So at my guild this month, we played fabric bingo. It's a great idea, and I'll post pictures of my bingo "cards" so you can see what I'm talking about. We made 25-patches with the columns being colors: yellow, red, purple/pink, blue, green. Then within each color, we used fabrics to represent about 30 different categories; for example, novelty, 30's print, paisley, plaid, heart, star, stripe, solid, metallic, holiday, dot, etc. I think you get the idea. Then we used buttons to mark our spaces. The center space on the card was a free space, and filled in with black fabric.

So when we played the game, the caller would call out blue dot, or red heart, or yellow plaid, or green metallic, and we would fill in the spots with our buttons until someone had bingo. Then, after making certain they had all the fabrics marked and called correctly, the winner claimed a prize.

So as we're playing along, people at the same table kept winning time after time after time. It was way more than coincidence. Nobody else was winning anything--just these same women. Eventually, I figured out that they were just calling their fabrics whatever they wanted. So a floral might be a leaf, or a dot (if it had a dot on it anywhere), or it might be a geometric if the flower wasn't exactly realistic. In other words, any one square could be a half a dozen different things. And when they went through to check it, sometimes they couldn't even remember what they had called something. So the winner might say "red leaf," and the caller would say, "No, I didn't call red leaf."

And the person would say, "Oh, how about red floral."

"No?"

"Hm, Red holiday?" And on like this until they hit on the right square. So it turns out that they were cheating!!! Can you believe that?

Once I figured this out it started bugging me when the same women would claim one, two, three, four, or more prizes during the evening while the rest of us sat idle.

Eventually one of these women came over to our table and said, "I'm going to teach you ladies how to play bingo." And I said, "I wrote on the back of my fabrics what they were so there would be no mistake and I would know what I intended each square to be."

And she replied, "Oh we just play to get acquainted and to have fun."

And I said, "Well, it's not much fun when the same people win all the time." Further, they sit together all of the time each month, so there was no "getting acquainted" about it. Sheesh.

It was ridiculous. What's the use of playing a game with no rules? And if there are no rules, doesn't it make sense to tell everyone there are no rules so that we're all on the same, uh, card?

I'm still kind of miffed about it. It's just a dumb game, and maybe I'm being petty, but this is just one more reason I don't like my guild. There are a lot of things I like, and that's why I keep going, but the people are not one of them.

By the way, we donated our fabric bingo cards at the end of the evening and they'll be made into charity quilts. It's a good idea. Too bad these women had to spoil it for everyone else with their cheating ways.

Maybe you could post a "key" on each table next time, with a sample of each fabric and it's name.

Who would ever have thought????

I would have been just plain POd about the whole thing.

Well, see this is kind of what I did on my card because one fabric might pass for two different things. I wanted to be consistent. But everyone was playing with a different card, and so none of them were the same.

Well, the game sounds cute. It is a shame some of the "ladies" had to cheat. I would have been very upset.

We tried Quilt Bingo at our guild. It was like what you said. Many of the members used the wrong fabric for the wrong spot. They didn't mean to cheat it was just too confusing for them. We spent more time trying to get everyone to understand then it was worth. The ones that did do it right were getting frustrated with the ones that couldn't understand. We decided not to do quilt bingo anymore.

It can only take a few to spoil it for everyone... I am sorry that such a fun game turned sour for everyone else :(

I would rather not play than do it the way we were doing it. I'm a pretty honest person, although I won't say I never tell any white lies. Everyone does that. If you don't, you won't have many friends; i.e., "Does this make me look fat?"

But I would be hard pressed to cheat in a game, and so I'm never going to be able to play by the rules these ladies were using. It would be better not to do it at all. I suppose if we were all playing with the same card, and a key was provided . . . but the way we did it, it wasn't fair to everyone playing.

Wonder if those ******* operate that way in all areas of their lives?

