VMQG Modern Quilt Showcase - the inside story

Amazing.
Remarkable.
Stunning.
Well-hung (teehee, best quilt show compliment ever).
Totally modern.
Incredible.
Beautiful.

These are just some of the wonderful compliments we received at our recent quilt show. Not only was it the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild's first show, it was also the first quilt show in the Lower Mainland (Vancouver area) totally devoted to modern quilts. We all feel very proud.  I've been involved as a volunteer for several traditional shows, but this was my first attempt at leading a show committee into unknown territory! The fact that this show came together in 5 months is nothing short of remarkable and a testament to our determined show committee and trusting guild members. Many lessons were learned and we are already excited about implementing ideas and suggestions to make our next show even better! Plus, we have 2 years to prepare for the next one. Phew!

Ellen, by Matthew Wheeler

Much of the KAPOW element of the visual impact of our show had to do with the incredible venue we secured: the historic Pipe Shop Building at the former North Vancouver Shipyards. That's partly why the show happened so quickly, the venue was only available one weekend in 2016 and at the time of booking, the fate of the building was unknown so the management could not allow bookings beyond 2016. The show committee felt it was too perfect to miss out, so we went for it!!  The industrial beams, heritage wooden posts and concrete floor were the perfect backdrop for our modern quilts to shine (in natural light!).

Top L-R: Mix Tape by Lysa Mair, MonoGlamatic Clams by Dianne Semark, Round and Round We Go by Terry Aske

Bottom L-R: Noon Window by Gigi Hamer, Spider's Web by Shannon MacLachlan

You can see that we chose a minimalist hanging layout using post and pipe (but no drape) in the centre of the space and tensioned wires with silver binder clips between the wooden posts.  We kept costs down by buying wire and hardware in bulk and having my husband and brother make the wire sections based on measurements we took in advance of the show. The majority of quilt backs were visible, much to the delight of visitors to the show. Having the quilts free in space with air and light all around them was gorgeous. Janet Archibald and Terry Aske did an incredible job planning the layout over many, many hours. They used colour photographs of all of the quilts to determine which ones would look best adjacent to each other considering size, colour and subject matter. This is a massive job that included mapping out the aisles and wires in the space for best traffic flow, labelling all of the quilts and creating a detailed map so that volunteers could hang the show.

L-R beginning with Holly Broadland's Rainbow Girl circle on white, Berene Campbell's Rainbow Mashup and  Delhi Dreams by Megan Hanna. 

On the far right is a bit of Andrea Bamberg's Rainbow Coin

Our entire show was something unique in the local quilt show scene, but I think something extra special was our Modern Mini Showcase Wall. The venue happened to have a free-standing white wall at one end that was the perfect surface to display a collection of mini quilts our members made for inclusion in a traditional show in the fall of 2015. Our idea was to create a gallery display for educational purposes - we'd asked members to make minis (less than 80" perimeter) using only solid fabrics, that demonstrated one or more of the MQG design aesthetics of modern quilting (for example: improvisational piecing, alternate grid construction, use of negative space). This vision was realised by the talented Dianne Semark, a guild member who is also a professional graphic designer. It was a revelation for many of our visitors!

Here I am hamming it up with someone you've read about from time to time here, my fabulous SIL, by my Quarter Round quilt.

In front of this wall, we set up two long tables covered in solid fabric scraps, card stock and glue sticks. We invited visitors to create their own modern mini "quilts" using those on the wall for inspiration. Volunteers helped out and this activity was an overwhelming success with children and adults alike. One unanticipated outcome was that several people left their creations behind - we taped them up to the beams and they became integral to the display over the weekend. Result!

Doesn't it look amazing? 

Here she is again, having fun with a friend at the activity table!

I'll just share a few more shots with you. If you're interested in seeing photos of all of the 138 quilts on display, check out the amazing photos by Sonja Callaghan in this flickr group

I'm rather partial to this little threesome. From L-R:  Selfie by Felicity Ronaghan, my Round Peg, Square Hole  and Fire and Water by Susan Chaffe (one of my favourite quilts made in the very first Temperature Check workshop I taught).

