I've just remembered something else my Embroiderer's Guild do, after the AGM meeting we will have an auction of things brought in by members to raise funds for the branch. Most of the things are crafting related, but sometimes we get one or two diverse items as well - something to do every other year rather than annually. As a variation you could have a books/magazines sales evening, funds to branch. This is a good way of moving 'stash' around the group when you don't want/need things any longer.

Speaking of 'Servicing the Vikings...I wonder will Ricky 'survive' them :

This January we are having a MINI QUILT MARKET.... 6 local/ regional quilt shops have accepted. They will set up a mini store... bringing in the latest and greatest. They will have the opportunity to sell to the guild. They will all talk about their shop for 10 to 15 minutes each. This will be the first time we are doing this ; we are hoping to forge an alliance with the local shops.

Nonnie

Great buy, Nancy! And great job using the jelly roll!

Every July, our quilt guild holds a garage sale for the membership. Members reserve a table and sell quilt related items that they no longer want or need. At last year's sale, I bought a great scrappy jelly roll of more than 5 yards of fabric for only $5 from a member who made jelly rolls from her stash. With the jelly roll, I made this quilt, these blocks{!-- ia0 -->Big Little George #2.JPG{!-- ia0 -->, and I still have quite a lot of the jelly roll leftover. I regret not purchasing one of her Christmas fabrics jelly rolls.

Margo wrote:
Very creative Margo!

PosyP wrote:
Well, gee wiz, it would help if I had spelled it right in the first place! But, then I would not have gotten the laugh - BIG laugh that you just gave me! Now, I will go back and edit the misspelling, and others will wonder what the heck you are talking about!
You are too funny, Rosemary!

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

Thanks to all for your great advice and ideas! And...Rosemary for the laughs you always seem to be able to provide! I love everybody's ideas! They'll keep me going for a while, but if something pops into your head (like things seem to do for Rosemary - I love your brain!), keep them coming!
Terrie
ya, I wondered about the Vikings too...

I was just telling DH about it and his eyes opened wide and he said that 'Servicing the Vikings' could be the same thing!

Rosemary, it is such fun to follow your mind's wanderings!

Scoopie wrote: I really must be more careful when I read things, I thought that you were writing 'Survived the Vikings'! :shock: and my brain was going WHAAAT I thought that the Vikings were from 1000 years ago and had stopped those sort of activities of plunder etc. Then I wondered whether it was a local chapter of the SCA, next I wondered if Brink had turned up for a shopping spree Finally I spotted the 'c' Viking sewing machine maintenance - Duh

Each year, in May, we take 4 fat quarter and place them in a small paper bag, and exchange them with our sister guild. We then make "something" from those fat quaters, and present them to the fat quarter owners at our Christmas party. Other fabrics can be added. We got quilts (duh!), place mats, tablerunners, wall hangings and such.

A round robin quilt is also fun.

Each month, at our guild, we "highlight" three members. They bring in 2 or 3 pieces of work that they have done, and do a write up on themselves. It's fun to "get to know" the other members, by visiting the table where these are all layed out. (While sipping our coffee and munching on our cookies.)

Check with the local LQSs and see if someone there can come to the meeting and speak on things such as the different battings, threads, the newest notions, etc, and see if they can bring a donated door prize or two, or give a discount to their store for the attendees.

Once we brought in the lady who serviced the Vikings at the local quilt store, and she gave us pointers on how to do owners maintainance on our machines, with dos and don'ts. The best part was, she brought in this huge ball of "fuzz" that she had removed from one lady's machine. I mean it was 2' in diameter! The woman had used canned air for years, and all the fuzz had been forced down and collected in the machine. (That was a don't!)

Dawn
In beautiful Northwest Montana

cjbeg wrote:

Good point, Cheryl!

I wanted to try the 1600 type quilt, but didn't want to purchase a jelly roll, so I just cut strips from my stash. It worked fine, but I was just not happy with the plain strips sewn together. I cut the resulting panel into LARGE squares and made them into HSTs and created this quilt! It might be a fun activity/challenge for a guild to see what they can make out of the pieced 1600 top!

Lorchen, you could always make strips from your stash. Make it scrappy.