Spinning and Ruminations About Quilt Guild

I've been thinking about the local quilt guild (the Green Country Quilters Guild) quite a lot, trying to figure out why I haven't really clicked with that group. I joined about four years ago and at one of the first meetings I attended I had a horrible experience.

There were probably 60 ladies at the meeting, one of the first of the year (I think). As a "appreciation" for the people who had volunteered with the group, they had everyone get out of their chairs and stand around the edges of the room. People were to come to the center of the room as they called out certain volunteer positions. They started with "if you've ever been president of this group" and went on down through a whole bunch of positions. At the end, I was one of about six people NOT in the center of the group. You wouldn't believe some of the looks from the people standing in the center, not to mention the looks on the faces of those of us standing on the outside. I don't think I've seen any of those ladies at guild again.

I felt about as low as a worm and very much on the outside of the group. I'd just come from being extremely involved in three quilting groups in southern Utah, including being president and vice-president of two groups, one of which had more than 100 members.

By the time the meeting was over I was about ready to cry. So I went home and thought about it, and I decided that I'd go ahead and volunteer with the group and see if I could get involved. So at the next meeting they asked for someone to help with the roster, and I immediately stepped forward. Someone took my name down and I eagerly awaited an opportunity to get more involved.

No phone call. No email. No acknowledgment that I'd ever volunteered. I ended up volunteering for two other things and got similar results. At that point I was getting pissed--if they WANT volunteers but they won't accept an offer, what was I supposed to do? It finally occurred to me that they didn't know me and probably didn't want to get to know me. I stayed away for a few months, then I decided to go back to a meeting since I love show and tell.

At that meeting they were starting to organize for the semi-annual quilt guild show and I decided to try—one more time—to volunteer. Melody Lahan, a wonderful woman, was the quilt show chairwoman, and welcomed me with open arms. I had a great time being involved with that, although by the time the show came around my husband had put his foot down about me getting involved with another quilt show since it was taking an incredible amount of my time. I suspect that if the kids had been older it wouldn't have been an issue, but he did end up spending a LOT of evenings at home with the kids while I was at quilt guild show meetings. At last I felt like I was kind of a part of the group.

After the quilt show, I ended up getting sick and didn't got to a few of the meetings, then I let my membership lapse. I didn't have a way to finish my quilt tops and I just couldn't bear having someone else quilt them—I got spoiled having my own machine and then being able to rent time on one. So I stopped piecing and went almost three years without finishing a quilt.

Then in October I got my longarm machine and my love of quilting has been rekindled. I've finished four quilts so far, and I've got a fifth on the machine now (the Floral Fantasy in my previous post). I've rejoined the guild and attended the January meeting, but I have that same feeling I did when I first joined—an outsider looking in. People seem to be very happy in their little cliques.

I really don't think it's just me—my experiences not only in the quilt guilds in southern Utah, but in the knitting guild and longarm guild here in Oklahoma tell me that I CAN be very involved in groups and contribute quite a lot.

I'm just feeling frustrated that I don't seem to have progressed with the quilt guild here, and if you've made it this far, thanks for reading my rant.

I'd love to start a smaller quilt guild here in Broken Arrow, or even join one if there already is one. I'd heard something about it a few years ago, but wasn't able to attend any meetings at that point and I lost the contact info I had. Sigh.

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I've been working on spinning up some of the roving I bought last year at the Snake River Fiber Fair, and I started on some Targhee roving that I dyed last week. Unfortunately it has a fair number of noils, which I've learned are caused by stretching the fibers while they're being carded, then they bounce back and create little balls of fiber.

Here's the roving after I dyed it, and I'm quite pleased with it:


I've spun quite a bit more since I took this picture, but you can see how uneven it is if you look at the hook on the lower left.


I've decided to go ahead and finish spinning it up, and then I might use the yarn for something felted. I'm thinking about trying Navajo plying again since I wasn't terribly pleased with my last attempt, and if it isn't terribly successful with this singles then I won't be too upset.

Who knows, this could end up being my favorite yarn so far. :-)

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Kate, the owner of Lowder Colors Farm (and a great pusher of fleece LOL) has offered to help me clean the half-fleece I'm buying from her. It'll be quite a learning experience and I'm thrilled that she's going to walk me through it. This Saturday is a spin in and I'm looking forward to that, too. I'll probably take some Ashland Bay stuff I'd started a while back with the intension of making a three-ply yarn. That stuff is so wonderful to spin!

I'm trying to get more things finished rather than starting so many different projects but it's SO hard. :-)

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I have to admit that I just *love* all the reactions to my last post about getting a fleece. I'll be sure to take some pictures when we start processing it.