If one treats "friends" that way - - - -

sounded like alot of fun till the b*****s got hold of it.
put them at a table with all white squares next time!!!!
then see how HEY like it.
Raspberries to them from me

Your cards are adorable! If everyone makes their own card maybe they should be required to make a key for it so they remember what they intended each square to be. At our quilt retreats we play bingo. We each bring 20 2 1/2 inch by wof strips. For each game we turn in 2 strips. Then we play bingo with ordinary bingo cards. The winner of the game gets the pile of strips. It is fun and hard to cheat.

That is a clever idea!

We play a fat quarter bingo at retreat, there is a sheet with quilt block names on it available so you all have the same choices, & you make up your own bingo card by writing down which ones you like. You pay 1 fat quarter per card, no limit but it gets a little too confusing after 2 or 3. The caller has all the names from the sheet in the basket & pulls one each time. Depending on how many members participate there are fat quarter prizes for eg. the 1st line of bingo, then maybe a diagonal line, then maybe an x, then the grand finale is for a blackout card that wins the largest bag of fat quarters. It's fun, especially if all members have purchased their fat quarters, not so fun if some have brought some crinkled old piece they had at home....but each to his own.

There are those in every group. They play dumb or cutsie to bend the rules to their liking. I wouldn't play this "game" in the future either!

Great idea! I think this game has all kinds of benefits, and I really like the charity quilt aspect. They just sew them together with sashing, and they are nice quilts! But if people are playing by different rules it isn't fair.

I did make a key for mine by writing on the back seam allowance of any square that was ambiguous. It's not difficult. But, of course, if winning is the most important thing, then it serves you better not to create a key.

Wow! That sounded like such a cool idea until I got to the end of your story. How sad that happened. Just reminds me of why I haven't joined the local quild.....

At Gulfport quilters in FL, we all made the quilt blocks and played Bingo at our quilting retreat. The next month, all the quilt blocks were turned into a beautiful quilt and given to the Senior center for an auction quilt.

See, I like this sort of thing. The quilts turn out pretty too. It doesn't seem like so many different colors and kinds of fabric could look good together; but somehow, they do.

I ?might? be tempted to play by the same rules that those cheaters were using! Make the playing field equal. But make sure you shout loudly so they will know that you are copying them!

We play bingo at the quilt club I go to but we use regular bingo cards And we win fat quarters until there all gone.

It sounds like everyone needs to make their bingo cards to be like an I Spy quilt with all the squares being fussy cut to make each block so there's NO confusion on what each person is looking for. Sorry a few bad apples had to spoil the good time for everyone else!

We played fabric bingo at our retreat this weekend and they had the fabric cards and used pictures of the fabrics on the bingo "ball" and we could see the fabrics. It was fun in our group. Each gane we each bet 5 2-1/2 strips and the winner won them all. It was fun. We used buttons to mark the fabrics. This way no doubt which fabric was being called. Pictures were great idea.

There definitely needs to be some way to make this fair for everyone. If I'm still going a year from now (they do this every year--I've only been a member for about six months), I'm going to get the rules clarified ahead of time. Either that or just skip the meeting. It could be fun, but when it gets me wound up like this, I just shouldn't participate.

We played quilt bingo at my guild also. Afterwards, we collected all the blocks and made a raffle quilt. You would not believe how pretty it turned out. I believe the "game" came from Fons and Porter.
Barb

heres what we did, each player had only one card with the names being drawn...they had to use a sticky tag on each block with their interpretation of the fabric. yellow flower, red dot, blue strip etc. Then there was no way they could change it. Worked...they make cute charity quilts when your done with them.

We did this at our quild, too, but I don't recall there being prizes of any value, so winners and losers didn't matter so much. Maybe that's the answer. And we made the blocks into charity quilts as well!

That would work. I wonder if I could get my guild to do that next year. Nobody is particularly friendly, and since I've only been a member six months, I doubt I have much influence. Maybe a year from now I will. And if that's how they want to play the game, I can get behind it. I just don't think it's fair for a few insiders to play that way while the rest of us follow conventional rules.

