I’m the President of the Music City Modern Quilt guild.  That, I think, is pretty cool.  We’re a fun bunch of ladies who get together once a month and share, show off, learn and have fun together doing what we all love.  So I’m going to answer a few questions you may have…because I’ve been asked them all before.

1.) What is a guild?

I admit, when I first heard guild, I thought of World of Warcraft.  When you’re in a group of players in that game, you’re a part of a guild.  I mean this isn’t entirely NOT that; we’re all quilters, fabric-o-files and sewers of a variety of things and we get together once a month (and sometimes a few extra times!) and we share what we love.  We all have this fun craft in common and it makes it even more fun to get together and talk about it and have fun with others who love the same thing.  Sort of like a book club.  I don’t know why it’s called a guild, but it’s a type of club.

2.) Are you the youngest person there?/ Is everyone a bunch of blue hairs?

So number 1, no I don’t think I’m the youngest person there and number 2 no!  Everyone is not a bunch of blue hairs!  We have a range of quilters from all ages and backgrounds.  New moms, grandmas, empty nesters, no-kids folks, pet parents, you name it.  The only thing we don’t have are men quilters.  And we know they’re out there…maybe they don’t know about us?  I always want to break the image people have of quilters, because while some quilters are sweet little old ladies, a lot of us are not.

3.) When you meet is it like a bee and you all work on the same quilt together hand sewing?

No.  We have two members that do I wouldn’t say exclusively hand sewing and quilting, but probably 80/20 maybe hand vs machine sewing, but I know a lot of us cringe at the thought of hand sewing.  Personally, a lifetime of computer work has left my hands in crummy shape.  Also, as much as we all love each other, all of our tastes and methods are all so different that it would turn out crazy!  First of all, I don’t think it would be possible for several people to machine quilt at once, and we do a lot more than just sewing on stuff together.  However, a lot of us did work on a quilt together last year to go to QuiltCon.  Just from the blocks that you see on there, (besides the fact it was an improv piecing challenge) you can see how different all of our styles are.  I would like all of us to do a quilt “together” but I haven’t put a ton of thought into it.

4.) What do you DO at meetings?

Well, it depends!  Typically we’ll have a quick run down of business, reminders and the like.  Then we’ll have show and tell.  SHOW AND TELL…IS THE BEST!  Our group is SUCH a talented group with so many ranging varieties of tastes, skillsets and everything!  Then, sometimes we’ll have a tutorial about how to do something (this month was quilt as you go) or we’ll have an open sew where you can sew anything to your heart’s delight.  If you ever want to check out our show and tell, follow the hashtag #MusicCityMQG on Instagram!

5.) What kind of quilts do you all make?

We don’t all make quilts, and we make all different kinds quilts!  The quilting world has exploded in the past few years.  You can make everything from traditional stars and really basic shapes or you can make an elephant following a girl that looks like a kaleidoscope, or make your favorite scifi character, or even a bottle of nail polish!  Some of us focus on cute, some of us focus on structured, some of us focus on traditional and some of us focus on modern.  And that’s just patterns!  We haven’t even broken into fabric!!!  The fabric world is a vast one.  Brights, lights, pastels, prints; there are fabrics that look like actual artwork all on it’s own before you even sew it into something, then there is vintage reproduction stuff, I mean anything and everything is out there!

6.) Are there a lot of you?

Our guild has grown from about 5 to over 40 members since 2010.  Our guild isn’t even the largest I’ve seen.  Our guild is a branch of the International Modern Quilt Guild, so if our guild of around 40 isn’t even that large, and there’s multiple guilds across the world (there are 4 different MQG’s in just Tennessee), I’d say yes.  There are a lot of us.

7.) What do you get out of being in a guild?

Wouldn’t you like to know?!  There are tons of benefits; discounts at shops, member exclusive perks like free admission to private events, I personally am a fan of the webinars our guild provides, inspiration, friendship, learning tools, and a community.

I think that covers most of the questions I’ve ever heard.  Do you have any other guild questions?