illinois

You mentioned that there are various skills in your group. I've been enjoying Donna Jordan's tutorials. She has had some very interesting designs to share and talks about color selection and all. You might find something there. My only "complaint" on what I've seen of Donna's presentations is that all of her quilts have been finished on the longarm. I like my quilting to highlight the piecing that I've spent hours doing. To me, longarm pantograph is like an artist spending hours on a beautiful painting and then scribbling all over it.

Personally, I'm not a fan of group projects though. I have so many ideas on my own bucket list that I'm glad that all of us have our own projects at our weekly group. I want to do my own thing. And, yes, we are still learning from the others' projects. On occasion we see what another is working on and decide to make that one, too, but it's a choice, not a planned project. Round Robins don't take into account that "too many cooks spoil the broth". Your 1/4" seam and mine may not be the same. Now what do I do with this if the person ahead of me has left a problem? Do I take out her work and risk offending her or do I simply move on and make the best of things--and how?

Mkotch

May I suggest Gypsy Wife, Long Time Gone, or My Small World by Jen Kingwell? They are basically samplers that you could do in sections each month. My Small World has some very small blocks, so it may be frustrating for beginning quilters, but Gypsy Wife has blocks that look about the size of the Splendid Sampler. I'm working on Long Time Gone now and enjoying it although some pieces are quite small, too.

farmquilter

Your personal comment is why I decided to not be in a quilt group, after 29 years of attending a number of groups.
I removed borders on my round robin wall hanging and am so very happy with what remains and is on display every Christmas.

I have no input on what and how to go about doing a group project because I just do what I want, when I want.

cjsews

How about a mystery quilt. Merry Mayhem has many nice ones that she put out as one day mysteries. You could break the clues down, one per meeting to work on together. Everyone would have their own fabrics to work with. It would be fun to see them all come together in different color options

Jordan

I am in a group of 6 ladies that meet at my house once a week and we decided to make house blocks. I handed out a pattern and each lady designated what colors they wanted in their house. For instance, I decided I wanted a RWB house. Then the other ladies made a RWB house block for me and a house block in each of the other ladies choices. It was really fun and I am binding my house block quilt right now. Hope to show you all soon. Also, I was in an exchange block in another group and we all made bow tie blocks and exchanged them. A bow tie block would be easy for even a beginner as you mentioned that your group has all levels of sewers. Just some suggestions. Good luck on your decisions

Jshep

I was in a group where we had a big stack of empty pizza boxes. Everyone would take an empty box and put a pattern in it along with the fabric they wanted used. Put their name on the box. Then we would stack them back up and when we got ready to leave we would pick up a box ( not knowing what was in it, no peeking) then bring it back with the block made inside and stack them up again. Then when we got ready to leave, take a different box. We did this once a month and by the end of the year everyone had enough blocks to make a quilt.

cindyb

Our guild did this one year. But, yours has a little different twist - I like the idea of stacking them up.

cindyb

Wow! Lots of excellent ideas!! I will run them through the group and see what interests them. Thank you so much. I knew where to go to get ideas!!! You guys are great.

shasta5718

I used to belong to a group and a couple times a year we would choose a block and each member would make it her way, one for each member, then we would each do our own quilt. It was a lot of fun and everyone does a little different.

AprilM

We have had good luck with using the Creative Grids Pineapple ruler in groups with multiple participants of various skill levels.

We all cut strips from our stashes in the suggested dimensions and cut enough to trade with group members. Because you are all using the ruler the finished blocks are the same size so you can even trade blocks with each other and not have to worry about inconsistent block sizes. The tutorial by JeanAnn Wright (the creator of the ruler) is really good - but the Missouri Star Quilt Company also has a good tutorial.