Friendship Star Quilters Guild

Membership

FSQ membership year runs from June 1 to May 31 of the following year. Membership is $25/ yr. ($15 non-residents). Our membership drive starts at the May meeting. You must join or renew by the September meeting to have an entry in our annual directory. New members joining after December pay half of the annual dues for that year. If you are new to FSQ and would like to print our new member application form in PDF format, click here. Complete the printed form and mail it with your membership free to the address given on the form or bring it to the next meeting. If you are renewing your membership and cannot renew in person, then click hereto print a copy of our renewal form in PDF format.

Friendship Star offers the following services to its guild members:

• A monthly newsletter identifying speakers for upcoming monthly meetings, activities of the various committees, any quilt shows in the area and any workshops that quilters may wish to take. Check out a past Friendship Star Quilters Quiltline newsletter for an example of the events and activities of the guild.
• A regular library of books and tools for members to borrow.
• Small quilt groups meet for quilting and fellowship outside of the large monthly meeting. Since our guild has grown to over 200 members, one of the programs that we are beginning to offer is the mentoring of new quilters. Rina Meushaw runs this program this year and it is an opportunity for new quilters request help and advice from more experienced quilters. Rina would be happy to connect you with a person that can answer your questions.

Meetings

Friendship Star Quilters Guild of Montgomery County, Maryland meets generally on the first Monday of the month at 7:30pm at the Gaithersburg Church of the Nazarene. Please check the calendar for better dates. The church is located at 8921 Warfield Road, Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Our guild is incorporated to foster fellowship and support for beginning to advanced quilters. We cover topics from piecing to applique, machine to hand quilting, etc. Please join us at our next meeting and identify yourself as a new visitor. The guild offers a monthly attendance fee for visitors to explore our guild. You can see if we fit your needs. At all meetings (except the two parties) we ask for an admittance fee of $4. Ask for a receipt of your admittance fee. After trying us out, you can use the admittance fee against the costs of your annual dues if you choose to join us.

A typical guild meeting runs about 2 hours on the first Monday evening of the month. The first hour is devoted to business, announcements, and our speaker. Typically our speaker presents on a facet of quilting. Over the past years, we have covered topics as varied as nine patches, floral realism, crazy quilts, and log cabin blocks. The FSQ Quiltline archive of newsletters can give you a sense of the activities of the guild. The second hour is the raffling of the block of the month, and our show and tell of projects members are working on.

Friendship Star Quilters has almost 300 members. As far as age goes, we cover a broad spectrum. We have seniors, women who are holding down professional jobs, women who are in the early phase of raising a family, women whose kids are graduating from college, single and married women, and a few MEN too. Most of our members live in Maryland, but a few live in other states. Most of our members have access to the Internet for, at a minimum, e-mail. The level of quilting experience also varies with some members identifying themselves as new or beginning quilters, many as intermediate, and some even consider themselves advanced quilters. Some quilters in the guild only make quilts by machine. Others only hand piece. Some machine quilt. Some hand quilt. Some follow predefined patterns. Some create their own patterns and designs. Some applique. Some don't. With almost members, you are likely to find someone else with similar interests to yours.