Meeting Minutes, July 6, 2016

 MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Maitland, FL

President Alissa called the meeting to order; 56 members and 15 guests were present. New members introduced themselves.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Joan reported that there was more expense than income in June, largely due to paying Mandy Liens for teaching. Joan said that she will add new members to the Guild Roster and resend it to everyone. She will miss the next few meetings and Marge will fill in; Joan will be out of town but will be able to send checks as needed.

CHARITY PROJECTS

Charity Coordinator Sharleen reminded the guild that The Sewing Studio donated fabric and Fairfield donated fiberfill for the Hearts of Hope pillows the guild recently made for the University of Florida Cancer Center at Orlando Health. Guild members brought all of the pillows to the front, so everyone could see them. They were presented to Sherry Bryant, Assistant Manager of Patient Experience and Volunteer Services, who thanked the guild for its compassion and generosity and said that they are very happy to receive them, that they give them to chemotherapy patients, surgery patients, and have them available in the boutique for breast cancer patients only, where they are a popular item.

Sharleen also reported that the guild’s long-term project of making 70 quilts to give to the House Next Door charity at the end of the year has received approximately 50 quilts to date, 17 of which were donated at this meeting.

RETREAT REPORT

Alissa announced that the OMQG retreat this year will be Thursday-Sunday, November 3-6, at the Kenilworth Lodge in Sebring, where it was last year. Joan asked that payments toward the cost be postponed until members are advised of the exact cost. Everyone can attend either Thursday-Sunday or Friday-Sunday; the fee is the hotel room cost per night. Marge will email the amounts and, because Joan will be out of town for awhile, please mail checks for the retreat to Marge.

EDUCATION

Education Coordinator Ede said that Christa Watson’s class on September 24th, Machine Quilting with Style, which will be held at the Bernina Sewing Center in Lake Mary; the fee is $50, and class fees were accepted at the meeting.    The class is limited to 22 and there is a lot of interest, so there may be a lottery to determine who gets in. She announced that Frank’s dyeing class will be given on January 7, 2017, at Alissa’s house in Deland and is limited to 12; he said he might offer a second day if the demand is way over 12, but noted that there will be a higher than usual class fee for materials.  Ede said Shannon Brinkley will be teaching on May 5, 2017; her work includes a world map and animals of scraps.

Ede also reminded members that there is a cancellation policy. If you pay for a class to reserve a seat and cancel instead of attending, the fee will not be refunded unless someone else pays the fee to take your place.  

RAFFLE BASKET

Kayla, who won the Raffle Basket last month, returned it filled with new and old items, including a number of patterns, the book and CD of The Farmer’s Wife 1930s Sampler Quilt, and fabric. The basket was won by Yanick, who said it is the first time she has won the basket.

FESTIVAL OF TREES CHARITY PROJECT

Because of the number and extent of guild charitable projects, with the House Next Door project, the new Pulse project, and the QuiltCon 2017 donation quilt project due for completion between now and the end of the year, Alissa asked whether or not we should also make a donation quilt to be raffled at the Council of 101’s Festival of Trees for the Orlando Museum of Art, as we have the past two years. She announced that the board had voted to make the Festival of Trees quilt of the improv trees block shown in Sarah’s quilt at last month’s Show and Tell. Because of the simplicity of the block, a number of members want to make a quilt for the Festival of Trees this year, and Tanyia volunteered to be in charge. She will send an email to members to see who will take part, including volunteers to make blocks, assemble the quilt, quilt it, and bind it by mid-October.

LAS VEGAS MINI QUILT SWAP  -   #vegasmeetsorlandoswap

Tanyia brought the unopened box of mini quilts sent from the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild to members of the guild who made mini quilts for Las Vegas guild members. The wrapped mini quilts were handed out, opened by the recipients, and a picture taken of the group with their new mini quilts. Tanyia asked if members are interested in her pursuing a mini swap with another guild, after our current charity projects have been completed, and many members are interested, so she will find another guild to swap mini quilts with in the future.  

