Slides
Octavia (President) opens the monthly meeting at 10:05am on March 9th, 2024. We had 94 people in attendance, with several new members and guests also with us.
We recapped QuiltCon and QuiltNon, both went well for those who attended!
An update on April’s guild happenings:
April’s guest workshop speaker has been injured, she is having surgery next week and will not be able to travel in April. Her sessions will be rescheduled for next year.
April 13th (second Saturday of April), we will be having a free, virtual meeting. Our regional MQG rep, Sarah Ruiz, will be talking about the larger organization as a whole. She will be open to any questions you may have!
The improv block of the month’s instructional video will be posted next week on the website. Videos can be found here: Link. When you have each month’s row completed, take a picture, post to Instagram, tag the guild (@stlmqg) and use the hashtag (#stlmqgbom24)!
The charity committee planned to meet during break to discuss details of the upcoming charity goal of this year.
Finances:
January 2024 balance - $19,835.86
February 2024 - $15,245.57
Profit/Loss balance sheets are posted on website: Link
Upcoming Events:
March 20: Hand stitchers - Buder Library
March 22: Quilt Show set up
March 23-24: Quilt Show
March 26: Hand Sew Happy Hour
April 3: Hand Stitchers - Buder Library
April 13: Virtual Meeting with guest speaker Sarah Ruiz
August 16-18: Carolina Oneto Virtual Trunk Show & Workshops
October 4-6: Sew Me STL
The Swap & Challenge Committee presented our first Swap of 2024. March through May, we will be working on Lunch Bags using the colors of the STL MQG logo. Link
Lunch Bag Swap Details:
When: March through May
What: make a lined bag that’s no bigger than a brown paper lunch bag
Fabric: use the colors of the STLMQG Logo
Pattern: Member’s choice
Lining!
Closure: Member’s choice (snap, Velcro, fold-over or drawstring
Swap: at the May meeting (will put finished product in a brown paper bag, then we will swap!)
Pattern Ideas:
https://sewmodernbags.com/how-to-sew-a-classic-reusable-lunch-bag-free-video-sewing-tutorial/
https://www.dearcreatives.com/sewing/
https://sewingtimes.net/diy-drawstring-lunch-bag/
https://www.emilydawe.com/post/how-to-make-a-fabric-lunch-bag
https://sewmodernbags.com/sew-your-own-lunch-bag-video/?sfns=mo
The March meeting was the last call for collecting quilts for the Quilt Show. The committee is in FULL swing getting everything ready for the show in just two short weeks.
Please look at the slides for a full list of vendors that will be at the show; we have 15 this year!
We are still looking for volunteers for all types of jobs for the show! If you haven’t signed up yet, please do so with the link below! Times are available for Friday (set-up), Saturday (show), and Sunday (show & take-down). Signup Genius: Link
Important things to remember as a Quilt Show Volunteer!
Hydrate!
Bring lunch, concessions will not be available.
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes. If you have one of our new guild shirts, wear it!
Wear your name tag.
Park in the back of parking lot during the show to make sure our guests have easy access.
Go to the Guild Booth prior to your shift to check in.
A reminder that we need at least 2,000 paying guests to attend to break even on the show. Talk and share all things Quilt Show for the next two weeks!
And a BIG THANK YOU to our Quilt Show Committee!
Next up in big news for the guild is our Sew Me STL retreat! After the Quilt Show, start thinking about volunteering to help put on Sew Me this year! Meetings will start once a month in April.
For the raffle, Cotton Cuts donated 2 Allison Glass fabric bundles. Thank you Cotton Cuts!
Today’s activity: Making Traditional Modern Part 1 by Susan Muszynski, Part 2 by Lila Gardenia coming in May! Susan took us through building our own blocks with paper and then seeing how color can transform them!
Winners for the BOM & Scrap Buster challenges were picked.
Meeting concluded and some of us went to Llywelyn’s Pub in Webster!
The meeting was called to order on February 10th by the president, Octavia Pitts. We had 83 people in attendance. We forgot to count guests but there were at least two who then ended up joining bringing our membership to 193.
