We had a record-breaking meeting in August, with 56 people attending, including five new members and five guests! Our guild now has 81 modern quilters! Go us!
Icebreaker
The question this month was: To Prewash, or Not to Prewash! We had a spirited discussion, with many expressing the hate or love of crinkle as a reason for prewashing/not, or a desire to get rid of chemicals and avoid the possibility of colors bleeding. Many of us just want to get on with the sewing, so prewashing is just a barrier to that. The room was pretty much split down the middle!
Treasurer’s Report
Our Treasurer Abbie Bill gave her financial report and introduced July’s fundraising raffle - the Sewtastic Basket was full of goodies this month! The raffle raised £75 for the guild this month! The lucky winner of the draw was Marya Amig.
Special Topic
We had a very special guest this month: the talented quilter, author and teacher Linda Hungerford came to visit from her home in The Villages in central Florida. Linda gave a wonderful presentation which gave us the story of her journey as a quilter, and how she creates beautiful quilting work using a domestic sewing machine. Linda also showed us some of her gorgeous quilts - what a treat! Linda taught a sold-out workshop for us on Sunday, where we learned her secrets of walking foot and FMQ quilting.
The President’s Talk
Quite a few important topics to cover this month!
Proposed change to the Bylaws: the Executive Council is proposing that we increase the number of EC officers in 2017, by splitting the current role of VP of Programs into two roles: VP of Events, and VP of Education. Look out for an email soon and cast your vote.
I also talked about our upcoming Executive Council elections. All five members of the existing EC will be stepping down. Remember, Charlotte, Debby, Abbie, Patti, and myself will all have been serving for almost two years by the end of 2016, and have navigated our guild through the work of setting up formally, becoming a non-profit, etc. Now it’s time for some fresh blood and fresh ideas! I assure you that the existing EC will continue to be very active in organizing and participating in this guild!
Important dates for our Elections:
August: Nominations Committee formed. Chairperson of the Membership Council, Kate Yates, has appointed the five existing members of the board as our Noms Comm, as they are not going to be running themselves.
Now: sign up to run for President, Secretary, Treasurer, VP of Events, VP of Education, or VP of Projects. Please approach the person who is currently holding the office you are interested in to discuss the responsibilities and find out if you would be a good fit. You can also email me president@southfloridamqg.com to express your interest, or ask any questions.
October: The Noms Comm will introduce the nominees for our 2017 Executive Council at the General Meeting. Each nominee will be given the opportunity to speak and answer questions.
November: Voting at the General Meeting. You must be present, or nominate a proxy to cast your vote.
January 1st: new EC takes office!
I also talked about our guild participation drive and the opportunity that everyone has to participate in the guild, even if you aren’t ready to run for office! There are a lot of ways that you can get involved and make our amazing guild even more amazing! Check out the sign-ups page on the web site.
We are really happy to have some new participation sign-ups in August, so we look forward seeing their work and ideas in future.
Events Calendar: Nicole Kaplan
Programs Ideas Collector: Linda Gordon
Guest Greeter : Dee Neal Ferguson
Milestones: LoriAnn Esposito
Meetings snacks organization: Brenda Sirmans, Patty Rice & Marilyn Ehren
Raffles: Alyson Christianson
Meetings Photographer : Sheila Gordon
Historian Council - Member profiles: : Andrea Etkie
Block of the Month Lottery: Shelly Recicar, Beth Schnell
Membership Services: Kate Yates
Community Service projects: Susan Capone, Wanda Goldfarb
Social Media: Facebook Group: Ivy Bagnall
There are a few areas where we would love to do more and would love some members to take charge of the following:
Publicity - promote the guild’s events via social media, local newspapers, share with other guilds (easy to do in a few hours from home)
Skill of the Month demos at meetings (anyone can do one of these!)
Fundraising ideas and projects
Grants research and applications
If you are interested, please get in touch via the sign-up page.
Due to limited time, I spoke only briefly about the recent blog post by the national MQG about derivative works and inspiration. This post covers many areas:
Use of patterns.
Use of techniques learned in workshops.
Work inspired by artworks, buildings, etc.
Work using licensed fabrics or trademarked characters (Mickey Mouse, etc).
Use of song lyrics, passages from books etc.
The post has caused a lot of controversy within the members ranks for a number of reasons - much of the information is misleading or not based on facts, and also because many members disagree with the position being taken by MQG leadership. If you take the time to read the comments on the blog post, you will see many of the issues that have been raised. There are also a number of blog posts around the web by members criticizing the post. Many of the members present at our meeting were unhappy about the ideas expressed by the MQG. If anyone is concerned about the issues raised, about how they affect you, about our relationship with the national guild, or anything in relation to these topics, I would be very happy to discuss them with you. I also urge you to comment on the blog post and express your opinions so that the MQG leadership is aware of how you feel.
Finally, I announced that improv quilter Sherri Lynn Wood has launched a “Make Do Quilt Challenge” in which she is challenging us to “make one quilt top and back from salvaged clothing, linens, curtains or other household materials within the next 365 days. There are some cool prizes, but also it’s a very fun and very interesting idea. We will be organizing a challenge group for our guild, if you would like to participate look out for more info in an email soon.
Block of the Month
We had a fantastic response to our block this month, weren’t those wonky improv houses fun and easy to make? The lucky winner of the lottery was Linda Gordon. We look forward to seeing her finished quilt one day in the future!
Quilt Along
Our erstwhile Quilt Along leader Patti Auten was on vacation this month, but boxes were exchanged and tracked by Sheila Gordon. The tutorial for the September block is on the blog now! Also just this week we announced a Finishing Party workshop for November.
Community Service
We had a wonderful display of the 24 quilts which we completed #quiltsforpulse. So beautiful and full of love! Beth Schnell has already delivered them to Orlando MQG for us! Thanks to Charlotte Noll, Susan Capone and Wanda Goldfarb for organizing our work for this important project.
Quiltcon Charity Challenge
Project chair Kate Yates talked us through the parameters for the 2017 Quiltcon Charity Challenge. You can read about the color palette and the design guidelines on the MQG site. Kate is looking for a few members to help take the lead in the design process. Put on your thinking caps, and drop Kate a line if you would like to get involved! If you are not able to contribute to the design process, there will be plenty of opportunity to sew blocks and contribute in other ways.
Guild Activities & Events
VP of Programs Charlotte reminded of us some upcoming quilty happenings!
Heather Jones lecture on September 9th. Free for members but space is limited so you must register in advance! Guests can buy tickets online.
Heather Jones large scale piecing and design workshops on September 10th and 11th. Just a few spaces left for each now.
Check out the lists of events:
Name Tag Tax
August saw the introduction of our Name Tag tax. Members must wear a handmade name tag to every meeting from now on, or get hit with the $1 name tag tax. Only three members were caught out this month, so $3 went into the guild funds this month. I sponsored a raffle for everyone who showed up with a name tag this month - a bundle of six fat quarters was won by Susan Capone!
Show & Tell
As usual, this meeting was full of beautiful projects finished by our members.
Thanks to everyone who attended, we look forward to seeing you on September 17th for our next general meeting!
~ Allison Schnackenberg - President