This week’s tip is one that a new quilter or even a seasoned quilter should follow.
If you are not already involved in a quilt group you should be!
Joining quilt groups like guilds or quilting bees can offer so much to the quilter and your quilting experiences. I can not imagine not belonging to one or even several if you have the time.
The group can be small or large in size, but the goal is the same. Along with meeting other quilters in your area, you can be exposed to many learning opportunities (as quilters love to share what they know) and you will get plenty of encouragement for your own work as well.
Larger quilt guilds can offer many lectures and workshops from national and local teachers. They give you plenty of time for show and tell. (Who doesn’t like to brag just a little about their quilts?) Then there is the opportunity for charity work. This is done through large guilds and smaller groups as well. Some of the smaller groups are set up specifically for doing charity work. (It always feels good to give back to the community.)
Where can you find these groups?
Finding these groups is as easy as buying fabric. Just visit your local fabric stores or quilt shops and ask them. Some groups meet right at the store while others may meet at churches or libraries. (Well then ask at your church or library as they may know about a group that meets there.) Park districts or community centers are another place to find these groups.
One other spot (a little less personal) is online groups. While they offer some of the same things as face to face groups do, you just miss the faces. As many people on line prefer to keep their identities private and may use graphic images rather than their own pictures. They may not even use their real names. But none the less these groups are popping up everywhere. Simply type in “quilting forums” or “online quilt groups” or even “online quilting communities” and I am sure you will find plenty! Yahoo or Google groups have hundreds of these types of groups/communities. Online groups do not give you the face to face contact, but you will still get a wealth of knowledge and meet plenty of interesting people from around the world that share your same passions for quilting. (Oh wait, Quilting Weekly and Creative Quilting are two of those groups! What a coincidence. LOL)Ok this is a self promo for my online classroom, and the site that a majority of my members came from.
Both of these sites offer you a place to interact with other quilters, and gain knowledge from their experiences. While Creative quilting offers some free memberships it is primarily a paid membership site now. For the reasonable memberships fee you get so much information and access to many parts of the site that free members do not get. They have forums, and chat rooms, helpful links pages, member interviews, and members galleries to show off your work.
Quilting Weekly however is totally free to join, and you get access to the entire site for free. Which include our tips pages, forums, chat box, galleries, latest news sections, and more. The only thing you ever pay for is the classes you take. You get plenty of help in our forums, and through our weekly tips. (like the one above that I posted here.) Most of the tips eventually get posted here, but if you join our mailing list, you can get them sent to you by e-mail, once a week. Timely, and convenient. (no cost involved I promise and I will always respect your privacy and never misuse your e-mail address. I hate spam as much as you do)
Ok enough promotion have a good quilting week and I hope to see you back here again real soon!
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