With Susan (treasurer) on vacation, we did not have a financial slide this meeting. There will be a financial update in March. For previous financials, they are posted on the website under the Member Resources tab, you will need to log in. Link.
Octavia (president) went through Guild Business, mentioning volunteers are needed for the Sew Me Committee, thanking the Quilt Show Committee for all of their hard work in the lead-up to the show in March, as well as a callout to the David Owen Hastings lecture that was hosted virtually in January that had more than 80 members in attendance.
The Scrap Buster Challenge has officially begun! To be entered in for prizes, please submit an image of your fabric pull on social media with #stlmqgscraps2024 or email stlmqg@gmail.com. More information on this challenge can be found here: Link.
The Improv BOM Sampler has also officially started! The tutorial for the first month can be found on the website: Link. First row is to be done by the March meeting; we will be showing the rows during Show & Share every month.
Quilt-Non is happening at Jackmans on February 24th. The sewing machine tables are full, but attendance is still encouraged! Update! We have a cancellation so there is one sewing machine table available as of 2/11.
Lots of events are coming up, we highly recommend checking the website often. This is very easy on the phone app; look for Wild Apricot for Members on your phone’s app store. The 2024 calendar has been updated with the dates that we know about. If we forgot something, let us know. You can email Gail at webdirector@stlmqg.org.
Volunteers are needed for the Quilt Show. There are many different ways to volunteer! You can view the volunteers needed and sign up to volunteer here: Link.
A list of the Quilt Show vendors will be posted to the website following their committee meeting 2/12.
Spread the word about the Quilt Show by sharing the Facebook event and posting about it on social media!
Suzanne Galli Koenen’s “Colorplay” is showing at the Webster Groves Public Library during the month of February. Link.
The Green Door Art Gallery in Webster Groves is hosting an exhibit called “Hooked on Fibers” through March 2nd. Link.
Faith Ringgold has an exhibit at the Chicago Contemporary Art Museum until February 25th. Link.
There is an estate sale with all things sewing and crafting on February 17th from 11am-3pm in Pinewood Estates in Wildwood. More information can be found in the Facebook group.
Loose Ends Project is a network of people throughout the country who will finish projects for families if they have a person who has passed or unable to complete projects. Craft individuals can sign up to be that someone to finish projects. Link.
Melissa and Annamaria are hosting a sewing day at Fence STL in Shrewsbury. If interested contact Melissa Eagan or Annamaria Lu for the address.
Program-
After the break we heard from our speakers Janice Samson and Carolyn Lesser. They talked us through all things color. We were encouraged to bring a square of neutral fabric and colorful scraps to look at how colors play with one another. For an in-depth look at what they spoke about, please look through the slides!
We raised $250 in the monthly raffle that was generously donated by Cotton Cuts. Fabric Raffle Winners: Carol Schmidt and Janice Samson.
The final thing we did was Show & Share, pictures can be found here: Link.
Meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Abbie Stolzer (secretary)
PDF of Slides
The meeting was called to order at 10:06 on January 13th by the president, Octavia Pitts. We had 67 people attending with one new member joining at the meeting.
Octavia (President) went through the financial slide. The balance at the end of the year was $20,770.21. We’ve got a couple of big expenses coming up; MQG dues will be around $2,700 and speaker fees of $1,800 for Kitty Wilkin in the next month. We will present the quilt show finances after the show, once the expenses have been paid. The financials are posted on the website under the Member Resources tab, you will need to log in. Link
We voted on the 2024 Board slate; Octavia to continue as President for another 2-year term, Gail Luther as Web Director in an one-year term and new to board, Abbie Stolzer for a 2-year term as Secretary. Spoiler alert, the officer slate passed almost unanimously.
Octavia went over the survey results from the survey sent out in December. You can see the results in the slides. We have a member forum on the website and invite any comments or questions about this or anything guild related to be posted there.
One note, the board is looking at other locations for 2025. Shrewsbury has already been contracted for 2024.
