A friend of mine began a very successful quilting group in her church, and they do a variety of projects for donation. Some of the things she has said about the group:
1. You will get all varieties of experience, but most of them were beginners.
2. Use simple patterns, especially in the beginning.
3. They bought 4 identical sewing machines to be kept at the church. That way, everyone knew how to use them, people did not have to bring their machines to church, and a lot of time was saved by not having to problem solve different machine issues.
4. They birth their quilts and tie them (again--this speaks to the majority of volunteers being beginners, and then to not have to spend money sending quilts to a long-arm quilter).
5. Initially, my friend would choose the fabrics from the donated fabrics; and as the people gained experience, she would let them choose fabrics to go together.
6. They make prayer quilts, quilts given to people undergoing a difficult time, quilts to military, surgical caps for kids at a pediatric hospital, quilts for an ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) group, pillowcase dresses for girls in Africa, and quilts to be raffled off for charity events.