Quilt Guild Program, Project and Charity Ideas

After serving a year as President of our local quilt guild, I now know how hard it can be to keep things new and interesting. New ideas for programs, group projects, and charitable giving, whether big or small, seem to be hard to come by. I am not sure why, I know there are lots of busy guilds out there! I decided to start a page on my blog to keep a running list of program, project and charity ideas for quilt guilds. You can get to the page by clicking on the "Quilt Guild Ideas" tab at the top of the page. Feel free to use the ideas! Also, PLEASE send me information if you have participated in anything that would be good to list here.

Here is the first idea I am listing on the page:

Ugly fabric challenge

This one was a lot of fun for everyone. It ends up being a great program and charity project all wrapped into one.

Before the meeting - A month before the meeting: announce to your members and print in your newsletter as well - "everyone bring in at least one yard of the ugliest quilting fabric they can find in their stash."

At the meeting
Show and Tell - have everyone sit in a circle. First, have a show and tell about the fabric. WHY IN THE WORLD DID YOU BUY THAT FABRIC???? WHAT POSSESSED YOU? This part is a lot of fun and laughs.

Next you are going to do a fabric swap of a different kind! Have everyone pass their piece of fabric to the person on their right. Each person should tear the piece of fabric they just received in half (bring a pair of scissors to the meeting, as some fabric is hard to start a tear.) Place one half of the torn fabric in their "stash" under their chair. Pass the other half to the right person on their right.


Tear the piece you just received in half. Place half in your "stash", pass the other half. (Each person should now have two new pieces of fabric in their stash.) Tear the piece you just received in half, pass one piece and put the other in your stash............. Keep repeating this process until the fabric goes all the way around, or it gets too small (one-inch squares) to tear.

Everyone now has a new stash of ugly fabric! Hmmmm.....what should we do with this?


Now for the charity portion of the program.....our guild makes doll quilts for Christmas gifts for needy children. My challenge to the guild was to make a doll quilt (or two) using their newly acquired fabric stash. The challenge was that they could add anything they wanted to the stash, but they must use the entire stash! We had a great response to this. It boosted the number of quilts made for the charity and we ended up with some great show and tell items that people made from the ugly fabrics! Everyone was amazed at what you could do with such ugly fabric!


If you use this idea, I would love to hear about it! I would enjoy seeing your photos.Remember, if you have an idea to share - please do!