Ooh, I gotta go look! I am having major sewing withdrawals right now. My sewing room is half upstairs and half downstairs at this point, and entirely unusable! I will be spending ALL WEEKEND moving furniture!

I think it's great that you have found a group where you feel comfortable and welcome. Don't let age hinder you from joining in their activities. When I retired, I joined a group where I was the youngest member (and I was 58). The oldest member was 90 (She died at 105!) We learned so much from each other.

I have zero reservations about spending time with people older than me, I just hope they have patience to put up with me! I am a pretty new quilter still (only been doing it seriously a couple years now) and I know there are TONS of things I can learn from these ladies. All my friends tell me I'm an old lady at heart anyway. Plus I've already had a hip replacement...so I think I'll fit in just fine, LOL!

Thanks for your thoughts and sharing. I still have not had enough never to go yet.

I do have a local store that has an open sew night and that is a fantastic group.

That's actually a neat side benefit of going to the guild meeting that I hadn't thought of - these ladies can clue me in to all the local classes that I don't know about! They mentioned several classes that I'd never heard of, and that's just what I heard in passing. Such a treasure trove of information.

I joined a guild a couple of years ago. It took a while to get acclimated and know people's names even though we wear name badges but how long can you stare at one's chest?! I'm there now and really look forward to our twice a month meetings. I love the give and take table where I'm able to get magazines to look at and bring back if I don't want them and odds and ends of fabric and notions. I'm gathering scraps for another scrappy quilt so some days I hit the mother lode there. My advice is to anyone visiting a guild give it a chance. It really takes more than one visit. If the cost to join isn't great (my guild is $15) then join and if after a while it's not you're cup of tea then move on.

How often does your guild meet? Do you meet during the summer? In know in some parts of the world it is always summer...I mean like here in Midwest where there is a big difference between winter and summer.......

I would love to be in a guild but tried one locally and was appalled at their behavior. Not too many around here so I will just keep sewing and enjoy my audio books. So happy you found a nice meeting.

When our club has a meeting, it is a meeting; every month. Secretary report, treasurer report, committee reports, etc. So we all sit there in silence. Then there is usually a demo or program. Those are usually very nice, but we all sit there in silence. Then if I really want to talk to someone afterwards, they've already gone home, and the ladies are trying to get the lights turned off so they can lock the door.
I do enjoy this group, when I get a chance to talk to someone, but I enjoy another group I go to that sits and sews from 4:00 till the wee hours if you want. Come and go as you please. If there are meeting things to talk about, it is done at the same time each evening, and all the sewing machines keep humming away. We talk about our quilt show, but not at every meeting. Those ladies have been very welcoming.

I'm so glad you have a great experience with your Guild. They are all so different comprised of different personalities. It takes all kinds to make a Guild work. Some work like Bees and are small and intimate and others are all business and power trips. I belong to a big Guild with plenty of both. If anyone has tried a local Guild and found them lacking, keep looking, there are lots of friendly people to make up for the bad ones.