x70”, just don’t add that purple border - stop with the “outer yellow border”. Then bind it. Perfect lap quilt size.

I’ll put the link on the free patterns page - I’ll call it Charity Quilt 1 - Panel How’s that for original? LOL

What I did was cut my Batman panel down to 34.5”x42.5” and work from there.

Here’s a picture of it on the cutting mat - I was doing my best to trim it down to the size I wanted here. This one - 34.5” wide by 42.5” tall.

I went to look in my scraps and found pieces of fabric that coordinated with the panel that I could cut up into strips 2.5” x 10.5” and 2.5” x 6.5” . My idea here is to use scraps - so that very little fabric is being purchased “new” for it! It’s a win/win! You get to make a charity quilt top for your guild (or you can always send it to me and I’ll give it away - though that is not why I am writing this up!) at very little cost to you because you are using up some of your scraps!

Here are the two sizes of strips that I cut - in piles.

Besides those things, you will need a constant fabric for that inner border and order border - though you could use two DIFFERENT pieces - I chose to use the same in both places - but you could use two different ones and need only a small piece PLUS about 1 yard for an outer border.

Here is my finished quilt:

It went together really quickly. Very. I was tickled that I was able to use almost all scraps from my bags that need to be cut up into strips. (I did pull out one piece of coordinating Batman fabric/yardage that my sis gave me for these charity quilts but would be fine without it! I promise!)

I hope this helps give you at least one idea of some relatively inexpensive charity quilts you can do.

To find the panels my sis has - here’s the main children’s panels link.

Here are a few that might interest you - at really nice prices! Less than the typical “meal” at a fast food restaurant!

This one is $6 - kids looking at a toy store!

Then there’s this fantastic Guardians of the Galaxy for only $5!!!! Can you believe it? My son (He’s 31!) said to add bright, loud colors around it!

My sis also has this classic Babar for only $7!

Then we have this “Give me some speed!” For only $6 - what little boy wouldn’t like that?

I hope this has helped give you some good ideas for some inexpensive charity quilt tops! If you’ve been wanting to do something with a panel - well, this whole post is showing you a great idea for a simple top that will be easy on the wallet but really cute!

And that’s it for today!

Have a great day wherever you are reading this!