Here's a shot of one of the three fabulous Viewer's Choice ribbons made by guild member Berene Campbell, pinned on a winning quilt made by Paul Krampitz called 1001 Knights

That's my Light Of May quilt just in front of the 3 people and to the left of it is Janet Archibald's Shadow Box 

Not including all of the children under 12 who entered the show for free, we had 754 visitors. If we include all of the guild member volunteers and kids, there were definitely over 800 people who came over two days. We're thrilled, considering it is our first show and it took place on an August weekend. Our venue is not in the city, but it is located adjacent to a very convenient Seabus that travels between downtown Vancouver and North Vancouver every 15 minutes. Many of our visitors actually made the effort to take public transit and travelled on the boat for the very first time. So cool.

There's so much more I could share, but I think I'll stop here. My life has been pretty saturated with quilt show stuff for the past few months (including the 33 hours I spent at the venue over the show weekend along with Terry, Janet and Felicity). It is time for me to move on and get back to sewing.

ETA: I've been asked about the quilts that appeared in the show and how we 'chose' them. Well, none of us on the committee were interested in jurying the work of our fellow members, nor was our show judged. We discussed the space and estimated how many quilts we could hang compared to the number of members we have (about 120). We decided to guarantee every member that their 1st choice quilt would have a place in our show and encouraged them to enter a quilt that they felt would best exemplify the modern aesthetic and help us introduce modern quilting to the community at large. In the end, we had enough space to hang all entrant's 1st and 2nd choice quilts! There wasn't enough room for all 3rd choice ones, so we stopped there. Quilts on the modern mini wall were "free" and not included in the choices for general display. The bottom line: we trusted our membership and our collective desire to put on a truly modern quilt show. Nailed it!

I hope you enjoyed this glimpse of our show and some of the behind the scenes planning details!

#May is for Makers

Here's something cool. Lindsey over at LR Stitched has launched a wonderful initiative for May. She's written a great little post (and designed this awesome button) that explains her thinking and her hope for the month right here.  Have a read.

We've all shared patterns with friends. We've all balked at prices. We've all asked "where can I get that for free". In reality, most sewing and quilting patterns are around $10. In Canada, we pay up to $20 for quilting magazines - I have stacks of them, yet I can count on one hand the number of projects I've actually made from a magazine. They are great inspiration, but it is the individual patterns in my collection that I return to over and over, either to make or to dream of making. Patterns like Anna's 2-4-1 Tote (in fact, any of Anna's bag patterns!), or the Liesl's Weekend Getaway Blouse or Kirsty's The Plus Side Quilt

    

Guess what?  I've even bought patterns from blogging friends and others I don't really know, just to say "thank you" and acknowledge the inspiration and great content they provide for free in between their pattern releases.  I know, my halo shines.  My "pattern downloads" folder on the laptop overflows. Doesn't mean I will ever getting around to making every pattern I've purchased, but it's easy to drop $10 to show someone the love. Around these parts, that's a lot less than a meter of fabric or a couple of lattes!  I'm acutely aware of the time and energy it takes to come up with an idea, sketch it, test it, write it up, make it, edit it, produce it and finally, get it ready to market and sell. I cringe every time I see someone comment on a blog "will you create a tutorial for this? I'd love to make one!" Yes, but how much would you love to make one? Would you reward the designer for two, three or four days' work by spending $5 on a pattern? Would you? I hope so.

Here's another great post by Mandy with some food for thought on supporting indie.

I'm ahead of the game. I've already bought my first indy pattern for the month. It's one that EVERYONE but me has made already and it's high time I put my extensive zipper stash to use. Can you guess which pattern it is? Tune in Monday for the first day of #MayisforMakers!

Support creative people. 

The end.

Textillia - a Hang Out for Sewists!

Have you sewists always wondered what the knitting site Ravelry is all about and why knitters congregate there? It is a community - a place to share, catalogue and keep track of your work, see what other makers are making, where people are buying their patterns, reviews and hacks to patterns, what's happening on the design scene, ask questions and get advice/feedback, post photos and links....etc, etc.

