We had our first meeting of the FWC at my LQS this morning. Over 30 people signed up so there are two sessions - one at 10:30 and one at 1:00. My LQS is barely over a year old, is fairly small, and our town has around 10,000 in population. Some people drove over 100 miles to get here.

I'm not sure what to think right now. I took an Intro to Quilting class last year so am familiar - a bit - with sampler style blocks. We were told the rules of the club: Be on time, bring your passport. The passport is stamped each time - we meet once a month.

We are able to purchase 6 fat quarters for $10 and there is a Club Discount for that hour only. Today it was 25% off of notions.

The leader showed us block #41 - a friendship star. She said that seams need to be pressed open and talked about not stretching the fabric in any way. she said that templates should be put on right side of fabric. She talked a bit about the template and showed us some handy notions that she's using as she makes her blocks. These were - a chalk wheel, a purple thing, forked pins, a tiny iron, bobbin tower, 4" serated scissors, and a tool that you can use to check your seam allowance and needle placement.

You don't have to bring in a finished block next month, but we are encouraged to do so. Then ... that was about it. We then could purchase whatever we wanted to and we mostly wanted to get these nifty notions.

I've made a friendship star before and know about the threads on here. I've found the rotary cutting instructions on here. BUT ... I'm not sure I really know any more than I did before the club meeting. I've never used a template and I'm not sure I know how to do that. I'm going to go through and make the blocks that are similar to blocks I've made before.

I did enjoy visiting with people as we waited to check out with our notion stash. Of the 15 people in the 10:30 group I knew about 4 and the rest were new to me. I know I'll enjoy getting to know them and sharing what we've made in each meeting.

So ... I'm a bit disappointed, but willing to wait and see what happens next time. I DON'T want this to simply be a marketing method for the shop. I know that's part of it, but .. want it to be more than that as well.

SInce my only other meeting in a quilt shop was a class I think that's more what I'm expecting. This is a CLUB, not a Class - gotta remember that. Any thoughts?