quiltingshorttimer

we've found that we get the most participation when the BOM is a simple one that does not require lots of distraction from other projects members are working on. We use some for charity quilts and raffle the rest each month to those that participated.

illinois

Love the name of this project and what a great idea for starting it--A block that fits on a stick. A paint stick is a "good" measure and what a good use of a stick that is already made standard. When my husband was in a care facility, I wanted to brighten his room with a hanging for the month or season. Now I use those seasonal hangings at home. None was very big so are easy to store and to get out to fill a spot.

Bjbaxter

I tried to revive out BOM at my guild. We have over 90 members, and I am luck to get 5 blocks from members, and at least one of those is mine! Unless someone volunteers for next year, it will go away.

illinois

Is this the problem for all organizations in today's world.? Members are more likely to join only to be entertained than to actually participate. But then another thought on BOM--what to do with those blocks after they are made? Are members hesitant, thinking those blocks will become UFOs?

Let's go back to my earlier post. Perhaps think on donating such wall hangings to various facilities for decorations in residents' rooms. Being on the stick, they are ready to hang. Of course, they need to be seasonal or at least cheerful--something you'd like to put in your own home.

rjwilder

Our guild has become more of a social hour, seems like we've all done that, been there kind of thing. We just work on our own projects. One of the members brought in a paper pieced Christmas Tree wall hanging, many of us fell in love with it. Just about all of us ended up making it. Same thing has happened when someone brings in a new tote bag, zipper bag, ornament, fabric box, etc. It's like a vending machine, if you can see it they will buy it. We have made small charity quilts, placemats for meals on wheels, quilts of valor, maybe we're all just burned out.

oksewglad

rjwilder...our guild is also becoming a social event...and that's okay. We come together to share our love of quilting. We love our show and tell segment and really need more conversation time during this part of our meeting as many questions are raised. We have about 30 members with 20-25 coming on a regular basis during the "school year". We also have a monthly SitNSew.

Last year we had a couple of block challenges. About 3/4 of the group made the blocks but the fiinished projects from those blocks was limited. Another UFO sitting in a pile for some.

Tartan

I like your paint stick idea for hanging a small quilt. Maybe have participants make their favourite seasonal wall hanging (with paint stitch in a sleeve on back) and when finished, have them voted on. Everyone’s favourite could get a prize?

Peckish

This sounds like my group! We all have such different tastes and styles, it's difficult to pick one BOM that everyone is happy with, not to mention the projects we already have underway. So we pivoted into doing miniature interpretive pieces instead. Each member wrote a theme word or phrase on a piece of paper and we put them in a bowl. Each month we draw one paper out of the bowl and our challenge is to create a quilt inspired by that word. We like the 12x12 quilt challenge, so we decided to make our quilts twelve inches by twelve inches. It's a lot of fun to see how the theme word is interpreted, and 12x12 is a doable size that doesn't interfere with our ongoing projects. Last year a couple of people assembled their quilts into a wall hanging.

tuckyquilter

I think the big thing will be to "KNOW your Audience". Ask around if folks would like to start the BOM again and ask for suggestions from the members.