At your next quilting gathering, try incorporating a few games to liven up the evening. Quilting meetings will seem more like a party with a little fun added in. People of any age enjoy quilting games. So if some of your guests bring their children, they'll be able to join in the excitement. Try these games at your next meeting.

In one game, people race to see who can thread the most needles the fastest. Contestants are given a spool of thread and a cushion filled with needles. The one with the most needles strung on her spool by the end of the allotted time wins.

For something to get the blood moving and to get people on their feet for a moment, try a thimble relay race. Set up teams and a course through the middle of the room. Team members race to the other side carrying a thimble on a spoon. Dropping the thimble means going back to start that leg over. At the other side, the spoon is transferred to the next team member and carried back. The first team to complete the race wins.

Have races to see who is the fastest at cutting strips for making rail fences. Improperly cut strips are disqualified. Or see which team is fastest at making foundation blocks. Or have finished blocks and see which team is fastest at assembling these blocks into a top that's three rows across by four rows down.

Give each quilting member a safety pin to wear on her shirt when entering the meeting. Once the meeting starts, select a forbidden word. Use something hard to avoid saying, such as "quilt." Then whenever someone catches someone else using that word, they get to take their pin (or take a pin). The person with the most pins at the end of the evening wins.

Play a round of verbally filling a quilter's basket. Divide into teams. The team that lasts the longest wins. To play, a team member names an item commonly found in a sewing basket. The next person on the team must say that item and add an item to it. The third person must say the previous two items, before adding to the list, and so on. Whenever a player forgets an item, she is out of the game and the team is down a player. The last team going wins.

Give each contestant a sheet of paper. Have each write down as many quilting patterns as she can remember. The one with the most wins.

Hand out a scavenger hunt list to the members. The list should be of items a quilter would use. The person able to pull out the most items on the list from her purse, quilting bag or other personal item wins. This is more challenging if there is no actual quilting to be done during the meeting.

Provide each team a piece of poster board, a magazine or two, markers, scissors and glue sticks. The teams compete to create a magazine quilt. Perhaps announce a theme or let contestants simply design their own. Judging for the finished "quilts" can be for originality, best in show, best interpretation of theme and judge's choice.