The Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild....

...changed my life. Right, Lauren? Lauren said it first, but we all feel the same way.

As much I as love the online modern quilting community, there's not much better than connecting with real people who quilt, and even better, people who love modern quilting as much as I do. I didn't know what I was missing.

It was one year ago today that we held our organizational meeting. Today, those of us who started our KC MQG are celebrating with a blog post-a-palooza...or as Shea, our VP says...a giant love letter to our guildy friends!

First, I have to thank my LA guild friends, Alissa and Latifah for just doing it and kicking off the first MQG. Couldn't have done it without you! Next, Shea, who emailed me and asked me to meet her to talk about getting it going in our neck of the woods. Who knew that a couple of cups of coffee later we'd be on the road to something fabulous. We now have an official guild, with 96 members and growing every meeting. We thought maybe we'd get 10 folks sitting around a table chatting it up. Little did we know.

Something like that doesn't happen without a lot of work and some really talented, dedicated people behind the scenes. I have the most amazing officer team, Shea, Jamie, Jenny and Lauren who put up with my wacky leadership style and work like dogs to make our guild, organized, informative and most importantly FUN! Jamie has a head for money. Thank goodness, because I don't. Jamie is also full of ideas and willing to step in on a moment's notice. She's also a bit of a Bernina wizard, making sure one by one that the members of our guild have great sewing machines. Shea is a stickler for details, reminders and organization. Shea keeps us on our toes and always does it with a smile. Lauren handles our tech needs and keeps us in stitches with her creative mind and free thinking attitude. Lauren simply makes things happen. It's magic! Jenny is our quiet, level headed one. She always seems to be there with an idea or an offer to help. She's the kind of officer that you know has your back. Jenny exudes style and brings a bit of class to our team. How could we not be successful with a team like that?

And then there are our members. They have ideas, they participate, they're willing to do things differently. I'm floored every meeting by their talent and creativity. They inspire. They come from near and far....from Nebraska, no less. They are the Kansas City Modern quilt guild and I'm proud to be a part of them. We celebrate our official one year anniversary as a guild in March with the reveal of our new challenge and then on to year two...who knows where we'll go from there.