June Meeting Minutes ~ Inspire. Educate. Give.

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MEETING MINUTES

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Maitland, FL

SPECIAL GUEST

President Sarah opened the meeting by introducing Dr. Jackie Babb, recently graduated from UCF School of Medicine and soon to leave for her residency in Dallas, and pointed out how much she is already giving back to her communities. Jackie initiated a ShareBear project in high school for children in oncology wards in Fort Lauderdale, then again at UF, where she learned how much the little bears mean to children in the hospital. She started the project again at UCF College of Medicine and invited the OMQG to take part, which we have done as a short-term community outreach project this year. Several members took part in a Sew Day at the College of Medicine last month, the guild has given bears to Jackie before and presented her with 342 more today. Several members shared their experience of how much, and for how long, the bears remain important to children who get them when facing surgery or treatments in the hospital. Jackie has left several students at the med school prepared to keep the project going.

ICEBREAKER

As an Icebreaker, Sarah divided the room into two teams and asked for 2 volunteers from each to draw clues. Each team’s drawers chose a quilting term from a jar and drew pictures for the others to guess the term – such as “rotary cutter” (a rotary phone dial and a pair of scissors, not a drawing of the item itself). Members had a great time figuring out the terms that were drawn – jelly roll, UFO, feed dog, and fat quarter.

SURVEY

Sarah asked anyone not having received or completed the guild’s survey to leave their name with her so they can receive it by email. Survey resuilts will be used in planning by the board.

MQG UPDATE

Debra J gives us a monthly update on the Modern Quilt Guild, which sent its monthly email to members yesterday, including information on the MQG’s book, which will be out this year, and the new Chair of the Board, Andrew Joslyn. She asked if all members at the meeting had received the email. If anyone has not received the email, they should contact Marge, the treasurer.

BLOCK OF THE MONTH

Paula showed Melissa’s Block of the Month for this month, and had someone draw a name from those who brought one or more blocks and entered their name. Mary So won this month’s blocks, which are rectangular and can be made into either a quilt or placements.

Kelly presented the Block of the Month for July, a block made of two half square rectangles to be made in low volume background fabric and any green. Directions will be posted on the blog today.

TREASURER’S REPORT

Substituting for Treasurer Marge, who is not present, Paula read through the treasurer’s report for this month, which showed income and expenses varying by only bout $65 in May, with most of the expenses last month related to Shannon Brinkley’s class – her fee, hotel, meals, and teacher gift.

UNMODERN MADE MODERN

Alejandrina reported that a group working on the Unmodern Made Modern challenge to make modern quilts from unmodern fabric recently met to share ideas and show their fabrics. Everyone working on that guild challenge was invited to bring their fabric, idea sources, or works in progress to show at today's meeting.

RETREAT

Alejandrina presented the information about the retreat. Everyone should have received an email with the details. We’ll be at the Wyndham Ocean Walk in Daytona Beach, which is a condo, not a hotel, Nov. 2-5, 2017. Members are to make their own reservations, as directed in the email, and will get our discounted rate by mentioning they’re attending the “Orlando Modern Quilt Guild Convention.” There are studio, 1- or 2-bedroom suites; the 1-bedroom has 2 queen beds. Because it’s a condo and not a hotel, a damage deposit is required but refundable after the retreat. We will get the discounted rates quoted if we have 30 people attending and renting rooms. Look at the Wyndham Ocean Walk website for pictures of the building. We’ll be sewing in a ballroom with 1 large round tables for 2 people. There is plenty of power but we’ll need to take extension cords. We can have snacks only. The room will be open until midnight and then locked. To receive a refund of your deposit, one must cancel 2 weeks before Nov. 2.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

ShareBears

Mary W reported that more bears are coming in and we will continue to collect them through the July meeting. Anyone wanting to continue beyond that can connect with the students at UCF College of Medicine who will be organizing the continuation of the project in the fall.

Legal Aid Society Project

Mary W described for new members and guests our yearlong project this year, making twin-sized quilts for young adults aging out of foster care, a project for the Legal Aid Society. Mary W is excited to know that there are several collaborative efforts to make these quilts.

Jodi took her many orphan blocks to Sew Day at Dr. Phillips Public Library in May, where members sorted them into 4 kits, which she invited members to take and finish, or finish into tops that volunteer quilters can finish. Several have been taken by a group that is meeting to assemble them, and they suggest using solid squares to fill in where there are not enough blocks. She asked anyone interested to get a kit from her, and she also asked everyone to consider giving her their orphan blocks, so we can finish as many quilts made for this project as possible.

Quilts for Pulse

Mary W reported that Orange County Mayor Theresa Jacobs asked us to provide a quilt for Leo, the Pulse shooting survivor who was in the hospital the longest and who has been recuperating in Texas but will be here for Pulse events this week. That and other quilts have been provided to Mayor Jacobs, the others for Orange County employees. Another quilt was given to US Representative Val Demings by Debbe K, from the guild. Mary has about 63 quilts at her house and there are about 20 more out, which we are trying to get back to give to finish if necessary and get to OUC, which hopes to have them for family members who visit Orlando for the commemoration of the June 12^th shooting next Monday. There remains a box of blocks and 1 top, which it has been suggested we keep to finish quickly if there are more requests this coming year. While Paula had hoped to photograph the last quilts last week, one more photo session may be necessary.

