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Field Trip/ Studio Workshop to Cultured Expressions with Lisa Shepard Stewart
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June 2023 Guild Meeting Recap
Hello friends! Time is flying by, and it is already July, but I would be remiss if I didn’t update you all on the fantastic in person meeting we had in June! We had 28 members and 2 guests join us.
Rachel started it all with welcomes and a rundown of the meeting. We had a few announcements to make. Peters Valley is having some fabulous classes happening in fiber and more. Make sure you check it out here. We also want to make sure our emergency contact sheet is up to date for our in person meetings, especially, so if there are any changes, please let us know!
Next we moved on to our business portion of the meeting. Starting with our lovely treasurer, Annette, giving us an update on all things related to the budget. That included a vote on using funds for rentals for our first ever quilt show! It was voted in favor of using the allotted funds, which should be recouped from quilt submission and door entry fees.
Speaking of the quilt show, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes for the NJMQG Modern Quilt Showcase. We have a great committee helping to figure out details and the best way to get it done. For our first ever guild run show, we are starting small, but mighty. The weekend of Sept 30 and October 1, we will be having our show at the barn of the Cedar Grove Historical Society. As part of the show and in continuation of celebrating our 10 year anniversary, we are having a mini challenge. We have sent out emails with more details, but if you didn’t receive it or need it again, reach out to a board member.
And what a segue…speaking of board members, we had our executive board meeting election. Kathy helped us run a smooth election. Without further ado, welcome your 2023-2024 board…
Ann Marston, president
Jeanine Bowen, vice president
Aubrey A Cece, (continuing) secretary
Annette Aponte, continuing 2nd year term, treasurer
And a fabulous team of Betsy Fabricant, Margy Schilling and Samantha Linehan, programs
In July we will have our new board running things. As always we ask for anyone willing to help with a committee or willing to teach something to the guild or if you have a suggestion or feedback, to please let us know!
Congrats to a Lenny for guessing exactly 125 clips in the jar and winning a prize!!
In May, Kelly C, once again hosted an amazing workshop at her house, doing tie dying.
We had a swap for June that had a great turn out. We were given the choice of making a Thread Catcher or Petit Four basket for a blind swap. It went so fast, I couldn’t get pics, but it was a lot of fun seeing the happy reactions of what people gave and received.
We had a quick calendar update. For our July guild meeting, we will have a guest lecture by Sarah Ruiz, who will talk about her postcard project. We will then be doing a postcard swap with the Baltimore MQG. We will send sign ups and specifics later, but we will be paired up with a person and make a postcard inspired by modern/contemporary art/artist to be swapped in August. We will collect the cards and bulk mail them. We will then have them to pass out at our in person meeting in September.
And now, our favorite part of the meeting, show and tell
We also could not let the meeting end without a very special thanks to our fearless leader for the past 3 years. Rachel, you are so full of energy and love and we have been so lucky to have you as our president through these unprecedented times. You put so much time and thoughts and energy and time (did I mention time?) into everything you did for the guild. Enjoy your time as a mere member, but don’t be surprised when we come asking you to join the board again. We’ll give you some time though.
After our official meeting was over we had our open sew! Sew much fun!
Hope you will join us for our July meeting over Zoom. July 20. Link will go out in email, as usual. Happy Summer, Y’all! Stay cool, stay safe and stay crafty!!
-A
March 2023 Guild Meeting Recap
Happy Spring! We were very excited to be able to meet in person for our meeting AND open sew this month. It feels so great to be seeing each other again and be able to meet some of our newer members face to face. Don’t get us wrong, Zoom is an amazing resource to have and to use, but with such a tactile thing as quilting, being face to face with each other and the quilts is just so inspiring and invigorating. It was lovely to be able to chat and sew with and brag on our members. We had 39 members joining us. A few lovely new friends introduced themselves to us. MaryAnne, Mindy, Ginny and Cindy it was great to meet you and hear a little bit about your quilting history.
We had some guild business to go over. We are wrapping up our renewals and have all the info to be sent in to the MQG. That doesn’t mean you can’t still sign up, but more for the ‘business-y’ side of stuff. You should be able to access all the available resources on the MQG website, if not, let us know. As part of some housekeeping, we are doing a review of our bylaws. We had a change suggested on some wording for one section that was voted on and approved by all present. If anyone has any changes or anything they’d like to discuss, the board is always here.
Quiltcon was our next topic of discussion. For the members who did not go, we had a very fun Open Sew over Zoom. And while we were Zooming it up, we had a few members there representing us well! Congrats again to Jackie L, Lenny, Melanie T, Liz K, Caroline M, Miguel, and Betsy V for having quilts shown. Aleeda C, who is one of the NJMQG’s founders was inspiring to watch as she slipped easily into her role as MQG president. We had our Community quilt available to look at and we are working on the plans for what to do with it next.
The NJMQG is in the early planning stages of having a quilt show!! We are really excited to finally be able to put on a show, after talking about it since our early years, but we need your help! We are looking for as many hands as we can for help in putting on a show. Reach out to Ann if you are interested in helping.
We had a quick trivia question and Debby C was the winner! (Which company introduced the electric sewing machine in 1889?)
We couldn’t go through the day without acknowledging our fearless leader who was celebrating a birthday the next day. Happy birthday Rachel!!
As we slowly roll towards the middle of the year, we are preparing for the next Board Election. We are looking for a new president and co-program person, at least, but if you are feeling inspired to volunteer for another position, there are ways to make it work. Right now only the treasurer spot is only truly not up for election. We are asking for members to nominate themselves or suggest someone else who they think may be good at and interested being a part of the board. We are looking for some members to be part of a committee to help be a liaison and to host the election, as well. Please reach out to any board member if you have any questions or suggestions. If you’d like to sit in on a board meeting to check it out, we can do that too! You know the saying, many hands…
Another raffle prize and Mary K was the lucky winner!
Programs updates were next. We will be having Lisa Stewart Shepard of Cultured Expressions do a lecture for us at our April 20 guild meeting over Zoom. There is a half day workshop on April 23 from 1-5 with Lisa to learn a cool corded log cabin technique.
On May 20, Kelly C has once again offered to host an afternoon of tie dying!
Sam came up and showed us some examples of just a fraction of the many Schlep bags she has made before showing us how it’s done during the open sew.
The last prize for the closest answer goes to…Lenny! (Where did the thimble originate?)
Before our break, where we enjoyed tea and goodies, we had some members take part in a needle minder swap.
We ended our official meeting with show and tell and then got all set up for our open sew!
I hope everyone had as much fun as I did! Look forward to our April meeting. Thursday April 20 at 7:15 over Zoom. As always, reach out with any questions, concerns, or anything! Don’t forget, you can always let us know of any classes, shows, news you hear so we can share it with our members, too! Thanks for reading!
-A
P.S. The answers were Singer and Holland
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