Be sure you narrow your topic as quilting is a very broad topic.

What is the main thing you want your audience to know? If it's how quilting has changed, make a list of then and now. If it's about the investment of time and the difficulty of assigning a monetary value, hone in on what makes it so. If it's about the passion and joy of creating an object of beauty and comfort for both loved ones and complete strangers, talk about that.

Humor. Make your audience laugh up front and you will hook them.

I will listen to anyone about anything if I sense their passion AND they have a sense of humor. Otherwise, if the topic is boring and the person is humdrum, it's a long 7 minutes.

Quilters often miss the point that quilts were an expression of art and political opinion when women were forbidden to comment about events in public, much less speak their own opinion or contradict a man. Whig's Defeat, 54-40 or Fight, Little Giant, Lincoln's Platform, Tippecanoe, Clay's Choice, Whig Rose, on and on.

Thank you redmadder I didn’t know that.
I’ve decided to limit my talk to the modern day quilting bee the boomerang. The meeting topic is brave new world and how social media has changed our lives. I’ll show boom squares and quilts made from them. I’ll define terms as I need to. I’ll share boomer stories.

Please be sure to post how you talk went.

Start with the statistics produced by Quilts inc. to show the economic value. Something like...you might thing quilting is a group of senior ladies meeting weekly in the basement of a church, but the cuttect economic value of the industry. is...l.etc. and then go from there.

Sounds great! You have it focused and definitely your topic fits the theme. Considering the "brave" in "brave, new world" you might show a rotary cutter and the bravery of using one (chuckle, chuckle, making a point that your grandmothers only had to worry about scissors, pins, and needles). You might discuss that it's brave to stand at the cash register of a quilt shop with your eyes open and see the carnage on your receipt. "I'm sorry, Mrs.Encinitas, but your 5 yards of fabric, package of batting, and spool of thread comes to "$829.45."

I think it's important to try to relate your topic to the experiences of your audience. Since everyone uses computers now, one point that I consider important is that in our modern world, whatever enthusiasm a person may have can be shared with others, literally all over the world. For example, quiltingboard.com now has nearly 120,000 thousand members! In our grandparents' time, the typical quilter might have a small circle of friends who shared the hobby, but in the middle of a project, they couldn't take a picture and ask thousands of others for input about whether this fabric would be a better choice or that one. We learn so much from each other, and benefit greatly from all the talented people who will take time to participate in sharing knowledge and enthusiasm.

The talk went quite well. They always give a ribbon at the end to the best speaker and I got it. This is given based on audience vote. The other two speakers were people who had been in toastmasters for many years and this was just my third speech. BTW I mentioned this thread specifically in the speech. I told them I had received many good suggestions from you. I used some of the things mentioned in the thread. Many thanks to all of you.

Congrats!!!!!!

Way to go! Congrats on your ribbon. BTW- what did they think of your Day of the Dead quilt? Boom on!