Want ideas for guild members
 

I will be the new president next year for our guild. We have 30 members. Do you have ideas for a project for the year? Or swaps we could do monthly. Secret member swaps. Any fun ideas would be welcome. Thank you.

Every year our guild does a challenge.. then we hang the results in our quilt show in Nov. This year we were to choose a candy bar and make something with only the colors on the package. We vote on our favorites and there are small prizes. I'll be watching this thread for other ideas.

our guild does a monthly block challange, you may get 12/20 blocks and then we raffle them off. have members do a "teach" that is their specialty. Mystery quilts aren't my favorite but we do those too...one part/month for 3 months and then we vote on the quilts without knowing whose is whose. it is really hard to get 100% of the membership to particpate in everything. my other guild does a FQ give/way every month, if you bring one you get in the drawing. both guilds do yearly retreats that are well attended. there is always some project that I have to do before the meeting and they keep you sewing and thinking...good luck

OUr guild has a presidents challenge every year that we display at our annual Christmas party. Last year was to do a ine patch quilt that doesnt look like a nine patcj, this yearthe theme is what Nevada means to you and we have to do a Nevada based quilt. We dont do monthly swaps but our Pm group started thangles and they became very popular and now the AM group is doing them too and we will have prizes nexy ear after they are all assembled and finished.

We do a school house night where 6-8 members are set up at separate tables and we move around and learn a technique from them. As a novice, I love those nights. We usually do it once a year.

My quild has a chairperson for swaps and exchanges. Our past swap and exchanges projects have included needle cases, mug rugs, pin cushions and mini quilts.

One fun and challenging project was our Batik challenge. Each person brought a yard of batik fabric (their choice). Everyone participating formed a circle and we played a form of "musical chairs". To music we handed the yard of fabric to the person to our right. When the music stopped we ripped the yard of fabric in half - keeping one of the halves and continuing the musical chairs concept - each time ripping in half the fabric. At the end everyone had 5 pieces of batik fabric - ranging from 1/2 yard to about a 10" square. Our challenge was to make a quilt or some type of sewing project using at least 3 of the 5 fabrics and we could add any amount of other fabric - of our choice. The guild members, who did not participate in the challenge, voted for their favorite project. The winner received a small prize.

I like all the ideas above. Our guild had a mystery bag, whereby everyone who wanted to join in, brought small pieces of fabric (nothing larger than a fat eighth) in their sack. You have your name inside the bag. Everyone took home a bag and had six months to make something out of the scraps in the bag and give it to the orginial owner of the bag. I put Halloween fabrics in my bag and received the neatest Halloween Wall hanging. (by the way, the project only had to have the top done - you finished it off yourself.)

Another year we were handed an envelop with paint chip samples. The person in charge knew what color was in each envelope. A number was on each and only the chairperson knew who had which colors.....no trading. We had to find fabrics to match the three paint chips, plus add one color of our choice. Nothing could be smaller than 18 inches. What fun we had with that one! Some people got colors they hated, but came up with wonderful little quilts and/or other quilted objects.

Our guild had a spray starch night. The president bought about 12 different types of spray starch and tested each one for flaking, etc. and talked about her results. Then we set up several ironing stations with fabric scraps and all the members could test any of the spray starches/sizing for themselves. It was a great way to try something before you bought it. I know I have purchased some that I hated and never used.
At the end of the meeting, the cans and bottles of starch used for the demo's were given away as door prizes. The first person whose number was called got to choose which type she wanted and so forth. Of course, Mary Ellen's Best Press went first! It was a lot of fun. I won the bottle of Bounce Spray Starch, which I had never used before, but now love.

We've done a Round Robin and a Block Robin. For the Round Robin, make a center square for yourself at any size. Put the square and coordinating fabric in a bag. Those who participate stand in a circle and are assigned a number (to keep people in the same place of the circle month after month). Hand off the bag to the person on your right who adds to the block during the month. Next month, back into the circle in the same order and the bag is passed off to the next person. You end up with a medallion quilt. Some members were reluctant to add to an existing quilt because they were novice quilters. So for them we came up with the Block Robin. Put your choice of coordinating fabric in a bag and indicate what size block you want made. Same circle is set up as the Round Robin and the bag gets passed month after month and you get back blocks made for you out of your own choice of fabric. This can also be done as a row robin where the person who receives your bag makes a row (let's say 6 inch blocks by six of them, so 6x36). Make sure everyone labels their bag and make rules about (a) using ONLY the fabric in the bag or (b) you can add to the bag if you use another fabric and last but not least (don't make this mistake) make a list of everyone who is participating and their order in the circle. We lost a bag for a month last year - had one very unhappy member!