I had a long enjoyable talk earlier today with my dear friend Helen and we got onto the subject of quilt guilds. We both belonged to a large quilt guild in Memphis, TN and also a smaller more casual quilting group that met every Monday. Now that I have moved to Columbia, MD and Helen has moved to Wichita, KS, neither of us belong to a quilting group of any kind. Guilds are great of course, but there is often a high degree of organization, volunteer work requested, blocks to make for all sorts of occasions, charity quilts to make, quilt shows to organize....and it seems to me all this gets in the way of the real quilting I do for my own pleasure or my own family members. Not to be selfish, but for many of us there are only so many hours in a day! So we both sighed and wished for another group like our old Memphis one and wondered how we would go about finding it in our respective new cities. If this sounds like whining, so be it!