We have a BOM for the guild I belong to. It is voluntary and about 30-40% of the members participate. One year it was paper piecing, another year sampler blocks. This year it is a mystery quilt. More people start than finish. Everyone uses their own fabric. At some point we have a show and tell where people bring in their quilts or blocks. It is not a big part of what our guild does.

Our quilt group of 12 did a "SHOE BOX" quilt. We each purchased (3 yards) focus fabric and (1 1/2 yds each) of 3 different coordinates to match. Place the fabric in a box (we used clear plastic bin) Put our name at the top in bold and everyone else's name under yours. We then passed our box to another person in the group to make us a 12 1/2" block of their choice. When you compete your block, pin your name to the back, then put a circle around your name and pass the box on to another person who's name has not been circled. We gave no time limit, but everyone was anxious to move forward so about every week we passed these around till all the names were circled. Then the box went back to the original person. Now you have blocks from all of your friends and they are in the exact colors you love. When you put it together - what a special quilt you have from your friends! This was a big hit in our quilt group. Beginner quilters did really simple blocks while others did at their own skill levels so there was no pressure on anyone. Just have fun!

In one the my guilds they make the same block every month and just change the colors. We, too, also make animal beds with our scraps for animal shelters.

Fallonquilter, I love your idea of the shoe box with our own choice of fabrics. That would be a friendship quilt I could enjoy. Good idea!

I am the chairperson for our guild and have done this several times over the years. We have about 50 members who actually come to the meetings and only about 20 that actually participate in the BOM. Seems it's been the same people all the time. I have found that the simpler the block is the more members make and it's often the pattern and the colors that attracts them. I give the pattern along with instructions and show the block in various stages so they can see how it's made. I have found blocks on Pinterest, Around the Block book and Missouri Star. I allow members to put their name in for every block they turn in and it's a winner take all. Winner must make at least 6 month's worth of blocks to win again. Sometimes there are lots of blocks and others only a few. When there is only 6 or so we offer them to members who make placemats for Meals on Wheels. We generally also have one block that is used for a donation quilt of some kind. It is always fun to see the finished quilts. Although it is now required many donate their finished quilts to charities.

In my guild I used to run the BOM program ... we charged .50 cents for a kit ... sometimes it had all the pieces and sometimes they needed to supply a piece ... depending on budget. We had a lot of participation. I had other obligations and gave it up ... the new person supplies the pattern and sometimes a piece of fabric ... we supply the rest. The participation has went way down. I think most of us are busy and if they can just sit down an sew the block they will participate and if they have to do more of the leg work they won't ... everyone has busy lives.

Thank you for all the responses
 

I will share them with my co-chair - we're both new at this. I appreciate all the ideas and thoughts.