Another note, the board has heard loud and clear that we must have Show and Share every month. As we continue tweaking the way we present information at the meeting, please know that we know that the viewing of quilts is our top priority. Note from Gail. Pictures of previous Show and Shares are on the website whenever you need a quilt viewing hit. Link
It's time to sign up for our 2024 committees which can easily be done on the website. We also had paper signups at the meeting. For those of you new to the guild, committee assignments are a great way to get to know other members. Most committee meetings take place over Zoom, no more than once a month.
Hope Wyss proposed a vote for a one time donation of $100 to a Donors Choose project that is teaching 5th graders sewing skills where they will be making blankets for Project Linus. Link to Project. That proposal also passed.
Those that need to renew and haven’t, please renew now. Oops, those that didn’t renew were archived on January 15th. If you want to rejoin, go ahead and hit the Join Us button on the website. Link
Robyn Passig (Quilt Show Committee chair) announced that while the Quilt Show committee is full, we will be needing many volunteers at the actual show. Watch for a volunteer signup in February. Never fear, you will be reminded. Lots of volunteers are needed.
Laura Patterson volunteered to lead the Hand-Sew Happy Hour on January 23, and it will be at Bread Co. on Chippewa. See the event for details. Link Thanks to Laura for stepping up!
We still have openings (not many) for the David Owen Hastings lecture. This is free for members to attend and $10 for guests. Registration will close when we reach 100 attendees. Zoom instructions will be sent to those that registered during the week prior to the event. Link to event
Save the dates for Kitty Wilkin’s workshops and trunk show April 12 - 14, and Carolina Oneto on August 16 - 18. More information can be found, you guessed it, on the website. Link to Wilkin. Link to Oneto.
For those of you that are not going to QuiltCon this year, there will be a special Jackman’s sewing day on February 24th. We are calling it Quilt-Non! We will be collecting personal care items for St. Vincent DePaul. Body wash, lotion, laundry soap, diapers, and feminine hygiene products are always in high demand. You will need to register for this event on the website. Link
Guild t-shirts can be ordered through the website store until January 20th. We will be bundling the order and hopefully have shirts to hand out at the February meeting.
Occasionally, the Board gets a whim and issues challenges but we also have a committee that issues challenges so we decided to call the Board’s challenges, Board Games. The first board game is being handled by our president, Octavia. It is an Improv BOM Sampler. You can find details on the slide and on the website, you will need to scroll down a bit. Link
The second board game is being handled by Susan Muszynski (Treasurer) and is the Scrap Buster. You can find those details on the slide or the website. Link This one starts now and runs to the end of July.
Robyn Passig and Janice Samson from the Quilt Show committee came up and demonstrated the registration process to submit quilts for the upcoming quilt show. There were many, many questions about the process so Janice wrote up a document about it and it has been put on the Member Resources for Quilt Show page on the website. Link
The items noted included that the fields on the registration marked with a red asterisk are required. You can register up to nine modern quilts/projects. The projects will need to have been completed in the last five years. You will need to have the dimensions of the project for the form. The committee will use this in the planning of the layout of the show.
Information can be saved and updated later, however, the committee won’t see the information until your form has been submitted, so take notice.
The description form will be on the card next to the displayed quilt. Think of it as a marketing tool to convince others of how great modern quilting is.
While you are limited to nine projects, they can be all in the same category if need be.
Bella Gurevich showed us her awesome jacket that she will be submitting and asked what category it should be submitted to. The miscellaneous category is for modern quilted items that are outside the boundaries of a blanket or wall hanging. Patti Marti offered to let the guild borrow mannequins from work to display any jackets.
You will need an image ready to upload and the maximum size for the image is 10 GB. The form will not let you proceed without an image so be prepared. The image only needs to show the front of the quilt.
The project has to be completed to the point of binding to be registered. Yes, it has to be quilted in the photo to be registered. While it does not need to be bound for the photo, it does need to be bound and possibly sleeved for the actual show.
