Fun with Older Strangers

[aprilsails]

I had an interesting day yesterday.  I am a member of the local modern quilt guild and some months ago we planned a meetup with the guild from a neighbouring town. We all drove halfway to a community centre in the middle, did a round of introductions and then started sewing up a storm.

I was by far the youngest person there, and the guild from Montreal was full of very delightful older ladies.  OMG the comments!  Ahhhh!  It was like they had free reign to say whatever they wanted since they most likely will never see me again.  

Things that were said to me:

- As a 60 year old woman violently steals my chair away as we were cleaning up at the end: "Don't carry anything! You only get these 9 months off in your entire life! Don't touch that chair missy!"  5 minutes later I'm lugging my 20 lb machine out to the car and she snagged it again!

- Most awesome ever 75ish lady: "Don't quit your job after the baby comes. In my time we had to and I just went crazy and I made far too many quilts. What a waste of fabric. They were ugly."

- "Don't try and make everything perfect because lord it won't be"

They then spent half an hour trying to determine if it's going to be a boy or a girl.  As this was the perfect place to do a needle test that was also performed.  Results were inconclusive though as like 5 of them kept trying it and getting different answers.  Apparently I'm carrying low so it will be a boy (I am like 80% torso so it's always going to look like i'm carrying low since my legs are quite short for my height.  People never notice this).  I don't have acne so it will be a boy (I don't have acne today!)  The heartbeat is high means it's a girl. When I said it kicks all day they all went into stories of which one of their children were kickers.  OMG.  It just kept going and going and going on.

Anyhow - they were actually super fun and I got a lot of sewing done.  Fun times!

[achi]

That sounds like a hilariously interesting day!

[noodleoo]

Haha, they sound cute! What's a needle test? That sounds scary!

[brandienee]

I love these old ladies. Ha ha.

I work in a yarn store, so I get comments like these all the time. They get so mad at me that we aren't finding out the sex so now they can't knit all he baby things. Lol.

My favorite: "You girls are today are so lucky, in my day we had to wear tents to hide our pregnancies, like it was shameful. But you girls just flaunt those bellies. I am so proud of that... Oh, and you're having a girl, I know these things."

[pooh8402]

Apr 19, 2015 9:51:02 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Haha, they sound cute! What's a needle test? That sounds scary!

You just thread a needle, then hold it above your belly by the string. If it swings back and forth, it is one gender, if it swings in a circle, it is the other gender.

[dearprudence]

Super cute. Little old ladies can be awful or adorable. Glad your group were the adorable kind.

[dojo]

How does one join a quilting guild? Do you need a decent skill set? It sounds amazing! I'm self-taught and frankly, not good. I could use some granny cronies to help me out!

[aprilsails]

Apr 19, 2015 21:19:28 GMT -5 dojo said:

How does one join a quilting guild? Do you need a decent skill set? It sounds amazing! I'm self-taught and frankly, not good. I could use some granny cronies to help me out!

Look online!  There are well-established traditional quilting guilds all over Canada and the US in most large (100,000+) size towns.  In my area there are at least 3 that I could go to within a 45 minute drive.  If you can't find any, ask at your local fabric shop.  I'm certain they might operate a monthly quilt night or bee also.

If you are into modern quilting (which I am), you might be able to find a local modern quilt guild, although these are just beginning to pop up and are generally only found in larger cities.  You can search your area on their website here:


The Modern quilt Guild

You also have the option of doing an online registration if there is no guild in your area.  This will give you access to webinars and tutorials as well as project galleries and other information.

My guild meets monthly in the fall/winter/spring for a three hour meeting.  Members show off their recent projects, discuss different techniques, tools, blogs, books, and new fabric lines, and we also have a lesson of some sort, whether it be about photographing your finished quilts, English paper piecing, machine quilting, etc.  


I've made a lot of new friends in my guild, even though I am the baby at 30.  I also went to Austin, Texas for quiltcon this past year, where I was able to take full day tutorials from Angela Walters (my hero) and Sherri Lynn Woods. It was awesome and such a great time and very inspiring.

Also - skills are not judged or required in guilds.  Generally they are so thrilled to have fresh blood and the grannies are more than happy to share their depth of knowledge.  On quilts and baby-rearing both!