DonnaFreak

Howdy y'all,

Almost a year ago, a lady at work started a quilting group. She is one of my favorite people at work, so I joined it just to support her. But I was honest.....I told everyone on our first night that the closest I came to sewing was a cross stitch. I get cross every time I look a needle in the eye! LOL! So here I am, almost a year later with several quilts, a dress for my grandaughter, a few pincushions, and a mug bucket under my belt, and still itching to learn more and become better at quilting!

There are all sorts of changes and splits going on at work, and as a result, there are some lay-offs taking place. Yesterday afternoon the lady who started our quilting group was informed that next Friday was going to be her last day. Other than her, there were only 4 of us who were still coming faithfully to the group, and 2 of them were friends of her from outside of work. So it looks like our little group is going to now fall apart! :'c(

So what do I do now? I'm on a low income, and can't afford to go to the classes held at the LQS's in the area. I want to keep learning and have no way to do it now. And I have SOOOOOO much fabric, even though my stash is evidently tiny compared to most of you. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do now? I'm really upset about this! *sob*

DebraK

You'd be surprised what you can learn on your own with the Internet. This group alone has many wonderful tutorials.

amma

Many of us have learned to quilt via the internet :D
Here, youtube, other sites.
Books are great too! If you have questions, you can always post them here :D:D:D

bearisgray

So - why can't you continue to meet?

Is "work/job" and "quilting group" intertwined somehow?

neeng

Just because you may no longer work together doesn't necessarily mean you can no longer quilt together, does it? If the group was meeting at the work place, you may need to rearrange where/when, but if you are friends and want to keep the arrangement it should still work out.

I don't go to any classes etc either... but I find the board extremely helpful! And you may find that the ladies at your LQS can help with specific questions without the need to sign up for classes....

sueisallaboutquilts

I'm a little confused here. How do you know she's dropping out??
Help me here :)

sweetpea

look for book and work on your our. It look like you have the basic down so take to leap and work on you own. You can also check at the quilt story ans ask if they knew of any chuch groups or other groups that you can check into.

Butterflyblue

Oh, how sad that you'll lose your group. I love sewing with other people. But don't give up on quilting. And are you sure you won't be able to get together with this group anymore? You did say some of the members are her friends from outside of work anyway. If it is inevitable that the group breaks up, don't give up hope.

First, there are all kinds of books that can help you keep learning, and of course the internet. The library is my best friend, and being on a fixed income, it would probably be a good place for you to start looking for quilting books. Also sometimes I find good books secondhand.

Second, if your group is breaking up, start asking around at the local quilt stores if there are any other groups or guilds in your area. If there are, the quilt stores will probably know about them. Sometimes churches also have quilting groups to quilt for charity.

RenaB

Yes, google, google, google!! I learned so much. Also, just get a buddy and bounce ideas off of them. Me and my friend get together once and week and we learn so much from each other. I am a beginner and she is intermediate. I have fresh thoughts because I have never done it before and give suggestions, and she goes off them with her knowledge and molds it into a great idea!

Head up, I just joined a guild and look very much forward to it but I would not trade my one on one friend in a heartbeat. :)

Linda1

I had always sewed clothing until I discovered quilting. I taught myself by reading a lot of quilt books. I have never belonged to any quilting groups until I found this site on the internet. You can learn anything on this site. There are a lot of wonderful quilters here.