Tea Society? Sewing Circle? Garden Club?

You might be interested in looking up things like the D.A.R. (Daughters of the American Revolution) as well, they're pretty entertaining.

I'm not an older lady, but I do belong to a knitting group. Basically, we meet once a week and all work on our projects and talk, and people take turns bringing little things to eat. The people who are more experienced also help the others when we have a question or make a mistake, and discuss upcoming projects. More than anything, though, it's very social. The older women in quilting circles and things like that I've seen seem to be pretty similar.

Also, let me know if you need any technical info about sewing, quilting, or even tea.

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2007: Painting the Walls White: A modern bohemian fantasy

I would imagine that in a sewing circle one sits around, sews (by hand--machines wouldn't be conducive to this), and chats/gossips. Just like in a knitting circle. It would probably be embroidery and fine work more than sewing actual garments. Not sure about the others, but I suspect that tea society would be the same, but with high tea instead of sewing.

What time period is this?

Stories last longer: but only by becoming only stories.

We had a sewing group of (I like to think) slightly younger women that we affectionately called "Stitch and Bitch." We all brought our sewing projects--which varied from quilting to cross-stitch to knitting--and usually had a little bit of "refreshment" (i.e. wine) and did a little sewing and a lot of talking. Talking about our boyfriends/husbands, our jobs, our kids, our parents, our other friends, politics, TV shows... I would imagine that a lot of these groups are about the socializing and whatever gossip fodder they can provide--regardless of age!

Most things in life can be described in one of two ways: a good time, or a good story.

I am not sure about garden clubs and the others have covered sewing circles so I'm going to chime in with two more possibilities - book clubs and bridge clubs. Both are very traditional down here in the South. Book clubs are usually somewhat structures as in either everyone is reading the same book and discussing it or it's a time to get together and talk about new books coming out. Bridge clubs tend to be very structure and very "closed" type meetings as there have to be a certain number of players and watchers are generally frowned upon. And food is always present at either one of these.

Depending on your character, you may also want to consider a service type organization / volunteer group for your lady to participate in. Friends of the Library, Grey Ladies at a Hospital, that sort of thing.

an*no*ta*tion
http://annotatedbooks.blogspot.com/

Question is, what exactly does one *do* in these groups?

heh. well. If by a sewing circle you mean something like a quilt guild....

I used to belong to a quilt guild and let me tell you it is serious business. Clique-ish verging on cultish. I ultimately drifted away because I couldn't stand the retired ladies feuding over Robert's Rules of Order.

My guild had several "mini groups" comprised of friends and guild members that would meet during the week. Sometimes at a home, sometimes at a church hall or similar. Mini groups often specialize in a quilting style and give themselves cute names like "Batting Beauties" or "Pointless Sisters" or "Bitchin' Stitchin's." Guilds will often have guest speakers come in, organize quilting classes, charity projects, weekend sewing marathons, multi-day retreats in the mountains, and trips to various conventions and quilt shows. They also have quilt shows. My guild organized annual caravans to quilt shops on major football holidays like New Years' Day. Let the boys watch TV, we'll go shop. And man, can quilters shop. We/they are *addicted* to fabric. They have stashes of fabric. Huge closets full of fabric. Several gals were put on budgets by their breadwinner husbands. They'd buy fabric anyway and sneak it into the house. Quilters often obsess over gadgets that make quilting quicker/faster/better. Rulers, special pins, clever techniques... The current fad right now is long-arm quilting. Every really hip quilter has a long-arm machine... even if they cost five-figures. Regular sewing machines often get taken to classes and bees... there are special padded cases on wheels along with organizers for scissors and thread and everything. Gotta have one!

Quilters chase fads like they're going out of style. There are trends in fabrics... I remember when batiks took the quilting world by storm. They're ~amazing~ fabrics. 1930's reproduction fabrics are still in vogue. There are trends in techniques. For a while, the gals in my mini group did miniature quilts and felted wool projects. One got into dying her own fabric. I experimented a lot with non-traditional fabrics - silks, satins, rayons, etc. Bargello was in for a while, as was "color washed". Snippets happened in there somewhere. Machine quilting was big, machine trapunto was big, shashiko was big, paper piecing is still big. Most quilters have another closet full of "UFO's" - unfinished objects.

Chit-chat-wise, there's a lot of bitchin' that goes with the stitchen. Husbands are very annoying I'm told (I still like mine, so I couldn't really relate). Kids, neighbors, grandkids, schools these days, the latest scandal at church, every last one of their many health ailments, their prescriptions, the gory details, doctors visits. There's lots of politics regarding guild leadership (drove me *nuts*). For the women who work out of the home, there's lots of complaining about not getting to stay home. The women at home complain about being home. Endless gossip. Envision teenage girls.... only in their fifties. But as cranky as they were, they all had amazing life stories. There was a black lady in our group who told about growing up in a segregated Baltimore. Another talked about being married at age 17 back in the 40's and all the things she had to learn the hard way. Quilting definately stitched the generations together. Cheesey, but very true.