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We're supposed to have more snow today, so I'm going to point you all over to Lisa's blog, where she's got some incredible pictures of life in Hawaii--I've really enjoyed having a little virtual vacation on her blog.

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Have a great weekend, everyone!

My next post should include two "tags" I got recently, a "Seven Things" one and one on books.

Still knitting on the border; destashing

Today I'm on repeat #49 of 72, so progress is being made on the Shetland Tea Shawl. I timed myself last night, and it takes me approximately 18 minutes per repeat. That's just under 24 hours of knitting time, which is a heck of a lot!! Of course I didn't time how long the rest of it has taken me, but I started it around February 24th I think, and I've been working on it fairly intensely. My goal is to have it finished by the end of August so that I can enter it in the Tulsa State Fair. I think I'll make it. I had to change to a different dye lot, but so far I can't tell at all where it changes! I'm very relieved. I've been bitten by that before, but a very close inspection in daylight hasn't revealed any difference. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

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I've decided to have a yarn purge. I have some yarns that I won from Bernat for a chemo cap contest they had in conjunction with Leisure Arts. I'm going to list some Haven yarn (an alplaca blend) and some Boa yarn on eBay, along with a few pattern booklets that I won't use. I've had a hard time parting with things but I finally had the epiphany that if I sell the yarn I'm probably not going to use, I can use that money and buy yarn I will use! (Duh!)

So, what yarns am I lusting after? I really want to get the yarn to do the Lightning Lace Jacket. Granted, I need 14 balls but they're $2.49 each (KnitPicks' Shine Sport) so that's not too bad. I just can't seem to stockpile enough "mad money" to plunk down that much at once. Yes, my yarn budget is pathetic. It kind of has to be, though, because even with great restraint I amass more than I can use.

I also need to get to a yarn shop and buy some black Manos yarn to finish that little felted purse. My sister has convinced me not to wimp out and buy something other than Manos for this--she says that the black Manos yarn has a neat effect when felted and that I'll regret it if I don't use it. I'm just having a really hard time with the thought of paying $13 a hank for yarn that I don't feel is particularly well spun. And I'm going to felt it. Why yes, I am feeling a little snarky at the moment.

Then there's this beautiful yarn that I'm lusting after from JoJoLand. When Katherine Misegades came to our guild, she had some socks made from some of the fingering-weight stuff and it was just amazing. I want! :-)

And of course there's the book sale going on at KnitPicks, 40% off all of their books. I am a book junky, but so far I've resisted placing an order.

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Last night (the weekly Panera Sit N' Stitch) was kind of fun, but the more I think about it the more frustrated I get. The great thing was that I got to meet two people face-to-face that I've corresponded with over the internet, so that was great!! They're both wonderful people, which I knew from communicating with them, and it was just awesome to be able to meet.

The frustrating part was that instead of being able to sit and chat with them (and work on my projects) I ended up teaching four people to knit.

Four.

At once.

Here's the background:
The woman who started this group runs a listing in the Tulsa Kids magazine that says something along the lines of 'free knitting lessons' with no contact information, just show up at Panera between 6:30 and 8:30 on Tuesday nights. That was great when she was still coming but I've seen her twice in the last year. So, when someone wants to learn how to knit (for free, of course) it ends up defaulting to me. Many times I don't mind, but this time around it was overwhelming and I didn't get to chat with Robin and Rebecca (and Lynn and Kim).

So this morning I emailed the magazine and asked them to change the ad so that it does NOT list "free lessons" because *I* didn't place the ad and I'm tired of teaching people spur-of-the-moment. If I can plan for it, that's one thing, but when I don't have appropriate yarn, needles, handouts, etc it's really really frustrating. Not to mention that the lady who offered the lessons sells yarn out of her home (or at least she did when she returned emails and phone calls, which she hasn't done since Christmas), so she had a motive/reason to teach people. Sometimes I'm in the mind set to teach, but my Panera night is my relaxation night, my night to not be Mommy, to chat with like-minded women.

I guess a lot of my frustration boils down to the realization that I feel like I'm being taken for granted on a lot of different fronts, and this was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back. Yes, I know that I didn't have to say that the woman who ran that ad doesn't come any more but I'd be willing to teach them, but I guess I'm just too nice and need to learn how to say "no" a lot more often. It's one of those lessons that I seem to need to re-learn with some frequency.

Sometimes I feel like standing up and yelling "when is it MY turn?" When is someone going to do something for me with no strings? When am I going to get invited? I just feel like I'm an afterthought for people. Are people nice to me because they want something from me, or do they really want to be my friend?

I know that things come back around, but I guess I'm just in a bit of a slump. My wonderful husband is truly my best friend and I'm so fortunate to have him.

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Thanks for reading. Hopefully I'll be more positive in the next post.