I have had my longarm just over 2 years now, and I feel that I'm stuck in a rut, not progressing as fast as I would like. When I started quilting, I learned quickly, thanks mostly to the wonderful friends who answered questions and showed me what they did and how they did it. I would like to participate in a longarm group, hopefully where longarmers meet in each other's homes every month or so and exchange ideas. There is one such group in this area, but it is all professional longarmers, and they are not looking for new members. I would like to form a new group, hopefully with both pros and non-pros using various brands of longarms. I'm not sure whether it would make sense to mix longarms, shortarms, stand-up machines, etc. I suspect that there is a lot of cross-over knowledge.
I plan to check with the local guilds to see if there are people who would like to join, and also at the LQS's in the area. I'll post with the longarm groups on yahoo. And of course I've posted here.
Any other suggestions? Anyone interested in joining a group? Has anyone started a similar group? I'd love to find out how you got started, what you do at your meetings, and what you have learned from the experience.