How to Find Quilt Guilds

Quilting is a lot of fun, let's face it. We all love to quilt, but it can be a pretty lonely sport. And sometimes it would be nice to meet other quilters or to get new inspiration for our quilts if we've gotten a little stagnant. And where do you go to find that? Well, one of the best places is at a quilt guild. Quilt guilds are a lot of fun. They're all about meeting other people with your same interest. They're usually very friendly. Quilters are very sharing. Most quilt guilds, for instance my quilt guild, which is the Quaking Aspen Quilt Guild up in Boulder, Colorado. Not only do we have a speaker every month, we have a block of the month challenge. We also have different types of quilt challenges where you may have several months to work on the quilt. You may do a round robin quilt where you start with one section and then you turn it over to other people and they build on the quilt and add borders and blocks and more to it so that what you get back is a total surprise. Our group also has individual groups that meet in homes throughout the month where you can learn or work on different techniques, such as applique, paper piecing, whatever your interest is. We even have one block or one group that's strictly for finishing blocks. It's called the UFO group. And their goal is to finish projects that they've already started. Occasionally we'll bring in a national speaker who will give a presentation and a workshop that we can attend. We put on a quilt show and of course the best part of every quilt guild meeting is show and tell where we see what other members have been working on and get inspired. It's very nice because throughout the group we have approximately 200 in our guild, and the range of interest is staggering from traditional quilts to handpiece quilts, to applique, to paper piece, to modern quilting, to art quilts, it's all there. And you can find other like-minded spirits or you can definitely work out of your box and try something new. So quilt guilds are fun and of course there's always the food. You always have to have the refreshments or the potlucks or whatever. So it's a nice, nice combination. So where do you find a quilt guild? Where do you go to become part of this wonderful adventure? The first place today that you can look is on the internet. The internet is a wealth of information and you can just type in Google, quilt guilds. You can then put in your city and state behind it and you will find out what's nearby. Another option is to Google or call up your state quilt guild or state quilting association. In Colorado, it's the Colorado Quilt Council CQC, but in other states for instance, in Arizona, it's the Arizona Quilters Guild. So you can go to that statewide organization and they would have a record of every guild within the state and can give you information there. The other place of course is to ask other quilting friends but if that's not an option, maybe you're a new quilter and haven't really found friends who are quilters yet, is to check at the local quilt shop. They definitely know what guilds are available and when they meet and can give you a lot of information. So don't miss out on the fun. Find herself a quilt guild and jump in and have fun.