Now there's a new hang-out with a similar feel, designed specifically for sewists. Textillia launched in the beta phase last week and the Vancouver-based developers invite YOU to login, sign up, create profiles and populate the site in order to fine-tune the specific needs of the sewing community.  They've created a comprehensive site, but are seeking quilters specifically because they want feedback, suggestions and bug-alerts so that they can perfect the site to best suit the users needs.

Participation is free during the beta phase, and the first month will always be free for new members. After that, a small monthly fee will apply.  Read this post for new member info and follow along on Instagram (Textillia) for updates and announcements.

I've got a designer page up now and I plan to build on it as an online catalogue of my work and patterns.  I found the site very easy to navigate, plus it was very easy to upload photos and information.

I think as the community grows, this could be a really powerful online resource for garment sewists, quilters and crafters, plus shops, designers and fabric companies. I can't help but feel like much of the work I put into this blog is going unnoticed and unread these days. Perhaps we'll move to a central location like Textillia for sharing our projects and conversation, instead of a multitude of individual blogs?  I know I'm hardly reading blogs anymore and readership here has fallen way off, not to mention comments which are few and far between unless there's a chance to win something.  I miss the conversation & interaction that I used to have with blog readers.  All of that action seems to be on IG these days. 

Have a look around Textillia and let me know what you think. Get started here!

Craftivism for Calgary

When Berene envisioned To Boston with Love, she and I learned a new term: Craftivisim. Making bad situations better by making stuff (that's my own definition). However you want to define it, I'm in.

I think everyone living in Canada and a good portion of you living elsewhere will have heard by now that record-setting rainfalls brought unprecedented flooding to southern Alberta last week.  Alberta is our neighbouring province, and while those prairie cowboys and girls are incredibly resilient, having your entire home filled with water, mud and debris is a shocking loss and overwhelming situation to handle. At least three people lost their lives and countless others their homes and belongings. Smaller communities like High River, parts of Canmore and Exshaw are still no-go disaster zones. For an overview, this collection of 20 photos will give you a clearer picture than anything I could write.

So, Craftivism. How can we as a creative community help? Canadian quilter and author Cheryl Arkison has information on her blog here for those of you that may have a finished quilt that you'd like to donate. Others looking to contribute a quick, easy block: read this post and get slabbing! I'm heading into my sewing room to do just that right now.

Thank you for participating. We all know the comfort quilts bring, and there are many in need of comfort in Southern Alberta

Old Ladies Know Stuff

PSA: this post is wordy and is meant as encouragement. Oh, and the word "Old" is used in the most endearing way possible - to show my admiration and respect for the generous women in my life  who have reached wise status in the years that they have lived before me. And let's face it, for some of you reading this blog, my almost 45 years puts me well into Old Lady range.

I've tweeted the title of this post twice during separate sessions of TalkNT (this is a lively sponsored Twitter discussion hosted by Cara every week - if you don't know what Twitter is, don't worry, you are probably an Old Lady Who Knows More Important, Other Stuff).  It came up both times in response to people expressing disappointment that there wasn't a modern guild, or other quilters of similar age close by, for real-life quilting experiences.  I understand when young quilters are put off by cranky old ladies at guild meetings. I've been there (on the receiving end of cranky old lady). It's not a nice feeling, but trust me when I say that kind, generous women outnumber the crankies 20 to 1 (I took statistics at university. I know stuff).

I love being a member of the VMQG, but I'd like to share some of the reasons why I also adore my traditional guild. Group quilting is not for everyone. I'm not saying you have to go out and join a guild. This post is meant as encouragement for those looking to find some 'real life' quilting homeys.

• Joining an established 'traditional' quilt guild can be intimidating for a quilter of any age. Guilds are predominantly populated by women. Women like to hang out in groups. You first saw this in Gr.2, so it shouldn't be any surprise when you enter a guild meeting and it seems like everyone is talking to someone else and you can't seem to find a friendly face or opportunity to bust in.  ADVICE: smile and wander. Approach the membership table and let someone know you are visiting and interested in joining the guild. Let her know what kind of quilting you like and ask if she knows of anyone else who enjoys that, too. Could she introduce you? If all else fails, take a seat and bust out your hexies. Old Ladies Cannot Resist Hexagons.

