I get to meet with a few lovely ladies in our church. We just finished our first quilt top and will be loading it on a 2-roller frame soon. It has helped us to start off with an idea of what we wanted to do. The more experienced quilters help the newbies, but we all work together. Though we have different styles of sewing and quilting, it helped us to have a ministry in mind to donate to. It's for young girls coming out of sex-trafficking. We agreed that rather than churn out quilts quickly, we would hand quilt. We want to both enjoy the time together, but we also wanted these girls to feel loved and treasured. We hope that the time we invest in the slow quilting process will make the girls feel we know they are precious and worth investing in. We got the size requirements and other requests from the ministry; we didn't want to make anything that wouldn't be used! We choose patterns based on what the girls would like, rather than our own preferences.
I suggest having a plan, but be flexible. Set a positive tone--no gossiping! And we have a potluck each time, so we can linger longer.
Have fun with your group. We will be praying for its success!