In October, 2007, six of us decided to form a quilt guild in the Chesapeake City area. This guild would be open to anyone with an interest in quilting. So we met several times to draw up a set of bylaws, policies and procedures, volunteer as officers, plan meetings, and pick a name. We decided on Upper Bay Quilters to meet the third Thursday of the month at the Good Shepherd Parish House in Chesapeake City.

Our first meeting was on November 8, 2007; at that meeting we all introduced ourselves and our purpose. After the meeting we had 17 members out of the 25 people who had attended. Three members at large volunteered to be members of our Board of Directors. We explained that at the December meeting we would hold an election of officers and vote on accepting the bylaws, a copy of which had been given to each person attending the meeting. We also needed a logo so we announced a logo contest where we asked members to submit a logo for the guild to be voted on at the scheduled March 2008 meeting. You’ll see our logo on each web page.

We have had successful monthly meetings since then and we have continued to grow. As of April 1, 2008 we have 39 members with various levels of experience and of various ages. Our youngest quilter is 12 and our older quilters are in their Golden Years. Our group consists of beginners who want to learn this art and experienced quilters who have won ribbons at shows and state fairs. We have one quilt show judge and some teachers as well as three long arm quilters in our guild.

Our goal is to further the love of quilting throughout the community and to draw in all of those who think that they would like to learn this art. By having speakers, sew-ins, and service projects, we hope to reach out to the community so that all feel welcome.