I joined 2 guilds and 3 Bees all by myself. One guild has 20 members and all very friendly. The other has 200+ - very cliquey, but that is OK. As a new quilter,I go for the classes and the lectures. The bees I joined are better. All helpful, friendly, and full of laughter. We make charity quilts, help each other with placement, bindings, etc. Maybe size makes the difference? I, too, am not a joiner or volunteer to the cliquey group - never felt comfortable with them. Keep looking - maybe your church has a group, look for a quilts of valor or project Linus group.
I , too, was on a tour where we had to change seats -- we all enjoyed it. Great for us shy ones. Maybe the guilds should take note and also have us change seats like suggested above!
My mom used to tell me about her Senior center group and how hard it was for newcomers as there were so many cliques. When I asked why SHE didn't ask a newcomer to join her group she could never come up with an answer.
It is a sad commentary for all of us.
Last edited by Pete; 04-10-2014 at 08:06 AM.