The “Block of the Month” programme is an exercise that members of the Pinetree Quilters’ Guild have engaged in, in one form or another since the Guild’s earliest days.

At one time, individual members chose a particular block of their liking and arranged to distribute instructions for the making of that block to interested participants at a regular monthly meeting. At the next monthly meeting, everyone who had made a version of the preceding month’s pattern was then eligible to win all of the completed blocks in a very informal draw. Block patterns were chosen at random, as was the technique embodied in each particular pattern.

Eventually, each of the “Block of the Month” patterns was chosen to coincide with a particular annual theme—hearts, perhaps, or stars—and each month a different member would volunteer to choose and distribute instructions for a block that reflected that theme. Members would collect the series and the quilts or quilt tops that had been completed from that particular series were displayed at the annual final meeting in June or, as individuals were able to get them finished, during the “Show and Tell” segment of the Guild meetings.

At present, the programme committee of the Guild chooses the subject, theme, and patterns for the “Block of the Month” activity. Patterns are distributed monthly to those members who have chosen to participate and who pay a nominal fee for the printing of block patterns.