Susan Muszynski has the labels from the Chihuly challenge and will give them to the committee.
Note on the form if you want the back of something shown. There will be white glove volunteers at the show to turn quilts over for viewers.
If you are submitting in the Challenge category, please list the challenge it was a part of. There’s a list on the Quilt Show website page. Link
You should receive an email after hitting the Save button. We are unsure if you get an email after submitting. The Submit button is a big, green button. We are also unsure if once submitted, if you can go back to edit the submission. So, make sure you are done before Submitting.
The committee email is Quiltshow@stlmqg.org.
Nancy Dlugosz suggested having all of the information available before attempting the registration. Organization will save time.
Marie Hill asked to please use spell check. Write out your description separately and cut and paste to the description. This is what is shown to the public. We don’t want them knowing we can’t spell.
Kate Moore volunteered to proofread anyone’s description. Her email is katestlmo@gmail.com.
If you have a project in progress, you can enter your completed projects now and not actually submit it until January 31st, if you finish the current project, then you can add it. Don't forget to submit though.
We were reminded that there will be a jury process to ensure the selection of modern quilts for this show. This is not a judging evaluation, however it is possible for a quilt to be declined for the show. The committee will be using the MQG definition of modern quilting for the jurying process.
Items smaller than 40 inches do not need a sleeve.
Please include in your description the pattern name if used and the designer, or if you riffed on someone else's work. Also include who quilted the piece. Attribute where you can.
If a project has been accepted for the show, you will receive an email before the next guild meeting.
Other announcements -
The monthly after-meeting lunch was at Cowbron and was quite good.
Suzanne Galli Koenen will be displaying her paintings at the Webster Groves Public Library during the month of February. We actually have a news post about this on the website. Link
Cindi Templin brought up flyers for a smocking class . It has been added as a News post. Link
Laura Patterson reminded us that someone left a white cardigan at the SewMeSTL retreat in September. Please, contact us at stlmqg@gmail.com if you left behind a white sweater, we would like to return it.
Program -
After break, we then heard from our speaker, fellow member Mac Barnes who spoke about using computer tools in the quilting process. We enjoyed pictures of his projects which can be seen on the slides. He also brought two projects that we could look at up close. There are pictures of these projects included in the meeting’s pictures on the website. Link
He talked about how he came to quilting through his grandmother. He is a student at Washington University and enjoys using engineering problem solving skills in his quilting projects. You can find the stories behind his projects on his website, macbarnes.art.
Some of the software he uses is Inkscape and Procreate. Bing was also suggested as a way to get AI generated images.
He mentioned a show that was starting on the 13th at Art St. Louis. More information can be found on their website. Link
He recommended checking YouTube for videos on basically any process. He has found a variety of videos there.
Mac recommended following Matt’s Pixel Garden on Instagram. He creates art using math. @mattspixelgarden
You can follow Mac at his website, macbarnes.art and the same handle on Instagram, @macbarnes.art.
Raffles - We raised $125 on the monthly raffle, generously donated by Cotton Cuts, The winners were Susan Muszynski and Dorothy LaBounty. The prizes will be mailed to the winners.
We adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
Gail Luther
2023 Secretary
2024 Web Director
I wanted to open up the Recap blog to comments from members and when I did, I notice comments left by the public on basically every month's recap. They were all scam. I think I have it turned off for the public but on for the members. I also don't think I get any notification of comments left so if you ever see an inappropriate comment, please notify me at webdirector@stlmqg.org. Thanks! Feel free to leave appropriate comments.
While this is indeed a recap of the December 2023 meeting, it is also a recap of the entire year. There may be information that was not reviewed in the meeting so even if you attended the meeting, please read for the additional information. Grab a cup of coffee, it is long.
The December 16, 2023 meeting was brought to order at 10:06 by our president, Octavia Pitts.
Octavia presented a quick review of upcoming events.
The January program will be a presentation on Computer Engineering in Quilt Making from one of our newest (and youngest) members, Mac Barnes. Octavia also mentioned that Mac had a quilt accepted to show at the 2024 QuiltCon and will be teaching at a virtual quilting conference in January. See the post for more information.