To help with research, buy some quilting mags. You'll see the range from quick & easy projects, cutsey-wutsey, to high-end art quilts. Go to your local craft store and look at the quilting section, or better yet - go to your local quilt shop. There's books there (just peruse - they're expensive). Chat with the ladies shopping there about their projects. Quilters love to chat (can you tell????). Maybe look up the local quilt guild and attend a general meeting. There are several quilting shows on TV like Fons & Porter and Simply Quilts. Google is great. You'll learn a lot by looking at quilters' sweet, but very tacky, web pages. :)

Well, it may not be exactly the same perspective, but the Women's Club at my college has a sewing circle. Last year it was a once-a-month deal where, in theory, everyone who could would bring a potluck dish and some project to work on. And we would just have dinner and chat, really.

Most of the attendees were middle-aged or older women, but there were a few of us young'uns - I was nineteen at the time and started coming because it was put on by the club, see. We have had a few young men come from time to time. Mainly, I brought things to mend and bummed equipment and thread off everyone else, since I don't sew much on my own. From time to time I would forget to bring a project, and would instead just be there in company or show off portable video games.

I'm the one writing a novel-length set of fanfics about a time-travelling dolphin who fights space aliens.

what exactly does one *do* in these groups

Two words: Gossip & Compete

"To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it." - Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007)

2006 - Famine: A Novel - failed
2007 - A Midsummer Night's Dream...IN SPACE! - on hold

I'm only 26, but I belong to a sewing circle at my church as well as my local quilting guild. At the sewing circle, we don't have a ton of people, but it's really just a chance to socialize while sharing something we all have in common - a love of some sort of needlework. Everyone brings handwork - most of the time we're all bringing quilts, but not always. There's a girl who brings embroidery that she's designing, and I've brought cross-stitch when none of my quilts were at a handwork stage (I'm not bringing my sewing machine to this). We look at each other's projects, offer suggestions/advice, and chat about what's going on in our lives. For me, it's been a really great way to get to know some people at the church (my husband and I are fairly new there), because I knew there was that common interest.

The guild is pretty similar to what a previous poster described, though I haven't seen as much cliquish behavior or focus on Robert's Rules of Order in my guild. But then, I haven't been a member for too long. If you do a search for quilting guilds, you can find a lot of local ones, read their newsletters online, etc. And I'm sure that if you went to a fabric shop and told people there that you wanted to know about quilting/sewing, they would be MORE than happy to tell you!

Sometimes... Sometimes these groups just form out of the aether. I remember in college I was briefly part of, well, not a knitting group, (there was a bit of crocheting involved,) but a yarn-centric group, at least, formed in response to the NCAA tournament. We were a fairly social floor and when *some people* decided they wanted to watch basketball, despite the cries of anguish from the non-sport-watch'n' contingint, well, we brought our crafts in, settled down, and had a good time reguardless. I think I knit nine hats that season, Becky got through two afgans, and there were a couple games of yarn ball as well - like baseball, only played with balls of yarn and fireplace implemets.

The interest petered out after the end of the tournament and we went back to watching the Simpsons and playing bridge, but it was a lot of fun. And I have some good hats.

--
"But...there is one thing I really like.
The Sparks.
Sparks are wonderful.
Absolutely breathtaking.
It's as if my life was popping in front of my eyes just for that brief moment."
- Berserk

Oh dear, this is where I get to show my age. *cringe* I actually joined and belonged to a garden club for about 5 years. I was secretary for 2 of those, so you can imagine I might know something about what the meetings were like. Part was social, with a lot of the members knowing each other from other things and bringing in friends to join them for social reasons. The actual meetings included discussions of upcoming regional meetings, a field trip to a nursery, an annual garden tour (visiting member's and non-member's gardens of merit), annual dinners, community planting projects, Garden of the Month announcements (for members and non-members), annual garden show, a conservaton tip and so on. The meeting usually includes a special program, either a guest speaker or a member presenting something on a particular topic (language of flowers, growing native plants, invasive plants to avoid, a particular group of plants and how to grow them like lilies, hostas or other popular flowers, gardens of other areas of the country - those are just some of the topics I remember), and then (finally!) some kind of food and refreshment is served. The whole meeting takes maybe 2 hours, depending on how much needed to be discussed. The group I was in did NOT meet in June or July because we were usually too busy with gardens. The meetings in September and December were shortened to allow more time for annual and Christmas dinners respectively

There are sign-up sheets circulated annually so people can sign up for who takes care of the 'program', who provides refreshements each time and all kinds of little committees and assignments that keep members involved and interested. I was in a group with 16 members, which was considered average. Every two years there were new officers elected and I was very very glad to hand the notebook, membership listings and meeting notes over to someone else. Yes, you're right about the fact that some members are sticklers for Robert's Rules of Order. More info needed - NaNoMail me!

2005: Tightlipped in Rootwad (winner!)
2006: Taking Care of Goldy (winner!)
2007: Out of My Mind, Please Leave a Message