question about your quilt guild
 

I was a member of a guild in Texas before I moved. Now I am a member here. I am a little disappointed in this guild and am considering looking into trying out another. We don't seem to DO anything. One month we did have a Round Robin of sorts, where a few of the ladies had a demo to make a certain item or a block. Another month we had a store where members could bring things to sell. That was fun. I did get a lot of fabric for good prices.
Since then we haven't done much. The library lady doesn't come very often ( I joined in Feb. and she has been there about 4 times.)
We had a young women come talk about her new quilt store and that was the program. Another lady did the same about her business.
I would love to learn new things. I KNOW that there is an abundance of knowledge amongst these ladies and would love to learn from them.
The lady who organizes classes, usually has them on Sat or Sundays, and I have done 1 class. But I don't always have a weekend to go to a class. I drive an hour to this guild and would like to get something out of it.
At my old guild we had someone teach us something at almost every meeting and we had a charity sew about 3 times a year where we all brought our machines and sewed together. It was so much fun.
What do you all do at your guild meetings? I am sorry if I sound whiny. I don't mean to, I guess I just miss my old guild.

Where in Florida is Keystone Heights? I would love to invite you to our guild in Pensacola, Florida. We do all sorts of things and have 2 community sew groups, learn something new at every meeting (one on Thursday am and one on Monday evenings (for us working gals), and have the library at every meeting. Sure wish you were close enough. We had a class last week for a group of us all began different foundation piecing quilts, with a accredited teacher to help us.
God bless you in your search--hope you can find a quilt guild that is active and fun!

Sounds like a perfect opportunity for you to get involved. They need some new blood that will shake things up and bring new ideas in. At each meeting we have a business portion that includes upcoming events, speakers, trips, retreats, etc. We also have a block of the month that is selected each month by the same person. You can make up to three and get three tickets. Whoever's ticket is drawn wins all of the blocks. We also have raffle tickets for small prizes like patterns, rulers, etc. Also we have a fat quarter drawing that is centered on one theme or one color you can bring as many fats as you want and get a ticket for each. Whoever wins gets all of the fat quarters (I won purple on my first try - 45 fat quarters). Then we have a show-n-tell. Then if we have a speaker they start. The speaker usually holds one- or two-day classes following the Thursday night meeting. We also have a ice cream sunday meeting and a Christmas party meeting. We also have a sew-in at least twice a month on a Saturday where you can bring whatever you want to work on or help someone else work on their project. Every other year we have a Quilt Show at the fairgrounds. So we keep pretty busy. We have about 150 people registered (some that never come at all). We also have a quilters challenge each year. One person decides what theme, color, or whatever will be the challenge and then we have viewer's choice winners. I did last years challenge, it was a lot of fun and I had over 50 people sign up for it. So, jump in and volunteer, you may just get others to do the same.

If this guild isn't a good fit for you, then you should look for another guild, and hopefully one that isn't so far away. A larger guild is more likely to have paid speakers and classes. Smaller guilds have trouble finding speakers and organizing events, unless someone really steps up as program chairman, and even then they may not have the finances to do it.

you might be able to find a guild here http://www.quiltguilds.com/florida.htm
i see you are between gainesville and jacksonville

You don't sound whinny, just want more from the guild. We have a fun guild here but I'm in charge of classes and people love classes but getting people to commit is something else. I have had to cancel the last two because lack of interest on the first and the instructor flaked out of the second. Sometimes you have to get involved and put stuff out there, I'm new and trying and I have taken advice so my next class is successful. It's hard to set stuff up if the participation is not there. I also am in charge of our Friday stitch and gab, I food themed that one and make something new every week. Give it a chance and see if you can understand why they don't do as much. Happy Quilting

there is "Discover Diamonds" a Quilt Fest in Jacksonville, Florida. Over 400 quilts being displayed from Sept. 20 - 22nd.
lots of vendors & demos.

here is a link www.quiltfestjax.com

It takes a lot of dedication and work to keep a small guild interesting, instructional, and fun. Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get the enthusiasm flowing and for people to get motivated. But if they aren't, they don't need to be part of a guild. Our guild starts a new program and many say no I'm not interested so the ones that are trying to do new things just
by -pass them and have fun doing the program or class or project.

I do get it. I moved to a new town, went to the guild meeting, but much the same thing. They have had 1 speaker in the past 15 months. It doesn't seem like there is nearly enough there to set aside the date. I am also so disappointed. I get so much more from this site than locally--just disappointed not to meet local friends who like what I like.

Sometimes things don't fit for whatever reason. During the summer I rarely have the time to go to meetings. I found my community center has a quilt meeting every Thursday! It's very fun and the people are great. The head honcho finds patterns for us to do and helps if you need it but if you don't want to do that, just bring whatever and sew. Doesn't cost anything either. Look into that. You never know what you'll find!