• Guilds typically have extensive libraries of resource books for monthly borrowing. You may not find the most recent modern quilt books, but there is plenty of inspiration for current quilting trends in Amish, Gee's Bend, Liberated quilting, block collections and Civil War quilting books (use your imagination to get past all the brown fabric - I'm with you girlfriend).

• Old Ladies Want to Know More Stuff. When I started quilting 10 years ago there were no free tutorials. No blogs. No online courses. Heck, I had just gotten an email account!  Everything I learned about quilting I learned by taking guild workshops from Ladies Who Know Stuff (I didn't say Old because some of them were not Old).  I often see comments about not wanting to quilt by the rules, or the scourge of the 'quilt police' but good technique is not a bad thing. If I've learned anything from the mature quilting crowd it's that you can never take enough workshops. Even if the project doesn't turn my crank, I bring fabric along that does and I always, ALWAYS learn something new.  Plus, guilds are not-for-profit, so their workshops are often more affordable than quilt store or night school classes.

• Old Ladies Know Stuff about Stuff: not just quilting. I have had the enormous good fortune to be in a small Friday stitching group of lovely women (one of many satellite groups from our massive guild over over 160 people). They are all older than me. Our ages range from early 40's to over 70. We share a lot and we support each other. Aside from sewing expertise, they have tremendous parenting experience, knowledge related to health challenges and menopause and STASH to share. Plus, they support me like crazy. They are the first to see many of my projects and provide the encouragement that I know my mom would give me were she not 4000 km away.

• Old Ladies Appreciate your Efforts. If you put yourself out there, participate and volunteer, you will find like-minded people in any guild to hang out with.   I do have a caution though: in my experience, there is a tendency to dump a lot of volunteer work on the 'young, enthusiastic one'. Be realistic about your time so you don't burn out. I have learned that retired women are busy too, not to mention they feel like they've done their service and should be able to sit back and relax!  I am looking forward to retiring.

• Finally, no MQG in your area? You've tried the local guild and just can't make it work? Start your own group! Ask around at your kids' school, organize a creative mom's day and invite people to sew, bead, knit, paint or scrapbook together. I started a Mother's Day Creative retreat with moms from school 5 years ago and people look forward to it like crazy.  Don't have kids? Ask around at work. Ask at fitness class. Take your hexies to the coffee shop and stitch there, or at the local library. Maybe you'll find a kindred creative spirit to get together with once a month.

I get enormous pleasure from participating in my guilds. If you've got advice on making guilds work for you, or starting your own group, please share in the comments.

You know what the great thing is? Young women become old ladies. Old Ladies Who Know Stuff.

I figure I'm half way there.

How to Raise $10,000

Start with a very motivated, well-connected, generous woman who is completely excited about raising money for an incredible cause (an on-board husband helps). Enroll the rest of your team of 14 intrepid walkers. Pick a date. Start asking for donations. Invite creative women from your community to come and sell their wares. Invite every woman you know to attend with their cash, cheque and/or credit card. Obtain a wine sponsor and food sponsors (cupcakes, appies, cheese trays, cookies, sushi). Move all furniture out of your house into your garage. Reinforce your living room floor joists (see on-board husband above). Put up a tent....a big 40' x 40' tent, on the driveway, provided by local realty company.

Fill 100 bags with donated girly goodies like magazines, blow-dries, yoga passes, spa gift cards, pens, recipe cards:

Open the doors at 6:00 p.m. Charge everyone $5 to get in, hand them a goody bag and a door prize ticket.

Have amazing silent and live auction prizes, like champagne balloon rides, hockey & symphony & Stars on Ice tickets, beauty baskets, hotel weekends and dinner for 10 prepared and served by uniformed firefighters (again, see on-board husband above....thanks Steve!) .

Find a couple of adorable tweens to sell the "100% proceeds to the team" goods (including all-natural doggie cookies that said tweens baked all by themselves).

I'm so proud of these 2, they sat for 3 hours smiling and taking money. Plus, they got to see the incredible success of hard-working women firsthand. Great life lesson.

Shut 'er down at 9:30 p.m. and count your money! (I was too busy counting to take photos).

Last Thursday, the thirteen women who have joined my team "Kickin' Cancer with Creativity" worked very hard to support the vision of our teammate Joyce (see first line of this post) and put on this amazing fund raising benefit. Joyce and her husband upended their entire household for a week so that we could host 175 women and raise over $10,000 in the fight against all women's cancers. We live in a very supportive community and are overwhelmed with the success of this event.

Bravo team!!! Now all we have to do is walk 60 km in a weekend! I can't wait.

My heart on a string...the year in review

I began blogging a year ago because I wanted so badly to be a part of the global quilting community. My guild is amazing and my retreat buddies mean the world to me, but I had a sense that exciting things were going on amongst creative women the world over and I wanted IN! No longer content to be the last pick on the baseball team (my hand-eye coordination was, and still is, pathetic), I took a chance and jumped in with both feet.

This is one venture where I think I can speak for all my blogging friends: results do NOT vary. Everyone succeeds and finds their online community, their online voice, their virtual home of creativity, if you will. In addition to blogging, flickr is a wonderful place for community-building through sharing photos and swapping handmade items in groups.

Before long you feel inspired to share your work with appreciative recipients: all of those other amazingly creative people that you 'talk' to every day through comments on their flickr photos or on their blog posts. I have always loved giving handmade gifts and now the fun part is I am receiving them, too!! Admittedly, my large-sized quilt production has taken a nosedive in the last 12 months, but I'm having too much fun to worry about that. Plus, making smaller projects specifically for a person who has shared their likes and dislikes can be a wonderful challenge, like this quilt I made for DQS9.

Monthly swaps with changing themes have also stretched my skills, expanded my colour palette and inspired me to make this,

this,

and this.

I never thought I would make so many original projects, dreamed up right inside my very own head! I was stuck in a 'making it from a pattern' loop but this past 12 months has given me the freedom to create like never before and sometimes I feel full to bursting with ideas. So again, I say thanks to all of you for your encouragement and friendship! (don't forget to enter my blogiversary giveaway here if you haven't already).

Returning to the concept of receiving, and the string reference in this post title, I wanted to show you this happy doll quilt that Carol sent recently. Carol is so generous and supplies all of the angel quilts for the doll quilt swap on flickr....she knows I loved this string quilt, so we arranged a little private swap for one of my selvage coin quilts. Lucky me!!

Thank you Carol, this cheerful number will keep me happy in my sewing room!

So, what's up for the coming months? Despite trying to carve out more time for my own projects, swapping is just too much fun, so I've signed up for another one, arranged a couple more private ones with blog friends, and in January I'll begin my first ever online quilting bee organized by Tracey. I can't wait!

p.s. as an afterthought, I did think of one downside to all this online friendship.....unfortunately I have discovered WAY too many places to shop via keyboard and monitor. While my stash is thriving, I fear my savings account is on life support!!!

Super-Swapelicious-Saturday!

Last weekend I attended my first ever Swap-o-rama-rama. What an incredible day of recycling, re-using, creative ingenuity (I guess that's why people coined the term "upcycling", to cut down on adjectives). Organizer Jillian and her team did an amazing job setting up a fashion factory in the Douglas College main atrium. Aside from the clothing tables where participants first donated, then chose, garments to work with there were many inspiration stations to work at: surface design, serger, sewing machines, hand embroidery (where your's truly parked herself), silk-screening, button-making, fabric painting/stenciling and notion/trim/embellishment.

Before After

The 12 sewing machines were busy all day long.

Some of the amazing creations included a gorgeous messenger bag made out of a leather car coat, a summer dress from a shirt/hat/skirt (really!), a pleated and tucked fitted blouse from a men's dress shirt, some high fashion shorty shorts from wool pants and several tops embellished with frilly collars, organza roses and silk-screened images.