Mary also reported that the Orange County Regional History Center is having an exhibit June 12-17 of their One Pulse Collection, which includes all of the notes and letters we received with quilts and one of our Quilts for Pulse quilts, as well as items left at memorials after the shootings. She suggested checking both city and county websites for events commemorating the June 12^th, 2016, shootings one year after.

Education Coordinator Anne reported on the Citizen Curator display at UCF, which includes our photographs of Quilts for Pulse. There is a reception for the exhibit tomorrow, 4-6 pm, June 8^th, at the UCF Gallery, which is free; she says parking is available this summer but does not know if that is free. Paula brought one Pulse quilt to show at the meeting [and hung it so the back was on display, with the text, “We are all born to be loved”] to show members how Pulse quilts were presented to recipients, with plastic baggies attached to each with a description of the Quilts for Pulse project, a ColorCatcher and washing instructions and an OMQG label attached to the quilt.

CALLS FOR BLOCKS

Beth explained that she is in charge of the guild’s response to Calls for Blocks for disasters as they occur. She said the guild has decided not to take part in the response to the Leeds MQG call for blocks in response to the bombing in Manchester, England, because they asked for very specific blocks, hexies, and the due date is tomorrow, June 8^th. Jodi has a number of the Manchester bee blocks made, which she is sending, and anyone interested in doing more can check #LeedsMQG on Instagram for information on their requests. Beth said we will keep an eye out to see whether we can help in other ways, and she will let the guild know.

The Missing U blocks gathered at the meeting today will be made into quilts for the families who lost their home to fire in Kissimmee recently, and Beth asked for volunteers to assemble the blocks into quilts, suggesting that anyone taking blocks fill in with solid blocks if more blocks are needed. Anyone taking blocks for this project should return finished quilt tops at the July meeting and email Beth when quilts are done, so she can arrange for quilting and binding volunteers. She will take any leftover blocks to Sew Day on Monday, June 12^th.

Blocks were gathered earlier for tornado victims in Georgia. Beth reported that she recently went to Georgia to worked with the woman who put out that call. Together they quilted 19 quilts, leaving only a few to be finished.

Sarah reported, for new members and guests, that last year the guild received from around the world most, but also made a number, of 1800 Quilts for Pulse, which were given to survivors, victims’ families, and those in the community impacted by the Pulse shootings last year, which was an incredible effort. She said our guild has a great tradition of community service, but pointed out to new members and guests that our community outreach efforts and our artistic challenges are optional, that “it’s what you want to do, no pressure.”

MQG CHARITY CHALLENGE QUILT

Debra J showed the fabrics (and colors) for our MQG Charity Quilt Challenge quilt to be submitted for QuiltCon 2018. She reported that her request to members for emailed suggestions for a design for the guild’s quilt resulted in 4 patterns, which she showed, and members voted choosing a design by our member, Anne . The other designs were log cabin, Dear Jane, and squares within a square. Debra said cutting will be done at Sew Day and packets of fabric for members to make into blocks will be given to members to at the July meeting.

FESTIVAL OF TREES

Wendy, who has agreed to chair our Festival of Trees donation quilt project (now in its 4^th year), reported that the FOT quilt will be made of either tree and star blocks, or just star blocks, depending on what volunteers decide they prefer, with the size depending on how many blocks are made. It must be completed before early November, so she will communicate with volunteers signing up for the project by email, they’ll receive baggies of fabric at the July meeting, and the blocks are due in August so the quilt can be assembled, quilted, and bound by the end of October.

EDUCATION BASKET

Janet returned the Raffle Basket filled a bottle of wine, a number of gadgets and tools, a bottle of starch, and other special items. The basket was won by Paula.

MODERN PRINCIPLES CHALLENGE

Mary So presented Challenge #2 in the Modern Principles Challenge, which she introduced at the April meeting. [She reviewed Challenge #1, which was to choose a traditional quilt block and reinvent or alter it to make it modern.] Challenge #2 is to use alternate gridwork, and she explained this with a number of projected images. She said she uses Electric Quilt and a drawing program to try out changes but said Jacque Gering has suggested using craft foam. She referred members to a variety of resources to read about each of these challenges, particularly to the “Resources” section and Search box at the Modern Quilt Guild website, to which all members have access. Because of member comments about the rules, she has updated them -- blocks should now be 12-1/2” (or smaller), made of solids or prints in a modern palette. Alternate grid ideas are due at the August meeting and can be drawings, not necessarily finished blocks. She suggested those doing this challenge do a Pinterest search for “modern traditionalism” or Instagram search for #modern traditionalquilts, for ideas, and she invited them to post ideas or blocks with the hashtag #modern principleschallenge. Challenge #3 in this project will be Negative Space.

GUILD LIBRARY

Guild librarian Yanick brings the guild’s library of modern quilting books to meetings. The book list is available at the guild website. Books may be checked out for a month and must be returned at the following month’s meeting.

SCRAPPY QUILTALONG

Jodi will post the next step in this guild challenge on the blog this weekend.

DOOR PRIZES

Three members won door prizes, selected by random number generator: