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 12th. 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,
1st 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 19th 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 15th
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 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 15 – deadline for Pulse project
finished quilts
·
January 7, 2017 –
Frank’s class on dying fabric