At one point, I had 5 young Katimavik participants all embroidering designs onto t-shirts. Look at Tim, he's 19 and embroidering for the first time (a boy after my own heart, he even picked out his first stitches to re-do them because he wasn't happy with the way they looked!).

I had my Sublime Stitching craft pad of embroidery transfers so I let people chose a design if they wanted to stitch along a line. Other's opted for their own design.

My friend Els scored a brand new t-shirt from the pile and added a pink flamingo embroidery!

I think the most popular station, for young and old alike, was the button-making table. Jillian's Mother-in-Law had sent her a pile of New Yorker mag covers from the 60's. Can you imagine the incredible artwork images that were in that pile? Perfect button-making fodder.

Before

...about 2 minutes later

I brought these ones home for the kids.

What did I find? A beautiful, like new, size 0 (just how can they call '0' a 'size' anyway?) brown stretch-corduroy jean jacket for D which I am embellishing with embroidery. It's not done yet, but when it is I'll show you the results.

Are you inspired to recreate a tired old jacket? Looking to put some life into your faded jeans? Then...

mannequin created by Susi Bainard

75th Blogpost give away update

I still don't know how to see who has subscribed to my blog with Google Reader, and I really wanted to have a special give away for all the folks who come to visit regularly, so I will just have to rely on you to leave a comment and let me know if you subscribe or follow along. What's a world without trust, right? Hang in there, I do have a plan, but I just need until next week to make something - I feel like I'm in the middle of a local tornado at the moment....spin, spin, spin!

One home, 5 communities: a quilter's story

WARNING: Long Post Ahead. Refresh your tea/coffee/wine.

Recent reading has left me feeling the need to share some thoughts on community...and in particular the creative communities I have become a part of since I fell in love with (ahem, became obsessed with) quilting. First, Jacquie blogged at Tallgrass Prairie Studio about her four neighbourhood quilts that she made in response to visiting a gated community, then Sew Mama Sew blogged a list of 10 things that have positively influenced home-sewing in the past decade. Both of those posts got me thinking. So naturally, I need to write some stuff down. Perhaps by sharing my thoughts & experiences, I can generate more discussion on creative community and encourage others to become a part of something a little bigger than their own sewing room if they are not already. Please leave a comment, share your thoughts, tell me what you love about your creative community!

I started quilting because I couldn't do woodwork at home. Really. After my son T was born 13 years ago I felt very isolated at home since none of our friends had babies yet. To bust up the full-on mothering schedule, I decided to take a night class at the local high school wood shop. I loved it! The 'class' really consisted of a retired shop teacher who seemed to be there only to ensure no one lost a limb on the table saw. Left to my own devices, I managed to design and build this pine bookcase:

In the second class, out of maple, I made this Dutch tabletop shuffleboard game popular in Holland. The game is called Sjoelbak (we pronounce it shule-buck). It gets a major workout over the holidays when there is lots of company over for after-dinner tournaments.

Thoughts of becoming a cabinet-maker's apprentice briefly occupied my mind. Lack of a basement or garage space for tools lead me to consider my collection of unused fabric, instead. I had been buying it for years, not really knowing why. My mom had taken up quilting after I left for university and there was a shop close to my new house in North Vancouver that looked very inviting. So, I checked out their newsletter and signed up for a beginner class. After that first course, I was hooked (sound familiar?). I had found Creative Community #1: local quilt shop, or LQS. There I made friends with the staff and other women in the numerous classes I took. I visited when I needed help or advice. As I was reminded the other day, you just can't find that kind of community at a discount fabric warehouse!

Eventually my first quilting teacher, a longarm quilter named Jackee, invited me to be a part of a small stitch group. There were five of us. We met monthly for a day-long home stitch-in that included lunch by the hostess. Creative Community #2! I know of small stitch groups that have been together for more than 10 years. Some do challenges together, some create blocks for everyone's birthday each year, some go away for a long weekend retreat every spring or make charity quilts. I am no longer a part of that first group, but now I stitch with a group on fairly regular Friday mornings. We went without a name for a long time, but have settled on The Gathered Threads. I've posted about us here and here. Small groups can be a wonderful source of community (and quilting magazines!). We have lively discussions, are compassionate friends, and share food, creative advice and fabric regularly. Our age range is about 30 years and it suits our group just fine. In fact, it's something I really love about us. That, and the fact that we are a no-pressure gang. Sometimes we go out for lunch after stitching for a couple hours, other times we head out for errands on our own. Occassionally we share a meal to celebrate a holiday or birthdays. Perfect!