You can see at a quick glance all the events scheduled for 2024 by either logging into the website on a computer or downloading the free app, Wild Apricot for Members, to your phone. You will use the same user id and password for the phone app and website. The phone app makes keeping up with guild news fast and easy.
Membership Renewal - If you joined the guild prior to January 2023, it is time to renew. Just log into the website and go to your profile. There is a video that was created last year that is still available to watch. Link. Keep in mind that the dates being referred to are from last year and the treasurer’s address has been changed for the 2023 treasurer, Susan. All the other information still applies. If you don’t wish to pay online, you must start the renewal process on the website to create an invoice. The treasurer will mark paid once physical payment is received. The board is not available to do renewals for members.
Library books - Please return them to Jenn Deck (vice-president). She is reviewing and updating the library and actually needs to lay eyes on all the books.
Other Items - A survey has been sent to all members to help the board in planning for 2024 and part of 2025. This survey will close January 1. Link to survey. Octavia assured us that it is anonymous and all responses will be taken into consideration in the planning of activities for 2024 and beyond.
Susan Muszynski (Treasurer) gave a brief overview of the guild’s finances. The November checkbook balance is $19,677.44. She reminded everyone that even if the balance isn’t mentioned at a meeting, it will always be included in the meeting’s recap. There is also a special page of financial information on the website under Member Resources. Link to page. Because this information is for members only, you will need to log in. Currently, all of the Profit and Loss statements are included and the last few Balance statements. Susan is working on backfilling the Balance Sheets for 2023. If there is other information you would like to see, please notify Susan at treasurer@stlmqg.org or you can leave a post in the Member Forum available under the Member Resources tab.
Octavia presented the board candidates that we will be voting on at the January meeting. Octavia is running for a two-year term as President, Gail Luther for one-year term in the new Web Director position and Abbie Stolzer for a two-year term as Secretary.
Octavia, on behalf of the rest of the guild, thanked everyone that participated in committee and leadership positions. Over 60 members volunteered on 9 committees. The guild would like to particularly thank the new House committee which has helped in setting up and running the actual meetings each month. If you had ever wondered whose hands were in the Show & Share pictures, it was someone on the House committee. We had five members step up as new committee leaders this year and Octavia named and thanked the Programming and Welcome committees. Gail Luther (Secretary) thanked and named the House, Swap & Challenge and Quiltcon Challenge Quilt committees. Susan Muszynski (Treasurer) thanked and named the Charity and Sew Me St Louis committees and Jenn Deck (Vice-President) thanked the Quilt Show and Social Committees. Thanks again everyone!
Thank you Sarah Holst of Sarah-Made who donated the fat quarters given as thank you gifts to the committee members.
Also, people asked where the quilt cookies came from and we got them from Dream Sweet Delights. Link
We are now accepting sign-ups for 2024 committees. Please use the sign-up sheet on the Committee page on the website. Please sign up even for committees (Quilt Show) that are carrying over from 2023.
Photo is all the 2023 committee members/leaders that were at the meeting.
Octavia went over a review of 2023 and Coming Attractions in 2024 which will be presented in more detail later in this recap.
She then announced that we are now taking orders for guild t-shirts. There are two color options for short sleeve versions and one color option for a long sleeve version. Orders will be taken until January 20th and then a bulk order placed. We hope to pass out the ordered t-shirts at the March meeting, possibly the February one. You can sign up and pay for the t-shirts at the Store on the website. The Store is only available to members so you will need to log in. The Store is not available on the phone app, you will need to access it through a browser either on a computer or your phone.
The meeting was then turned over to Jessica Schunke and Kristi Daum of the Swaps & Challenges committee. Everyone that brought a bag of favorite items (which was most of us) participated in two big circles passing our bags left and right according to a dice throw. There was much laughter as we tried to remember our left from our right. The bags included each member’s favorite tool and a FQ from their favorite designer and one of their favorite colors.
