Quilts on a Stick
 

Our Guild has not done a BOM for a few years due to low participation. I've been trying to come up with something that may be fun and not take too long to do. I'm thinking of small, mini's - with a paint stick sleeve. I'm not finding much on this (little blurbs). I know I could make up my own rules - but, why reinvent the wheel? Have any of you done this or seen it done?

Buttermilk Basin has several monthly designs...one that my friends and I have done is By Thy Hands. The Sew Simple is a nice monthly too. You don't have to restrict yourself to wools, but choose any fabric/color you'd like.

https://www.buttermilkbasin.com/shop-online.htm

Lots of fun patterns and themes here.

https://www.shabbyfabrics.com/Wall-Hangings-C1657.aspx

I would first research why the drop in participation. Question the members as to what they are interested in doing.

A BOM that can be made into either a wall hanging or a quilt might gather support.

Would a theme for a year (or 6 months)with different members responsible for each month pattern and colors work? Could be fun!

Perhaps the members don't want to keep the BOM project. It could be donated so that a guild quilt is made for a charity function or raffle.

Good luck!

On another forum, one of the posters joined a modern quilt guild. Their project sounds like fun. They call it quilt in a box.

Each participant buys fabric (3 yards, I think) in three or four colors. It goes in a box. Each month, you take a box and make one block with the fabric in the box. Next month, you get a different box. I'm not sure of the exact directions, but she would probably share them.

This is a post where she is showing the blocks others have made in the box she had in August. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5444940/going-moderncontinued#n=15

bkay

One guild I dropped hadn't gotten any new members in a long time. The members were blah, didn't want to do anything new or challenging. I tried my best to get interest in BOMs, mysteries, challenges, Quilts of Valor, anything to get the fun back. Sadly only had two or three get involved and they gave up since no support. Do what you can to keep the enthusiasm going in the guild before it's all gone.

Maybe they'd be interested in making some seasonal table runners. Those are quick and fun to have around. They also make nice gifts.
Have they made any of those folded centerpieces that use the Bosal foam? Also quick, fun and lovely.
I just started making zipper pouches from candy bags and fusible vinyl. Adorable! And easy! See how on Utube---watch Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company.

The small guild that I belonged to had an easy BOM pattern each month. We made 2 blocks. One to go in a drawing for all who participated. If you made 4 blocks, you got two entries. The extra blocks were made into charity & good will type quilts. We chose whatever the need was. Once it was for the young children who had lost their police officer dad's or mom's. Another time it was for a cancer ward. That got good participation each month. We had a pattern printed out and was given one of the colors for either a center block so that each block had some type of continuity. We paid a quarter or 50 cents as a donation for the small bit of fabric and the printing cost of printing the pattern. The lady always made a block up of the pattern so that everyone could see and take pictures of what the end result should be.

I love this idea! If the blocks have a good purpose, there's a reason to make them. I know "Block Lotto" fizzled out in one guild, because everyone had won, and hadn't finished them.

We made placemats and they were given to Meals on Wheels who in turn gave them to new seniors with their lunch.
I made 25 and used up a chunk of fabric. The guild's goal was to make 1000. I don't know if the guild reached that goal.
I don't know who was happier, the receiver of the placemat, or me, using up fabric. LOL

I like your idea Blue Bell!

we've found that we get the most participation when the BOM is a simple one that does not require lots of distraction from other projects members are working on. We use some for charity quilts and raffle the rest each month to those that participated.

Love the name of this project and what a great idea for starting it--A block that fits on a stick. A paint stick is a "good" measure and what a good use of a stick that is already made standard. When my husband was in a care facility, I wanted to brighten his room with a hanging for the month or season. Now I use those seasonal hangings at home. None was very big so are easy to store and to get out to fill a spot.

I tried to revive out BOM at my guild. We have over 90 members, and I am luck to get 5 blocks from members, and at least one of those is mine! Unless someone volunteers for next year, it will go away.

Is this the problem for all organizations in today's world.? Members are more likely to join only to be entertained than to actually participate. But then another thought on BOM--what to do with those blocks after they are made? Are members hesitant, thinking those blocks will become UFOs?

Let's go back to my earlier post. Perhaps think on donating such wall hangings to various facilities for decorations in residents' rooms. Being on the stick, they are ready to hang. Of course, they need to be seasonal or at least cheerful--something you'd like to put in your own home.

Our guild has become more of a social hour, seems like we've all done that, been there kind of thing. We just work on our own projects. One of the members brought in a paper pieced Christmas Tree wall hanging, many of us fell in love with it. Just about all of us ended up making it. Same thing has happened when someone brings in a new tote bag, zipper bag, ornament, fabric box, etc. It's like a vending machine, if you can see it they will buy it. We have made small charity quilts, placemats for meals on wheels, quilts of valor, maybe we're all just burned out.

rjwilder...our guild is also becoming a social event...and that's okay. We come together to share our love of quilting. We love our show and tell segment and really need more conversation time during this part of our meeting as many questions are raised. We have about 30 members with 20-25 coming on a regular basis during the "school year". We also have a monthly SitNSew.

Last year we had a couple of block challenges. About 3/4 of the group made the blocks but the fiinished projects from those blocks was limited. Another UFO sitting in a pile for some.

This sounds like my group! We all have such different tastes and styles, it's difficult to pick one BOM that everyone is happy with, not to mention the projects we already have underway. So we pivoted into doing miniature interpretive pieces instead. Each member wrote a theme word or phrase on a piece of paper and we put them in a bowl. Each month we draw one paper out of the bowl and our challenge is to create a quilt inspired by that word. We like the 12x12 quilt challenge, so we decided to make our quilts twelve inches by twelve inches. It's a lot of fun to see how the theme word is interpreted, and 12x12 is a doable size that doesn't interfere with our ongoing projects. Last year a couple of people assembled their quilts into a wall hanging.

I think the big thing will be to "KNOW your Audience". Ask around if folks would like to start the BOM again and ask for suggestions from the members.