The Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild

"I love the idea of a Modern Quilt Guild and would definitely join one if it existed in Vancouver, BC, Canada!"

When I wrote this comment on Alissa Carlton's blog in November, 2009, I had no idea that I would be the one organizing the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild! When Alissa, co-founder of The Modern Quilt Guild, wrote a post entitled "How to start a guild branch in your area" in January 2010, she encouraged me to start an online group to see if there was enough interest. Sure enough, there was (as of today, we have 95 members in the online group!), and five months later, we had our first meeting.

The Group!

Photo by Sonja Callaghan

We had 45 enthusiastic quilters at the meeting! 45! In the planning stages, I had told Lili and Henry, owners of Spool of Thread Sewing Lounge and hosts of our first meeting, that we would likely have 10-20 people at the meeting. Boy, was I wrong! We quickly used up all of Spool of Thread's chairs and the kind restauranteur next door loaned us a dozen. We still had people sitting on the floor!

The atmosphere was welcoming and inspiring and people seemed to be bubbling over with excitement to meet other young quilters. Some had never made a quilt but wanted to learn, others had been quilting for several years, and a few people had 25 years experience. A quick survey determined that 100% of the attendees would rather buy fabric than watch a World Cup soccer game. We had found our people!

A happy Holly sharing Gabriel's baby quilt, photo by Sonja Callaghan

 After our intros and a discussion on the definition of modern quilting, we shared our quilts. We had an amazing show and tell session and got to hear the story behind dozens of modern quilts. Tons more photos are posted in our Flickr group.

 photos by Sonja Callaghan

I want to thank everyone who made this event a success; Lili and Henry from Spool of Thread for hosting us (and moving their industrial sized cutting table so we'd have more room!), Sonja for taking 150 amazing photos to document the evening, Arita for taking minutes, Paul and Lawanda for bringing refreshments, Krista, Louise and Lili for donating door prizes, and my husband, Dean, for talking modern quilting with me on many morning runs! Thanks as well to those who talked up the meeting on their blogs. And, of course, thanks to Alissa Carlton for giving me the kick in the butt to get this guild started!

The next meeting is 7pm, Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at Spool of Thread. I've gotta go find some chairs!