lovelyl

I am looking for some ideas for short (around 30 min.) programs or demos for after our quilt guild business meeting. Also looking for projects to teach at a day long Saturday Sew. Has anyone done a BOM for a quilt guild? How was that done? Goodness- I am full of questions today! Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Linda

Holice

for your Sat meeting - do a Jelly Roll Race and make qults for charity.

oldcottontop

Curious about this too. Will be watching.

mpspeedy

Linda, A lot depends on the size of your guild and the levels of experience of the members. If it is a large guild with funds available for speakers etc. there are lots of "professional" quilters out there who will come to your meetings for a fee. They are usually pattern designers or have come up with some new technique that they are willing to demo if they can then sell their merchandise to your members. Here in the Mid Atlantic corrider there are a lot of them. Mimi Dietrich is the founding mother of one of the two guilds I belong to. She is a marvelous speaker and has designed many quilt patterns and has published several books. She is also a two time breast cancer survivor and a real sweetheart.
If most of your members are beginners you might have more experienced members take turns doing demos of basic quilting skills like paper-piecing, rotary cutting and the proper way to press rather than iron etc. Handquilting techiniques and machine quilting techinques always come in handy. Even how to layout a design and making the quilt sandwhich are skills that many quilters have not yet mastered. There are kinds of basting techniques. Making and applying binding is always a handy skill to learn.
Block of the month is a way for a group to acquire quilts for a show etc. Someone agrees to pick out blocks, usually simple, basicand of a certain size to begin with. Each person is given written directions to make the choosen block. Instructions like color choice, solid or prints, plaids, floral etc. can be part of the deal. Sometimes the instructions just say that one certain color or pattern must appear somewhere in the block. Each person who takes the instructions should make at least one block. The blocks are returned to the guild at the next meeting and each person who made a block puts their name in the pot. Whoever has their name drawn wins all of the blocks. BOM gives members a chance to try a block without commiting to a whole quilt. Those who win the blocks are urged to complete a project with them.

She In PA

I am in charge of the meetings for our guild this year. We always have a block of the month this is seperate from our program. They pay 10cents to get a block pattern and what colors to use. They make them at home during the month as many as they want to make. They bring them in the next month and their name goes in as many times as how many blocks they made. Then they draw a name and that person gets all the blocks. Now for programs. I had one from a lady who did mission trips and taught quilting on them and did a power point. One on Scappy quilts and how to organize your scraps and patterns and showed some quilts. I'm having one on art quilts and the use of Lutradur. One of the really fun ones I'm having is 3 members are going to about 15 to 20 members houses and taking a picture of their sewing room. Then I will make a slide show and they will have to guess which member belongs to each sewing room. The one with the most right will get a prize. I'm having a NQA judge talk about all areas of judging. Some talk about the history of quilts or the underground railroad. A talk about Dear Jane Quilts. We have a 2 ladies who started a Electric Quilt group that meets at Panera Bread once a month and she has done a program on EQ7. We have 2 workshops a year, spring and fall. Sometimes we get a nationally known teacher and sometimes it is someone from our guild. We just had the 1600 Jelly Roll Race. Hope this helps!

mltquilt

Paper piecing is a quick demo if you use a simple block.

mltquilt

erstan947

Recent demo's we have used.....10 minute table runner....10 minute block....the triangle thread catcher. All these I got from QB. just do a search and you should have more info than you can use Anita's arrowhead was the one we did at last weeks meeting... Pattern: Anita’s Arrowhead

Holice

If you want a 30 min program then a good one is like a musical chair game. Set up stations where members demonstrate a technique. Give each 10 min to do it then blow the whistle and the group moves to the next table etc. You can set up according to the time allowed. For instance, if you only have 30 min then members can see two demos. But you an have as many stations as you want. 10 min for the demo and as much time as you need for group to move from one table to the next. For a day long session you might do something similar to what I will be doing at a guild near Pittsburgh on Saturday. I am giving a lecture in the morning and in the afternoon we will do a marathon sewing session making "Little Dresses/Shorts for Africa/Hati". The admission to either/both is items for the local food bank. I might suggest an all day session similar to the musical chairs in which a longer time is allowed for the demos in the morning as a refresher in basic quiltmaking with the sewing in the afternoon. Just thinking quickly this morning here.

lovelyl

Such great ideas! I really appreciate all the time everyone took to give me such helpful answers. You are a great bunch! Thank you all so much!
Linda

Taino Jan

I love Holice's idea for a "musical chair" game with quilting techniques. Gotta use it. Thanks.