Guild Workshop Presenter
 

My guild books a well known quilter every few years. Two years ago we had Bonnie Hunter and last year Nancy Mahoney came. It is past time to look for our next guest. We are in Georgia but could fly someone in. We typically have the guest present at our morning meeting then teach that afternoon and all the next day. What suggestions do you have?

I might suggest Karen Kay Buckley. I took a workshop from her years ago and it was one of the best organized workshops I have attended.

Angela Walters is a great presenter and so enthusiastic, I'd highly recommend! With her Free Motion Quilter Challenge, I'm guessing that she could do a great workshop on quilting for a workshop (on domestic machine).

I'd love to take a class by Cindy Williams - the Math Whisperer.

Mr Domestic would be a fun option. he is relatively local to our guild, and did a presentation for us. very entertaining personality.

I am so jealous that you not only have a guild but have such talented speakers each year!

I do not have a guild that I can get to easily - good job I’ve got Quilting Board. :rolleyes:

My guild has offers and all day class followed by a speaker presentation for all the guild members nearly every month. This past year our guild teachers/speakers included: Angela Walters, Maria Shell, Carrie Payne, Robin Ruth, Laura Wasilowski, Felicia Brenoe, and the sisters/owners of SewKindOfWonderful.com. I especially enjoyed the presentations by Angela Walters and Laura Wasilowski who gave excellent informative presentations that entertained our guild and kept us laughing.

David Taylor is fantastic. https://davidtaylorquilts.com/

My Guild does the same thing, once a year usually. We have had Melinda Bula, Judy Neimeyer, Jacqueline de Jonge, Nancy Mahoney, Karen Stone (with another Guild) and a few others I can remember their faces but not their names. One was The lizard lady (not her real name of course).

I am working to fill in speakers for 2020 right now for our guild. This thread is very helpful.

I second David Taylor. He was my favorite speaker of all the speakers we have had at our guild.

One of my guilds had Karlee Porter via Skype. She sent up quilts for the trunk show and then did her presentation via Skype. It worked well for us and her.

Most of the national teachers have priced themselves with fees and expenses out of most guild's budget and the cost of their classes are over priced. Anything over $60 and I won't sign up. Has to be a unique technique learning class for me to pay the $60. Most have a kit, book, and/or pattern required to buy extra.

Kathy McNeil from Tulalip, WA presented a trunk show and afternoon workshop for our Guild and she was very very good. Her quilts are mind-boggling and her presentation was very entertaining. No idea how much she charged but she did several guilds in the area within the same week or so.
She has a website https://www.kathymcneilquilts.com/

Kelly Cline, vintage quilter.

I went to a workshop with Patsy Thompson and it was hands down the best one ever.

Watson

Does your guild have a website?

I really enjoyed Laura Wasilowski. Her program is very entertaining. I didn't take her workshop though.

I'm the President of TAQG (Texas Association of Quilt Guilds), we have 34 guilds in our midsts throughout Texas. Each year we bring in an International speaker for what we call Rally Day in July for a day of lecture in the morning, lunch, lecture in the afternoon, silent auction, the guilds bring their current raffle quilts & sell tickets to them & we have boocoo door prizes & raffles throughout the day for all the guests to partake of. Anyway, in the 20 years we've been around, we've had Pam Bono (now deceased), Deb Tucker, Pam Holland, J. Michelle Watts, Sharon Schamber, Cynthia England, Pat Speth & this coming year we are having Marti Michell coming back for our 20th Anniversary. She was our very first Rally Day speaker. Each of them do 3 or 4 workshops as well as the Rally Day of lectures. We also let them sell their wares at Rally Day also. Deb Tucker made the comment that she sold more at our Rally Day than she had at Houston the prior year, which says something about the quilters of North Texas!

I love her too, never fmq decent until her.

I agree with some others here that Laura Wasilowski was great and also very entertaining. My favorite is Jennie Rayment. She is British, very entertaining and a just a tad bit risqué. I found her to be very informative and delightful.

This could get complicated. What sort of personality does your guild have, how large is it, and what's your budget?

For example, if it's a smaller guild that's mostly into applique, they probably wouldn't be interested in someone like Sally Collins and "Mastering Precision Piecing". (I have no idea if Sally does workshops, I just used her as an example.) On the other hand, they may be very interested in learning something new, such as precision piecing.

My dream wish-list of presenters include Yoko Saito, Cynthia England, Jamie Wallen, Margaret Solomon Gunn, Ricky Tims, Edyta Sitar, Bethanne Nemesh, Cathy Wiggins, Janet Fogg, Gena Perkes, Mark Lipinski (he's a hoot!).

There are several excellent suggestions upthread. May I suggest you look up the names, check pricing and availability, and put together a list of 5 possible speakers, then put that list to the guild for a vote? You could have them number the presenters in order of preference, the presenter with the most number 1 votes is the one you book. This may also give you presenters for the next 2-3 years.

Susan Cleveland is so engertic and gives a great program and has some great workshops. Her mother leaves near us so we have been able to have her several times and she was more popular than Laura Wasilowski, who was fantastic.

The website is psqg.org

It is the Prairie Star Guild based on St. Charles, IL. The guild has something like 300+ members.

Teaching rates
 

What is the range of fees being charged by teachers. I agree about costs of classes especially at the big shows. Some are $100 or more per day class.

living in the KC area, where many national known quilters are located within about an hour drive at most, the presentations for a day & evening presentations run about $500-700, plus travel expenses. Workshops tend to run about the same for a class of 25+/-.
my guild has looked into bringing in some nationally known quilters from outside our area that would require airfare, extra baggage (those quilts weigh a ton!), hotel room and meals, and either a car rental or a member available to drive. That really adds to the cost.

one thing that the big shows have to build into the cost of workshop instructors is that most teachers charge a flat fee for the class (and sometimes transportation, and room/board) and if the class doesn't fill, the show (or guild) still has to pay the flat fee. That has happened several times with our guild unfortunately.

Not exactly a "well known famous" quilter, but did you know that Sulky offers guild programs and workshops? I have attended both and are well worth the time. Our guild had them do the free motion workshop and it was well worth it. Eric Dexler is extremely knowledgeable and very entertaining. They are back on Saturday for the Daisy Placemat workshop. Looking forward to it.

https://www.sulky.com/education-events/guild-events/

I'm glad to have taught and lectured for your Guild in 2013. What a pleasant group. I got a big kick out of a couple of Show and Tell Quilts of Valor made from the free Anita's Arrowhead pattern :-) The quilts were huge and stunning