Guild Meetings

Typical monthly meeting agendas include:

• Block Lotto: The Block Lotto Committee creates a booklet of 12 blocks. Every month the Members who have made one or more of that month’s block showcase their blocks and their names are given to the Block Lotto Chairperson (the Member’s name is given a number for each block he or she has made that month). The Member whose name is drawn wins all of the blocks entered for that month, after which one of the Members then demonstrates the construction of the next month’s block.
• Newsletter: One of the Guild Members creates a newsletter every other month, which may include articles by the Members, pictures taken at meetings and/or workshops, recipes, quilting anagram, reminders of upcoming events and workshops, and quilting tips. A postcard is sent in the other months, reminding the members of the next meeting and including any other “reminders” the Members may ask to be distributed.
• Program or Demonstration: At every meeting, the Program Committee presents a program for the evening. We have had well-known quilters and/or local quilters speak, give a “trunk show” of their own quilts, demonstrate a specific technique or show their line of fabrics. Sometimes the evening’s program consists of Guild members guessing the price of various sewing items, with the Member closest to the exact cost winning the item.
• Show and Tell: At the end of each Guild meeting, the Members take turns showing their latest creations to the other Members and telling a little about the project – perhaps describing the technique used, the “ooops” along the way, how long the project took to complete, the creator of the pattern, the lucky person who will receive the gift, etc.
• Refreshments and Visiting with other Members: After the business meeting and Show & Tell, the Members have refreshments, brought each month by 2-3 of the Members, and socialize with one another, visit with the person presenting the Program and/or “shop” when the Program is conducted by a quilt shop or quilter who has brought items for purchase.

Special monthly meeting agendas can include:

• Quilt Show: In the spring of even-numbered years, the Guild has a quilt show at the Canton High School Gymnasium. The Guild’s Members’ quilts are shown in several different categories and the attendees vote on their favorite quilt in each category and on the one quilt they feel is the “Best of the Show.” We have several vendors selling quilting supplies, fabrics, kits, sewing machines and related items, as well as a “Second Hand Treasures” booth where the Guild sells “gently used” or new quilting-related items, magazines and books.
• Raffle Quilt: Several months before the Quilt Show, the Raffle Quilt Committee makes a large bed quilt, to be raffled at the Show. The Members sell raffle tickets for several months before, and during, the Show and the winning ticket is drawn at the end of the Show.
• Mystery Quilt: In odd-numbered years, a Mystery Quilt Committee selects a quilt pattern that can be easily divided up into “clues,” then presents a “clue” each month. The “clues” are instructions for sewing a portion of the quilt and the Members complete the clues each month without knowing what the quilt will look like when completed. After all of the clues are completed, the Committee hosts a workshop, at which the Mystery Quilt is revealed and the mystery is solved. These quilts are all hung together at the next year’s Quilt Show, highlighting how different one pattern can appear when created with different fabrics.
• Friendship Quilt: In odd-numbered years, the Friendship Quilt Committee selects a simple pattern for a small lap-sized quilt. Each Member is asked to make one or more quilts using the selected pattern, to be donated to a group of the Committee’s choice. These quilts are all hung together at the next year’s Quilt Show, then given to the donee group, such as Graham Hospital, Renaissance Care Center, the Fulton-Mason County Women’s Crisis Center and others.
• Workshops: The Guild sponsors 3-4 workshops every year for Guild Members, sometimes also including non-Members. The Workshop may be taught by a quilter who is brought to the Guild for a Program the evening of the meeting, then a one-day class to make a particular quilt. The cost for each Workshop depends on the pattern or kit being purchased and the instructor’s fee, but the Guild may subsidize the cost to keep the individual Member cost reasonable.