I just finished reading about the pluses and minuses of joining quilt groups. I just joined one a few months ago, both to learn more about quilting and to have quilting friends. Joining has always been hard for me, I'm a bit of a loner, but I miss having close friends since we moved to the north of Sacramento-to Colfax area, and quilting is my passion... I think this guild is going to be a good fit for me.

BUT I really like the attitude reflected in the QB group and I would love to have a closer contact with some of the members of this group if anyone is willing (is this allowed?). I had a few PMs with an "art" quilter a few hours north and I treasured the "feel" of the few times we interacted (I also do "art" quilts, as well as regular ones).

Are there any of you in this area who would like to make contact? I am interested in all styles of quilting, self taught (so I have great gaps in my quilt-knowledge), liberated by Gees Bend, do "charity" quilts as well as for family, am doing my first quilt we will keep (it looks like its turning out to be a 7x8' wall handing lol), have access to my newphew's "craft/exercise room" for quilting, am lucky enough to have a wonderful husband.

Feedback on whether such a gathering (on-line or in person) would work as a spin-off of QB) would be appreciated, as well as local response.

We are having a get together this coming Saturday with some of the QB members in this area I am looking forward to it

we have an entire section dedicated to that http://www.quiltingboard.com/s-16-1.htm

There are lots of QB members in Northern CA....first, put your location in your profile so people can find you by location. You can search members by location, and try sending some of them a Private Message. I'm in Bakersfield, and we have several board members here...it's fun to see each other in person and also on the QB.

A few of us from our area get together once a month! We share techniques, help each other out and EAT!!!! :)

I've tried to reach out and touch some in my area through pm, but so many have "in hiding" or are vague enough about where they are that I'm sure I've missed most of them. As Nan provided, there is a thread about area meetings - fun things going on all the time and all over the place :)

Several of us have done get togethers. Craftybear does a lot of them in Indinana, they do a bunch of them in Texas, I have done 1 in Ga. If you are willing to do the work to get one going, just start a couple of threads in different places. I asked about interest first, then tried to get a general feeling for when the most folks could come. Then I also put a thread in the outside events area.

We got about 15 folks on a 3 day weekend so I thought we did pretty well. I will do one again but it will take me a while to recover from our road trip, we just got back from 2 months traveling.

We did it at a local quilt shop who was very nice about providing space and 4 other quilt shops provided door prizes or little gifts for everyone. They were also very nice about it, I was kind of surprised that they were eager to give stuff to someone who just called up and said I'm doing a get together fro the QB, tho I did also provide them the website if they wanted to check.

Try the Offline Events, Announcements, Discussions section. You get to it from the Home Page. There's lots of things going on - group meetings in different places, retreats, etc. so there may be something happening in your area! Have fun!

Edited to add: Quiltnan already provided a link to that area! Boy, lots of us typing on this one at the same time!!

There have been meetings and gatherings all over :D:D:D

Maybe start out with a meeting? Lunch and a trip to a LQS? See how and where it goes from there? :D

You can put out a feeler and see how many live in your area and who would be willing to meet.

There are also a number of quilting retreats going on too.

Yes, set up meet and greets in your area.

I have now organized 4 meet and greets in Indiana. We had lots of fun. You can all meet at a quilt shop, (we pinned a piece of fabric to our top, with a name tag, with our quilting board member name on it), shop, shop, shop and all meet for lunch at a restaurant and had the private banquet room. Everyone brings show and tell and sometimes we have demonstrations.

They are so much fun to set up and meet other quilters in your area.

If you have any ? just send me a private message.

Karen, Craftybear