Late in 1997, quilters Ann McLean, Ann Johnson and I started talking about the possibility of an evening quilt guild in North Fulton County. I am sure it was Ann who began the conversation, but I was also eager to have a local guild to attend. At the time there were two guilds in Cumming, GA; The Piecemakers and The Sunset Quilters. Ann was a member of at least the Sunset group, if not both, and she was tired of driving to Cumming. She wanted an evening guild in Alpharetta and argued that there were enough women in the area to support it. Ann was working at Hancock’s in Roswell, where I had also worked briefly, and we both saw the number of people who were shopping for quilt fabric.

We decided to meet at the Pancake House in Roswell to decide, if in fact, we were committed to doing this and to begin setting up the initial organization. At that meeting we decided that we would be the acting officers of the new guild. I would be the president, Ann Johnson would be the vice president in charge of programs, and Ann McLean would be the secretary-treasurer. l  

Flyers were made up for the guild and posted in Hancock’s, Cloth World (as it was called back then), and the local quilt shop, The Calico Quilter in Roswell. We then sat back and waited to see who would show up. 

To our surprise and delight there were 14 women at that first meeting. One of the first things we did was brainstorm to find a name for this group which we were then calling The North Fulton Evening Quilt Guild. By the second meeting we had our name, The Chattahoochee Evening Stars.

In less than six months, the guild had doubled their number of members and by the end of 1998 the guild had close to 40 members and had outgrown their current meeting location. Clearly the Chattahoochee Evening Stars were on their way.