BLOCK OF THE MONTH

This month’s Blocks of the Month were made from Patti’s pattern, and Patti won the drawing for them.

Frank presented next month’s Block of the Month. Directions will be on the guild blog and are also available as a free pattern download at Craftsy; there are no color requirements. He said they are easy to make with layer cakes and charm squares but can be made from 10” and 5” squares instead of precuts. His 14 sample blocks will be in the drawing, and he is not entering, so whoever wins next month will have enough blocks for a quilt.

GUILD LIBRARY           

Yanick has been bringing the guild’s library of modern quilting books to each meeting. A number of books has been requested by members, and she now has funds to purchase them, so the library will be doubling in size soon. She will post a link on the blog to the list of books in the library, and members are to request them in advance; she will only bring to meetings books that a member has asked to check out, because the library has grown beyond a size easily carried. Members were invited to request books they would like the library to have and to donate books from their own libraries, if they wish, but they must be books on modern quilting. Books may be checked out for one month and must be returned at the following month’s guild meeting.

PULSE DONATION PROJECT

Alissa reported on the guild’s project to collect and complete quilts for those impacted by the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando on June 12^th. Depending on how many are donated and how many the guild completes, the goal is to give a quilt to each injured survivor, a significant person in the life of each of those who were killed, and also, if we have enough quilts, to Pulse employees, 1^st responders, hospital personnel, and others who were personally hurt by the horrifying event. It is Aliss’a hope that we will have enough quilts for everyone impacted who would like one; there will be no vetting process for recipients.

She initiated this as a quilt drive by posting notice of the guild’s invitation to donate blocks and quilt tops and finished quilts to the guild for this project on her own and the guild’s Instragram accounts. By the next morning, she had received many responses, including from people in Australia, Canada, the UK and other guilds all over. She contacted the Modern Quilt Guild, speaking with Heather and Rhianne, and our guild will receive some assistance from the MQG; they provided a downloadable form for donors to complete and send with their donations to help the guild track everything. Jodi volunteered to take care of processing the information submitted on that form.

The guild has received numerous donations from a wide assortment of companies: Robert Kaufman donated 99 yards of wide backing; Andover donated 11 bolts; Windham donated 10 yards, 2 bolts, and a box of scraps; Aurifil donated spools and cones of light gray thread for assembling blocks into quilts (one spool per member was distributed at the meeting); Filtec donated cones of white and gray thread for longarm quilters; The Sewing Studio donated a bag of 2-1/2”scraps for binding (after asking what was most needed); StoryPatches is donating fusible labels featuring a heartbeat line on a rainbow (which will arrive next week); Spoonflower donated 2 yards of fabric to color and cut up; Warm & Natural has said it will provide all the batting needed (sending one roll at a time); Dream Batting and Hobbs have also donated rolls of batting; Beth’s embroidery people have donated batting. Sew Mini Things in Mount Dora has held Sew Days at which people use the shop’s machines, fabric and thread, and have made 90 blocks in 3 days so far.

By mail, Alissa receives 30-50 packages per day. She has received over 600 blocks, 10-15 quilt tops and 48 finished quilts to date with 3 days’ mail yet unopened. Patti is keeping an Excel spreading updated with all of the donor information and cataloguing all donations. Some guilds and longarm quilters, including Karen McTavish, have volunteered to quilt tops for the guild, and monetary donations (approximately $100 so far, with other offers outstanding) are going to be used for shipping costs to get tops to longarmers who will finish them, though Alissa is also pursuing the possibility of donated shipping by FedEx and others; apparently FedEx will ship free between nonprofits, so we’ll try to make use of that option. Alexis volunteered to do the shipping.

Alissa has received 5 quilts from a San Francisco guild, 7 from Duh Quilts, among the many. She has received items from the Netherlands, New Zealand, Mexico, Germany, Denmark, and Italy. Many donations arrived with notes detailing amazing stories of why this project is important to donors. A Jacksonville quilt shop has offered to quilt 9-10 quilt tops.

