Having lived in large and small cities, the one thing I've noticed is that sometimes smaller, less populated areas can have large turnouts for their activities because that's what there is to do this week. In larger cities, there are so many things to choose from that often it's hard to get people to one activity month after month. If you have even a couple quilting/sewing/needlework friends, see if they would like to get together once a month and sew and go from there.