This topic has been so fun to read! I will be 38 in about 3 weeks and I have been quilting for about 5 or 6 years so that made me 32ish when I started? I have a 2nd and 3rd grader.
I too have felt very young going to Expos with my quilt guild and such, but then I realize that I am not past the life-stage of having young children and when that passes (all too quickly), I will be one of those "little old ladies" at the Expos and Shows and stuff!
I cna't remember who made the comment about age not making a difference between quilters, we just all enjoy each other....but I just returned from my quilting retreat (I go every 6 mths with the same group of people) and out of the 50 women there, I am the 4th or 5th youngest. There are 2 sisters who are in their late 20s and then a younger women who is probably 24 who has been going with her mom to the retreats since she was 16! There was one scrapbooker there who is in her low 30s.
Obviously, that leaves the rest of the group in their 40s - 80s! The room where we sew is HUGE and the sewing areas are broken up into groups that sew together and bunk together - my group of 5 consists of myself at 38 and the oldest lady is in her mid-70s, which each decade represented and we have the best time. The oldest gal at the retreat is in her 80s! We all get along WONDERFULLY and for those 5 days, we are the best of friends! These ladies have gotten together twice a year for 12 years and they have shared breast cancer, deaths, births, graduations, weddings, divorces, and most of all LAUGHTER through those years...I was blessed enough 6 retreats ago to have joined their ranks and am SO thankful to be apart of this group!!
:D