BSKTLOFR-QUILTER

QB is my guild also. I have been invited to join a couple in my area but after attending a couple of causal classes at our LQS, I decided I'm fine just the way things are. These are all great ladies but I don't want to deal with the politics which seems to happen in all clubs. I attend local classes and get a lot of good information from this site.

happyquiltmom

Good heavens, that's soooo complicated!

Here's what our guild does:

All members who wish to participate for the year put their names in a basket. Each month, two names are drawn. Those two members supply instructions for the block of their choice, along with color preferences for the next month's newsletter. Then, the other members make a block for each gal to those specifications and bring them to the next meeting. If you don't make blocks and your name is drawn, you forfeit your turn and your name goes back into the basket.
We've done this for years, and it works fairly well; we've discovered that you get better results if you choose a fairly simple block pattern for your turn. Some gals even ask for a couple squares of fabric, rather than a sewn block.

just janet

I belong to a small Quilt Guild, only 12 - 15 women. We're doing 3 BOM's this year. We also do it Lotto style. Whoever made a square puts their name in the "hat" most everyone participates and whoever wins has enough squares for a good size lap quilt and it usually becomes a great "show & tell" the following month.

pdcakm

my friend and i share the duties as bom chair. we did it last year and have continued this year. the guild does pay for the fabric or we use donated fabrics when available. we charge $1 to each member participating. when choosing the block we try to vary the complexity and the type of block so that all members have a chance to participate. some members like it simple, some like to be challenged. we have bom most months of the year and like most of the previous explanations we have a drawing using the people who return their finished block the following month.

our guild is very large, over 200 members, but participation to run things is very limited. that's why we are doing the job for the second year. however, doing the same job for 20 years seems tooooooooo long. maybe time for someone else to step up and volunteer to give this person a rest.

i know there are members who do not participate for the same reasons you mentioned. the workmanship isn't always up to everyone's standards. if you feel this way then you have the option not to participate.

mpspeedy

Thanks ladies for all of your comments. I have been a member of that particular guild for more than 25 years. Orginally we met on a member's sunporch. Now it is so big that I don't even recognize many of the faces let alone know all the names. It is kind of a joke among the longtime members with this particular BOM lady. She is also a breast cancer survivor. This sounds horrible but it was the best thing that ever happened to her. She seems like someone who needs attention desperately. We have at least ten other members who are also breast cancer victims. None of them made such a production out of their problem. While she was going through treatment she made sure to always wear her pink t shirt and hat and milked the situation for all it was worth. The area I live in is really small town. The biggest city in the county has probably less than 6000 residents. We have only one hospital.
While I am sorry she had cancer it doesn't excuse her attitude. Her personality has not improved since her illness and recovery. It seems as if controling the BOM is the most important thing in her life. I just hope she doesn't turn people off from quilting with her controling ways.

nhweaver

I am a sarcoma survivor - and I can understand her need to have control over one area of her life. It seems to me that she needs to join a survivor's group. It can really open your eyes that there are hundreds of people just like her and worse - and it is a perfect place to learn compassion and to find help to cope with her issues.

Ripped on Scotch

That doesn't sound fun at all. I'm the president of our guild and ours is only for those that want to do it. We have about 207 members and I think there are only 30 people participating in the BOM. There are no rules that you have to finish it by a specific date. You just get the pattern at the meeting and make it when you can. We do the same for a mystery quilt. We do a clue a month so that the day of putting it together everyone has the opportunity to get the top finished.