After joining that first stitch group, I got up the nerve to attend a meeting of my local quilt guild. I had resisted for quite a while, thinking I wasn't really a quilter. That my work wasn't good enough. That everyone would have gray hair and think I was a no-talent young whippersnapper. Well, self-confidence issues aside, I was wrong on all accounts. I am now Vice President of that guild (and have a few gray hairs myself!). Eureka, Creative Community #3. By this time, I had left my career, was now a part-time employee at my LQS and getting to know a lot more women through guild workshops and committees. I discovered that I really loved hanging out with wise, relatively older women who had wonderful life/parenting/quilting experiences to share. Plus, my own mom lives 4000km away, so it was really comforting to have these women in my life. Quilting had taken over all my free time (and some cooking, cleaning & laundry time, too) and I seemed to be on a personal mission to spread the gospel of fabric and thread. I am prone to cheerleading and enthusiatic encouragement (and, truth be told, occassional unsolicited advice) when I believe in something!

The number of young professionals returning to home-sewing was growing and soon more and more peers of mine (we're talkin' late-ish-30's at this point) were shopping at the store. Conversation often turned to the fact that quilting for them was a solitary activity and all of their friends who were clubbing on the weekends thought they were batty for staying home to sew. I saw an opportunity to start a Friday night drop-in club of sorts, for quilters not yet confident enough to join the guild (I'd been there myself!), but who were yearning for community. This was the first time I had taken it upon myself to actually create a community. It felt great to share my passion with others. Once a month about 8 of us would gather in the store classroom, work on our own projects and share some snacks. If people needed help, I was there to provide it. Sometimes I did a demonstration of a new product or technique I had learned. An unexpected result of this group was the number of close friendships that formed amongst the regular participants, and I can proudly say that almost all of the approximately 20 regulars have now joined the guild.

This brings me to Creative Community #4. Sadly our LQS closed up shop several years ago. We Friday nighters were bummed. Many worked full time, had small children at home or had no other venue to sew in, or friends to sew with. Our gatherings had become a cherished event each month. What to do? On the urging of my friend and regular attendee Marsha, I planned an entire day of quilting in her community's village hall. I was nervous. Would enough people sign up to make it worthwhile? Could I pull off the catering? Could I gather some prizes to make it fun? Yes, yes and yes!! Now known as Quilt By the Bay (or QBTB), I've been holding these 13-hour-long-day retreats about 5 times a year ever since. The hall can fit 25 quilters and the days sell out in a matter of 12 hours by email. Amazing! The wonderful part of creating community is that you can surround yourself with like-minded people who all have fun together! Luckily for me, QBTB has become a successful small business that (a) I LOVE and (b) supports my fabric obsession. We all enjoy each other's company so much that every November we go away for 3 nights/4 days to quilt, quilt, quilt together!

Last, but not least is YOU. Yes, you are Creative Community #5. You already know everything fantastic about blogland and Flickr groups: the sharing, support, free tutorials, beautiful photos, inspiring fabric and designs, swaps and giveaways. For me, being part of a global community has been SEW exciting and invigorating to my creative work. Just yesterday I received the nicest email from Pennsylvania with photos of two beautiful Crop Circle Table Runners made by Kathy. I can't tell you the feeling of joy and validation it gave me to know someone liked a project that I designed enough to make it twice! Very zingy, indeed.

Big breath. That was a long post. Thanks for hanging in there. Each and every one of my creative communities and all of my quilting friends are dear to me. When I left university with a geology degree and headed north to study landslides 20 years ago, I had no idea that one day I'd find quilting. I am so happy to have an early start on this journey that too many people 'save' for retirement. Honestly, I can't imagine my life without stitching and I know you feel the same.

I'd love to hear about your creative community and what it means to you.....