Lake County quilting guild is assembling tops out of blocks on July 19^th at Lake Receptions in Tavares after their guild meeting at 10 am. Members are invited to attend the guild meeting or to come to the sewing session, which will be about 11:30 am to 2:30 pm. If attending, take your sewing machine, supplies, tools and a power strip. The information is to be posted on the guild blog and Instagram.

August 15th is the deadline for blocks. Guild members are asked NOT to make more blocks, because we have so many to assemble with more arriving daily and need members to assemble, quilt and bind instead.

September 15^th is the deadline for finished quilts. They hope most are 50” x 60” but all will be accepted. Quilts that are not in the theme of hearts in rainbow colors will also be accepted.

Several members are investigating the best way to distribute the quilts to those they are intended to reach, including numerous contacts among first responders, people associated with Pulse, The Center, etc. October is Pride Month, so Alissa thinks the best way to distribute them may be as part of an event that month organized by some other organization, with any quilts left over to go to the Zebra Coalition, which helps homeless LGBT youth.

Meanwhile for the guild: Marge, Jodi and Leslie are picking up blocks from Alissa regularly, dividing them into coordinated kits of 15-30 blocks (some kits are short and may require alternate blocks be added) and will deliver them to Sew Days and to individuals (hoping some will meet them halfway), so members can begin to assemble quilt tops. Longarmers will receive tops, batting and backing; there are 14 in the guild, and Alissa hopes each will quilt 3-5 quilts. Beth will email the guild to ask the tasks they prefer and will compile a list of what members think they can do best, but everyone may be asked to help with other tasks as well.

Records are being kept so all corporate gifts can be acknowledged with a thank you note and tax letter. Alissa believes it may be cost-prohibitive to mail a thank you to all donors, but we will thank those who donate finished quilts and other substantial donations, with a thank you posted in Instagram and online at the guild website where donations were solicited and on the guild’s Pinterest board. Those wanting to be notified if their donation was received will be asked to enclose a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope. Eventually a list of all donor names will be posted online. Jodi suggested that everyone thank donors on Instragram.

Alissa noted that she initially said quilts would be donated to victims’ families but is aware that for some victims, other people than their biological families may have been their loved ones, so an effort will be made to see that quilts go to the person whose grief the victim would have wanted acknowledged. That will be part of the investigation into how to donate the quilts in October.

LUNCH

The group meeting for lunch after the guild meeting was going to Miller’s Ale House at 17-92 and Lee Road.

SHOW AND TELL

Because we ran out of time we are allowed the meeting space at noon, Show and Tell was cut short and members were asked to bring quilts that weren’t shown to the August meeting.

Many of the quilts shown were made by members who were not present, and a number –- though not all -- are either The House Next Door or Pulse project donation quilts. The last one pictured is a Pulse project quilt made and donated by the Patches of Time Quilt Guild in Kissimmee.

The meeting was adjourned at 12:00 Noon.

UPCOMING EVENTS

·      July 11 – Sew Day, Maitland Public Library, 10-4

·      July 16 – Sew Day, Dr. Phillips Public Library, 10-4

·      August 3 – OMQG Guild Meeting, The Sewing Studio

·      August 3 – OMQG Board Meeting, after the guild meeting

·      August 8 – Sew Day, Maitland Public Library, 10-4

·      August 15 –deadline for Pulse project quilt blocks – members are asked NOT to make more blocks but instead request kits to assemble donated blocks into quilt tops, quilt, or bind

·      September 7 – OMQG Guild Meeting, The SewingStudio

·      September 15 – deadline for Pulse project finished quilts

·      September 24 – Christa Watson class, “ModernQuilting in Style,” Bernina Sewing Center, Lake Mary

·      July 1–November 30 – Quilt entry for QuiltCon2017

·      November 3-6 – Guild Retreat at KenilworthLodge, Sebring, FL

·      TBD – Mary So’s class

·      January 7, 2017 – Frank’s class on dying fabric

·      February 23-17, 2017 - QuiltCon East 2017, in Savannah, GA

·      March 17-19, 2017 – Jacquie Gering trunk show and 2 days of classes

·      May 6, 2017 – Shannon Brinkley’s class