Our prizes weren't particularly valuable. Most had an inexpensive pattern in them, a fat quarter, and a couple of pieces of candy. But the value wasn't the point. It's just no fun to play a game like Bingo and lose all the time while the same people keep winning all the time. The woman who came to our table to "teach us how to play" said that it was okay to cheat at this game, but for the "big money" then no. I wasn't sure what the difference was. In my book, cheating is cheating regardless of the price of the prize.

Now that I think about, they DID have to "read" off the squares, just like with regular Bingo. Then if there was a question of whether something was red flower, or yellow background for instance, the group decided if they were right. I guess that's why I don't remember it being a problem.

I started to join a guild....as a provisional member.It took just 3 mos to see it wasn't anything I wanted to belong to.It'd take a book to explain,but favoring some members/ignoring others was one example.I'm way past the age of acting like a naughty 5yr old,but it's their guild.It's not just guilds either.We've seen some funny going ons at diff orgs.JMO

The idea was good, and coulda' been fun, too bad.... I would have felt the same way. It's very disappointing how people can act sometimes, maybe disheartening. What's wrong with being honest anyway? Seems like it would be more fun that way. Maybe they didn't "get it"? Glad the "card" went to a good cause, that was a neat idea!!!

In my book too. I would have been upset as well. If you can't get things changed, it might be best just to avoid "fabric bingo" meetings in the future.

See, there are lots of ways to deal with this problem. But I have a feeling it's been going this way for a long time.

It's amazing isn't it? These women are so clique-y--like high school. But they bring in good speakers. I like the charity quilting and the block of the month. If it weren't for this forum and my guild's show and tell, I wouldn't really have many people to show off my quilts to. And we're doing a challenge quilt that is a lot of fun too. So there is a lot I like about it. I just had to get over the idea that I might make some friends there. I won't.

This sounds like such a fun game. Too bad some have to spoil the fun by being childish and greedy. Maybe there should be a limit to how many times a person can win in one evening.

Oops, sounds like our Bingo meeting last week. I was one of those at the "winning" table and want you to know that the group at the table included a woman who had not won once in 4 years, a newcomer, and others who had become acquainted with each other in charity quilting meetings. We thought we were being creative in our identifications, not cheating--since others always worked to keep us honest. We were laughing so much because we were having fun. We each stopped calling "bingo" when we had won once or twice, so others could win. And, at least one of us played for another person at the table so she could win also. Everyone in the room won at least once by the end of the time. As to our inability to remember how we identified a block, most prints could be identified as more than one item, so we might not remember why we had chosen one ID without actually recording every marker on our "cards". I once could not properly identify one block in a line and had to wait to finish another line.

I am so sorry you did not have a good time.

we pay the same game in our guild but we have a rule your only allowed to win once a nite in anything bingo, door prizes raffles to make it more even. A game like that encourages you to open up your mind and think outside the box sorry you were disapointed

We played with FQ and used regular bingo cards so we didn't have a problem with someone cheating

thats my big beef with bringing fat quarters some people just bring odd sized scraps I guess if you do the math the area is the same but it frosts me when I BRING NEW STUFF AND GET BACK RAGS INSTEAD

Hm. That wasn't what I observed. In fact, the woman who joined us at our table to "teach" us how to play (her words, not mine) admitted that was what was happening at your table. She encouraged us to do the same thing, but I don't feel right about cheating. Still, I appreciate your clarifying things for me.

I continue to believe that the game could be improved if the rules were more clearly stated at the outset so that all are on equal footing. It spoiled the game for me, and I doubt I was the only one. I'm just the one who speaks up in these kinds of matters. It would be interesting to take a poll, but not everyone feels free to be honest when they are unhappy about something. It is just a game after all. I'll probably bow out next year.