please, help with ideas
 

Hi, I've been asked to come up with some ideas for our quilt guild...you know, the kind that gets the group more involved. I know we can have challenges...such as paint chip or color crayon; we can have a charity block of the month, etc. Do you have some ideas to get me going? Thanking you in advance.
debby

I will be following this one with interest. I am taking over as president of my quilt group next year and I am also looking for good ideas.

One thing my guild did last year I enjoyed - one month was "Quilt Bingo". They told you a couple of months in advance to make quilt squares for bingo cards. 2 1/2" squares; row 1 red/pink, row 2 yellow/orange, row 3 green (with a black square in the middle for "free"), row 4 blues, row 5 purples. Within your colors you had catagories like solid, floral, stripe/plaid, novelty, metallic, ect. So you could make and bring up to four (4) 10 1/2" blocks to play bingo. Some volunteers made extras and you could pay $1 to use those if you didn't make your own. They would call "blue, novelty", ect. They had donated prized for winners. The blocks (cards) were collected to sash with black and make charity quilts. It was a very enjoyable event.

My guild does an annual challenge quilt with a common fabric or theme - you have to buy the FQ at the meeting ($3) and have 3 months to turn in your entry. They have to be small (max 30" sides). They are displayed at LQS afterwards.

We put on a show in odd-numbered years at the county fairgrounds. To hold the building, we use it every year the same weekend. In even-numbered years we have quilt college. For quilt college, guild members teach 1/2 day classes to other guild members for free and the registration fee for 2 days is minimal to pay the building rental fee (like $15 for up to 4 classes). Takes a lot of organizing but they have been doing it a long time and have it down.

The two challenges I've been in that had the biggest participation were "What can you do with a panel?" and "Kansas, My Kansas" The state one can be what ever state you live in of course. We had participants do Texas, Oklahoma and Minnesota in that challenge.

How about small projects. A local guild did that and it was a great success. Everyone got involved and loved it. Please PM me if you are interested and need more info. or ideas.

Try a scrappy block where everyone can exchange fabric. We did a hunter's star and exchanged 2 1/2 inch strips.

We , at one time, made something smaal in each meeting - like a tissue holder. Next year we will spend some time in every class on fmq. Anything that will produce a quick result/success usually works.

On another online forum I follow, they have a thing where someone contributes a particular challenge fabric and cuts it into 10" squares (or however much you have for the number of participants). Each person gets a square of the challenge fabric and, using their own other fabrics, makes a 12.5" square. All the squares are posted online so we can vote on our favorite, and then there is a drawing for someone to win all the blocks.

I've always been very hesitant to join in on anything, but I did that one and it was fun!