My friend and I recently joined a local quilt guild which has many small groups. Most are full and they suggested we start our own small group. Since we haven't been to one would like suggestions and ideas about what they do.

Last year I belonged to an Art Quilt Bee through the Guild. We did landscape and artsy type quilts and it was a lot of fun. This year I will join the Crazy Quilt Bee. Can't wait.

Lynn

ONe of my guilds has two small "Bees". The larger of the two meets at various members homes. My friends and I found it to structured for us. A small group of us, three or four, meet in the classroom of a local Bernina dealer the second and fourth wednesday of the month for a couple of hours and then go out to lunch. We usually just bring along any handwork we are working on be it quilt related or not. We encourage each other and swap ideas and tips and tricks.
Small guilds have smaller groups that are really committees that do things like make the guild raffle quilt or plan and carry out a fund raiser that benefits the guild as a whole.

Most of the time we all just get together and work on our own projects. A few times a year we do a group project, like a quilt for Quilts of Valor, or we learn a new technique or pattern. Sometimes we do a round robin or some other group idea.

The best part of making your own small group is you can make it what you want!
If your "people" want to get together to sew - do it.
If you want to get together to learn new techniques together - do it.
If you want to share and swap scraps and patterns - do it.
If you want to shop together....
etc, etc, etc.
Just find a common bond and go with it.

I belong to a small group (12-20). We meet 2x month except during the summer months. We always have an ongoing 'fire quilt' which we donate to families in surrounding towns when they suffer a house fire. We have 3 in reserve which we hope we won't have to give away. We do other groups projects for charities - newborns in need, hospitals, nursing homes, domestic abuse home... might do indiv. blocks at home & put tog. in mtg. Each yr. we do a round robin or challenge project.
During meetings we take turns demonstrating a technique or project for the whole group to learn from or make & take.
We also have created a library of donated books for all to check out.
Great group - I've moved an hour away but continue to travel to meetings & get home at 10:00pm - how crazy is that!

One of the small groups for our guild is the Scrapbaggers. We make quick and easy quilts made up of scraps and donated fabrics to be given out as Community quilts. Some of the patterns we've used include D9Patch, Bright Hopes, Warm Wishes, Yellow Brick Road etc. It's a great place to share and try new techniques and patterns. We quilt them on our LQS's mid arm machine and use their classroom for our meeting place. We have generous owners who let us use their space and machine rent free as these quilts are going out into the community.

I would ask for help at one of the local guild meetings.

If nothing else, ask to attend one of the small group meetings that are full so you can get a feel for what a small group can do. Explain your situation to them.

Most quilters have no problem sharing and helping others, especially if you have a designated time frame - i.e. visit each one once to get a feel for how they run the groups. Besides, this is how you can get to know others in the guild on a one-to-one basis.

Good luck! I just joined my local guild and joined one of the small groups and know what you are going through.

I belong to small group 4 (sometimes a visitoror 2). We do our own projects. We have done projects together. Main thing is we learn from each other, and drink coffee. We are there for each other in time of need. Sharing our lives, sewing interest and fabric.

I am president of a guild of about 200 ladies, and we have many small groups and every one of them is structured differently. The one open group is the Comfort quilt group where we have 15 to 20 get together to make quilts that are given to fire victims(we had to give out 23 this summer) and to local hospitals( over 500 so far this year), so I am looking forward to the end of my time in office so I will have the time to join a small group, too. They are a great way to get to know one another.