After break, we then played a rousing game of Quilty Bingo and then passed out many attendance prizes. Once again, our fearless treasurer, Susan, did not win.
Then to the favorite part of every meeting, Show and Share. Please check out the photos on the website. Link to Photos. Included in the parade of quilts is our guild’s submission to the 2024 QuiltCon Charity Challenge. More information will be forthcoming and included on the challenge page.
Member Kat Scott made an announcement concerning the organization MADE on Delmar has sewing equipment and would love for our members to check it out.
That concluded this month’s meeting. Please continue reading for a more complete recap of the year and coming attractions for 2024.
These items were summarized at the meeting, this write-up has more details.
MEMBERSHIP - Our membership numbers are currently at 217 after picking up one new member at the beginning of this month’s meeting. This time last year, it was reported that we had 207 members. In January 2023, this number dropped to 144 meaning 63 existing members did not renew. The membership database shows that we received 59 new members throughout the year though sometimes it is difficult to discern if they are rejoins or brand new members. Obviously, we have had some rejoins but not as many as we could have hoped. The challenge going forward is to keep the members we have while also continuing to add new members. The other continuing challenge, of course, is effectively managing a guild of this size.
As of this writing, the database is showing that 83 members have rejoined for 2024. Two renewal notifications have gone out in email, another one is scheduled for January 1, 2024. On January 8, 2024 a lapsed notice will go out. On January 15, 2024 memberships that haven’t been marked as renewed will be considered expired and will be archived. We usually pick up several renewals at the January meeting.
The 64 members that have a different renewal date will have similar renewal notices starting 60 days prior to their renewal date. You can see your renewal date (and process your renewal) in your profile on the website.
QUILTCON - We were very proud to be represented by five quilts at the 2023 QuiltCon in Atlanta, Georgia. You can see more information about these quilts on our website. You can also see in the group picture, just how many of us went this year. If you are planning on attending QuiltCon in 2024, watch for a signup. This is just so we know how many are going and help in wrangling everyone for a picture. If you have had a quilt accepted at QuiltCon, first off congratulations and second please notify the board at stlmqg@gmail.com or webdirector@stlmqg.org. We want to be sure to get a picture of it at the actual show. Link to QC page.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH - Our membership voted to donate $1000 to Sew Hope Community Sewing Room to help in recovery efforts after a flood. We also voted to donate $1000 to City Sewing Room to assist in their efforts to add a quilting annex. Our charity committee collected over 64 quilts from our membership for residents in three of our community’s neediest long-term care facilities; Blue Circle (St Louis City), Green Park ( St Louis county) and Frontier (St Charles county).
CHALLENGES - Our guild loves a good challenge. Information and pictures on all these challenges can be found on the Challenges page on the website.
WORKSHOPS/TRUNK SHOWS - We had two workshop/trunk show series this year; Rebecca Bryan in April and Tia Curtis in July. There are links to galleries of pictures from their trunk shows on the Speakers/Workshops page listed under the Guild Activities tab. You can see a description of future plans for workshops in the same tab; David Owen Hastings in January, Kitty Wilkin in April, and Carolina Oneto in August. Those future events are also listed as events in the website and we are currently accepting registrations for the David Hastings lecture which is free to members but you must register.
OTHER COMING EVENTS - This is Modern quilt show in March, three Jackman sew days, more challenges and the member retreat, Sew Me St Louis in October. Keep an eye on the event calendar.
MEETING ATTENDANCE - Attendance at the December meeting was 92 members with one member joining that morning. The average attendance at meetings in 2023 was 90 as compared to 77 in 2022.
If you have a suggestion for a venue that might work better for us, please email stlmqg@gmail.com or post on member forum under Member Resources. Keep in mind that we have members spread all over the St. Louis metro area including many members in Illinois. The room needs to accommodate 100 + people and have access to a well-working microphone and decent audio-visual equipment would be frosting on the cake. It also needs ample parking which on occasion, Shrewsbury falls short on.
