My first Guild Meeting

Tonight I took that next step in my skill building. That was to get over the fear of joining/going to a quilting guild meeting.  I and in Salt Lake City, UT and the Salt Lake Modern Quilt Guild meeting according to my GPS was only 8 minutes from my house.  The GPS lied, it only took me about 5 minutes to get there (I have a lead foot).  When I got there the front door to the building they meet in was locked (its a condo) and the lady behind the glass did not look so eager to let a guy in.  I think the look on her face when I told her I was there for the meeting was priceless.

The meeting went well they had a show and tell section (No I did not bring any thing, I hate to look stupid and did not know what they would think of me). Next meeting I will bring something, maybe one of my Batik quilts I am making.  I did get a toy though from the meeting.

As it seems the quilt guild this last month has been doing a Dresden Quilt blog hop.  I have avoided it like the plague in the past. Dresden's seem to imply, not straight line quilting and I have been afraid of that.  I am going to have to suck up and try it because I can't show these girls how soft I am.  So my goal is to think up and then do a project using this ruler (or the much bigger one I bought months ago when I was living dangerous). Please tell me how easy they are or suggest a great beginner project with them.

What fun would be a guild meeting with out getting home work.  I tend to be shy in groups (you might wonder how that could be when I keep spilling my life out here), but I am.  It took me some working up the nerve to ask what the huge pile of material in the basket was.  It turns out that they are doing a charity quilt and as it seems I can help.  I asked what to do and they said grab a hand full and make some string blocks using a tutorial (that I could not find, sigh go figure) any way here is my home work in the not complete stage.

The block looks easy enough, but before I start I need to figure out what size I am making.  Once I get that figured out, expect to see something made out of this tangle of material.

To finish up my night I did get all of the rows sewn together for the blue and yellow batik top.  I have all of the sashing rows sewn together.  I figured its 11 pm and 6am (work) comes too early so I did not get the top sewn together, but I would guess I should be able to get it done some time this weekend.  I have I think enough sashings cut out for the border around the out side.  It should be easy to get this done soon or at least to the basting stage.  Tanya has been pestering me to get my Soldier Star quilt done, so may not touch this Friday and work on that as I need her help basting it (all I need to do is figure out the back I think I need to cut and sew it together to make it wide enough.