Originally Posted by zquilter
I would like to hear about your quilt guilds. How large is it? How often do you meet? What is the structure of your meetings? Are they discussion meetings? Or do you actually sew there? Or Both? Well any way, you get the idea. Thanks for sharing.
I belong to a guild with 100 members. We meet at a large church one night a month, every month of the year, for a structured meeting, which can include a lecture, trunk show, or demonstration by a guild member, local quilter, or nationally known teacher. Every meeting is slightly different but all include some sort of fellowship, refreshments and "Show n Tell."
The Guild hosts at least 5 workshops a year. Some are run by guild members, some by nationally known teachers like Ami Simms or Bonnie Hunter. We make a quilt to raffle every year, to raise money for these programs. We have a guild show every other October to raise money also.
We have a philanthropy group that meets monthly and makes quilts for Project Linus, Quilts for Kids, Quilts of Valor, Habitat for Humanity, and any community member who needs one.
We have an annual trip to quilt camp, about an hour away. usually 25-30 members fo to camp for 3-5 days and sew and sew and sew and laugh and eat and chat. It's heavenly.
I also belong to a small "bee" of 7 guild ladies. We meet one day each month at one anothers' homes. We each bring our own projects and our own "Show n Tell." We help each other make decisions on colors, what to use for borders, and in a time crunch, we help each other finish binding!
My small bee rents a house together at the NJ shore every September, and we spend the week together much like quilt camp-- sewing laughing chatting shopping and snacking.
I've made many close friends in guild, and my bee gals are like sisters to me. They enrich my life in so many ways!