And the survey says... Modern Quilting Confidence Quotient increases in 2016

At the November guild meeting, the Chattanooga Modern Quilters held a brainstorming session to generate ideas for programs, workshops and activities for the upcoming 2017 year. This is the second year members participated in this group planning session.

At the commencement of the session, guild members were asked what they felt their individual level of experience or confidence was with modern quilting. "We're calling this our 'Modern Quilting Confidence Quotient,'" said Veronica, the moderator of the brainstorming session. Using data collected from last year's session, the survey revealed positive results.

2016 Chattanooga MQG "Confidence Quotient" survey results.
Data collected represents those in attendance at the 2015 and 2016 November guild meetings.

As seen in the chart, there was a shift from members feeling they were absolute newbies in the realm of modern quilting to having a better understanding of the concepts, techniques and aesthetics of modern quilting. From 2015 data, the Newbies category decreased 18 percentage points while Confident Beginners increased 2 points, Intermediate Quilters increased 4 points and members feeling they had a solid command of modern quilting—at an Advanced level—increased from 0 in 2015 to 12% in 2016.

For the members of the Chattanooga Modern Quilt Guild, the 2016 year was filled with a number of programs and hands-on activities that covered patchwork basics and general quiltmaking techniques as well as the core concepts of modern quilting. Judging from another robust list of suggestions and ideas that emerged from the November brainstorming session, next year will be just as promising for building quiltmaking confidence as this year was.