Are quilter's guilds bees or businesses?
LEBANON, OREGON… At the most recent Santiam Scrappers Quilt Guild meeting, JoAnn Dutton took over as the guild's third president. Evidently JoAnn wants to take her Scrapper friends in new directions. Possibly this direction might be back toward a quilting guild as a quilting bee.
In the guild's June newsletter, Santiam Snippets, JoAnn first thanked members for electing her president. Then she outlined one of her main goals is to change meetings from "… sometimes boring, and not much fun… to try not to bore you, and to liven them up."
Evidently, recent guild leadership was a bit too dictatorial and not as much into listening to members. Since a quilt guild is not into doing a bunch of formal "business" one might think a guild can be run almost informally — more like a quilting bee.
Actually, some guilds don't have bylaws, elected officers, or dues. Some only have a love of making quilts, sharing, and talking among members. Sounds more like what it was when they were "quilting bees".
Guild meetings — monthly, "sit and sew", and even quilt shows – should be fun and friendly quilting bees.
'Course this leads some to ask… What is a bee?
A bee is a gathering of friends. A bee, as used in quilting bee or spelling bee, is an old word to describe a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task or to hold a competition.
The tasks were often major jobs, such as clearing a field of timber, building a cabin, or raising a barn, that would be difficult to carry out alone.
It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Female jobs like corn husking or sewing, could be done as a group to allow socialization during an otherwise tedious chore. Such bees often included refreshments and entertainment provided by the group.
Back in colonial America, "bee" is common in literature describing groups doing other tedious chores such as spinning, quilting, and even corn husking bees.
The earliest known printed example of the term was the use of spinning bee in 1769: "Sometimes the women would have spinning bees. They would put rolls among their neighbors and on a certain day they would all bring in their yarn and at night the boys would come with their fiddles for a dance."
Today's Santiam Scrappers guild meetings sound like bees.
Again from the June Snippets, these are things which happened at the May 2 meeting — Competitions, sharing, learning, doing tedious chores, and more "bee" things.
There was talk about speakers and classes — learning from each other.
Quilt shows — sharing and making a few bucks.
Round Row Show and Tell, Secret Sisters and retreats to Sisters — more sharing in different ways.
Then there is the small "Block of the Month" thing — It's a competition. Sounds as if this is a big part of the bee aspect. From the newsletter… "Thirty-one Simple Four-Patch squares had been completed. The drawing was won by Jane Lehn. The June BOM is a two-block set titled “Purple Mountains Majesty”. Sue reminded everyone to use a SCANT 1/4” seam for this block." 31 blocks from a "bee" with 57 members!
And another Show and Tell — "Twelve members shared items which included a hand-pieced “Block Explosion”, machine and hand appliqué, 3-D, Triangulations, post cards and quilts made for the conversation fabric exchange last year. Definitely a "bee" operation.
What about the guild's non-group Wednesday Gals?
They convene in basements, quilt shops, or homes every Wednesday afternoon to work 3 to 4 hours on community service quilts. Cutting, ironing, sewing, and quilting in mass — are definitely "tedious" chores — updated to the 21st century.
Are Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's), 501(c)(3) applications, board meetings and such like, really needed in a small quilting guild? Shouldn't these guilds be more like bees and not businesses? Shouldn't these guilds be loving quilting and sharing that love with each other informally
Santiam Scrappers Quilting Bee sounds nice.
One last question… What night are the boys coming with their fiddles for a dance?
In the guild's June newsletter, Santiam Snippets, JoAnn first thanked members for electing her president. Then she outlined one of her main goals is to change meetings from "… sometimes boring, and not much fun… to try not to bore you, and to liven them up."
Evidently, recent guild leadership was a bit too dictatorial and not as much into listening to members. Since a quilt guild is not into doing a bunch of formal "business" one might think a guild can be run almost informally — more like a quilting bee.
Actually, some guilds don't have bylaws, elected officers, or dues. Some only have a love of making quilts, sharing, and talking among members. Sounds more like what it was when they were "quilting bees".
Guild meetings — monthly, "sit and sew", and even quilt shows – should be fun and friendly quilting bees.
'Course this leads some to ask… What is a bee?
A bee is a gathering of friends. A bee, as used in quilting bee or spelling bee, is an old word to describe a gathering of friends and neighbors to accomplish a task or to hold a competition.
The tasks were often major jobs, such as clearing a field of timber, building a cabin, or raising a barn, that would be difficult to carry out alone.
It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Female jobs like corn husking or sewing, could be done as a group to allow socialization during an otherwise tedious chore. Such bees often included refreshments and entertainment provided by the group.
Back in colonial America, "bee" is common in literature describing groups doing other tedious chores such as spinning, quilting, and even corn husking bees.
The earliest known printed example of the term was the use of spinning bee in 1769: "Sometimes the women would have spinning bees. They would put rolls among their neighbors and on a certain day they would all bring in their yarn and at night the boys would come with their fiddles for a dance."
Today's Santiam Scrappers guild meetings sound like bees.
Again from the June Snippets, these are things which happened at the May 2 meeting — Competitions, sharing, learning, doing tedious chores, and more "bee" things.
There was talk about speakers and classes — learning from each other.
Quilt shows — sharing and making a few bucks.
Round Row Show and Tell, Secret Sisters and retreats to Sisters — more sharing in different ways.
Then there is the small "Block of the Month" thing — It's a competition. Sounds as if this is a big part of the bee aspect. From the newsletter… "Thirty-one Simple Four-Patch squares had been completed. The drawing was won by Jane Lehn. The June BOM is a two-block set titled “Purple Mountains Majesty”. Sue reminded everyone to use a SCANT 1/4” seam for this block." 31 blocks from a "bee" with 57 members!
And another Show and Tell — "Twelve members shared items which included a hand-pieced “Block Explosion”, machine and hand appliqué, 3-D, Triangulations, post cards and quilts made for the conversation fabric exchange last year. Definitely a "bee" operation.
What about the guild's non-group Wednesday Gals?
They convene in basements, quilt shops, or homes every Wednesday afternoon to work 3 to 4 hours on community service quilts. Cutting, ironing, sewing, and quilting in mass — are definitely "tedious" chores — updated to the 21st century.
Are Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's), 501(c)(3) applications, board meetings and such like, really needed in a small quilting guild? Shouldn't these guilds be more like bees and not businesses? Shouldn't these guilds be loving quilting and sharing that love with each other informally
Santiam Scrappers Quilting Bee sounds nice.
One last question… What night are the boys coming with their fiddles for a dance?
posted by Chris at 10:51 PM
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