My Quilty Friends

I belong to two quilt guilds. One is local and one is online. Each offers something different. The online guild, at quiltingboard.com, is slightly addictive. There are members from all over the world who mainly gather to talk about quilting and share their projects. If you are there checking posts everyday, you get to know these other quilters. I've never been on an online anything, so what I describe may sound familiar to you.

I love it because at any time you can ask a question, ask for help on a project, or just share something going on in your life. Then you can also answer questions or comment or help someone else.

There are also areas for selling quilty stuff, sharing topics other than quilting. There are loads of tutorials written by members which are amazing!

I have learned so much from them, for example: I learned a super way to do bindings that make them look like what you see in a quilt show. I learned to starch my fabric, use templates in quilting, etc. One woman has her own way of making familiar blocks called the cutaway method--it's fantastic, it taught me a whole new easy way to make HST (half square triangles).

These quilters, I call them my quilty friends, are supportive too. When my second daughter went into labor with her very first baby, she called me at 4 a.m. to give me the news. I was thrilled, but there was also no way I was going to go back to sleep! I sat down at my computer and posted that my daughter was in labor. As I sat there, replies starting coming in from all over the world. Other quilters congratulating me, reminiscing about their grandchildren, and just saying hi. It was a warm way to spend the four hours until I had to go to work.

Right now I'm involved in a couple of projects on the board and that's what I'm working on during the vacation. On Friday I'll tell you about a major project we're doing, my quilty friends and I.