MarthaVA

I just joined our local guild. It meets at night and I live about 20 miles away which makes it a little hard in winter. I've only been to one meeting, but the women were very friendly. There were door prizes and I won something, and they gave a quilt away to a school to use for fund raising, and we are studying color theory. I had to make a bingo block for the next meeting (Thursday) and I have to make paper pieced block for the color theory project. So far so good....I don't know how many members there are, and there are supposed to be "groups" to work on different things but we (Sewze and I joined together) don't know what group we're in....maybe we'll form our own? LoL
So we'll see as the year goes on whether or not it works out for us.

jacee kay

Linda, I would like to hear more about the brown bag block exchange. Our quild had a row exchange a few years ago but it didn't turn out to well. Some used very poor material in the exchange and didn't take the time to check block size and had all sizes of blocks encluded in the bag. I have never tried it again because I spent alot to get quality material and made sure each block was the correct size and felt bad when I received such poor quality blocks in exchange. I have never made the rows into a quilt. I tried and was very disheartened in what I tried to make.
I was a fairly new quilter and tried hard to do my best for the others in the trade, maybe I expected too much.

moreland

I really like our guild--about 100 members. We are big enough to have some professional programs (3 times a year.) The rest of the programs come from within our group or from friends close enough it doesn't cost a lot to get them here.
All the "professional" programs have workshops connected to them. I've taken many classes and love that aspect of the guild. It has been a wonderful way to get acquainted with women who I would not otherwise know. My very favorite part is our "Show and Tell" time--many members bring in projects they have completed to show the rest of us. We also sponsor a quilt show ever other year. We do an auction and luncheon on the alternate years. We do a raffle quilt every year (BEAUTIFUL QUILTS) which members work on together.
If you are new to a guild, I urge you to get involved in committee work or a special project with others in the guild. That really helps you get acquainted and feel like the guild is really "your" guild.
I love this board too!!

mic-pa

Bellaboo, Everyone in our group makes a block of their choice and size. then they put the block with the instructions how to do it in a bag (we are using the green tote bags you get in the grocery store) At our group meeting we exchange these bags with each other. This will go on for several months until everyone has had a chance to make a block for each person. Since their are 12 of us we will have 12 blocks to make a quilt when we get our bags back. Of coarse we will not know what each other has done until the end. It is a lot of fun and some of the blocks will test our creativity. Hope this is what you wanted to know. Marge PS> forgot to say, you can put fabric with the block, or just the background fabric you want everyone to use or none at all and it would end up as a scrappy quilt.

Eddie

I am not a member of my local county guild because they don't allow men to join (written into their bylaws). :roll:

I am, however, a member of my state quilting guild and it is wonderful! A warm, gracious bunch of people who are so nice to be around. I love it. I'm chairman of one of the committees of the board as well, so they have been very accepting of me. :D

moreland

Well, I would say it is time for them to update their guild bylaws and you can tell them I said so. Ha. Ha. Seriously, we have men in our guild and enjoy their input.

brendadawg

Prism99, so sorry you had a bad experience with the guilds. The exact opposite happened for me. When I was just a beginner (not that I'm terribly advanced now), I joined a guild where I didn't know anyone. They readily accepted me and made me feel so welcome. I've learned lots of new things. This might also give you the opportunity to meet some of the folks in your rural area and maybe you might like them!

NCfleur

I am a new quilter and joined the guild started through my LQS last year. I find it is a very good way to meet other quilters, hear some excellent speakers and have fun! We also make charity quilts and planning our first show this May. I recommend it for everyone of every level.

raptureready

I'm not a person that likes "clubs" although I'm in several BOM's and other things like that, I've never joined a guild because the ones around here just don't seem that interesting. Plus I don't care much for anyone else deciding what I need to do or making up silly challenges. (To all guild members--sorry, it's just a personal opinion) My sisters in Michigan belong to one that gives them some (usually) ugly fat quarter each month and they have to make a "quilt" no larger than 30" sq and no smaller than 20" sq. To me, making something like that just to do it is silly.

Aurora

My guild is through Homemakers. It was small, probably 12 to 15. We usually had about 8 to 12 attend which made a nice group, not to large - plenty of room for cutting - not to noisy - concentration was easy. But once the other counties heard we were doing The Underground Railroad and Lessons from Mama, we had 22 people attend last month. It was noisy and very cramped.

We aren't snobby or selfish at all, we readily welcome new members, we just are not used to ten at once. We had a UFO last week and we were back to ten. We are having another UFO Friday, and our regular session on the 19th. So we will see how many will attend.

We are doing a Stack 'n Wack class on the 25th and have had 23 sign up for a class that was limited to 17. We are talking about trying to schedule another class for the overflow. We just are not set up for this many quilters at once. But I guess that is what we get for having such a great guild.

We are going on a retreat next month which is limited to 9 and I am so looking forward to three solid days of quilting.