FUNDRAISING - This year we raffled off 16 fat quarter bundles, generously donated by Cotton Cuts, raising $1495. The donated FQs were from various designer collections and the Kaffe Fassett bundle in February was the favorite bringing in $265. Our 2023 expense for monthly room rental was $1590 so you can see we came very close to covering the room rental. Thanks Cotton Cuts for the fabric and thanks everyone that bought tickets. Keep buying raffle tickets!
Quilt Show Changes - After searching for alternative venues, the Quilt Show committee suggested and we agreed, to change the venue to Greensfelder Recreation Center in Queeny Park and to move up the dates of the show to March 23-24, 2024. After a mad scramble to adjust the planning for this bigger and better show, we are quickly approaching registration dates for your quilts. This new date, hopefully, will continue into the future on alternate years from the quilt show that fellow guild, Bits n Pieces hosts.
Workshops/Retreats - We hosted two different workshop/trunk show series. Rebecca Bryan in April and Tia Curtis in July. We had over 77 members register for the four workshops. The annual membership retreat was held in September this year and we had 94 members register for the retreat and 91 physically check in. There are special pages for these events, please check them for more information about the events; Speakers/Workshops and SewMeSTL Member Retreat.
Bylaw Changes - At the June meeting, we passed amendments to the guild’s bylaws changing the membership period from a yearly cycle ending on December 31st to a rolling year based upon the date a member joins. Now that we are on Wild Apricot, this type of membership management is automatic and we’re ready to take advantage of it. The schedule of electing board officers was also changed from December to January to remove the translation of new officers out of the busy holiday season.
At the October meeting, we amended the bylaws again to add a new position, Web Director. This is effectively splitting the current role of Secretary, moving responsibilities with the new website to a separate role.
Website - We completed our first official year on the Wild Apricot (WA) hosted website. We joined this service in September 2022 and continue to find new ways to use it. We prepaid two years fees in 2022 in order to take advantage of a 15% discount. We will be up for renewal in September 2024 and the current plans are to renew this service. WA is set up on a tier fee basis and currently we are using the tier that covers groups of up to 250 members. We could conceivably need to upgrade our contract to a higher tier of up to 500 members. At our current tier, renewal will be at $1530 after a price increase made earlier in the year. By prepaying for two years, we delayed the increase until we renew our contract. The monthly breakdown of cost is $51 a month currently; at renewal we would jump to $63.75. If we were to increase our tier to over 250 people, then the monthly cost would be $119, a substantial increase. We would not need to pay this increase until we actually cross that threshold.
Another item that we are watching closely, is the space we are using on the website. Currently, we are sitting at 50% of the allowed space. We are a visual craft and like to make use of lots of photos, unfortunately these photos take up a lot of space. In 2024, the web director will be looking at archiving older displays of photos and taking advantage of our guild space on Google Photos. We will also keep our old space on blogspot which we are using as an archive of the guild’s business from 2010 through 2022. We don’t anticipate moving this and it is free.
The board will be seeking to find ways to effectively use the website in the future in the management of all activities of the guild; particularly hoping to find ways to ease the management of committee tasks.
Other Tools - We started using Google Workspace in 2023 and plan to continue the use. This service is free to non-profit organizations and it allows us to expand storage space for board and committee activities. Each committee has a dedicated email address and space, and it will continue to be their choice to use it. We also plan to continue the use of Zoom in committee/board meetings, virtual sew activities and other uses. We don’t plan to continue the use of Zoom in the monthly meetings, due to low virtual attendance and technical difficulties that are complicated to assess and correct at meetings.
Questions about this recap may be directed to secretary@stlmqg.org or can be written as a post on the Member Forum on the website.
Secretary, 2023
The meeting was called to order at 10:03 by the president, Octavia Pitts (OP).
The treasurer, Susan Muszynski (SM) called for a moment of silence to honor those members that are veterans.
OP reminded us of the upcoming sewing day at Jackman’s Fabrics on November 18. There are still spots available for hand sewers and machine sewers. If you are interested, please register on the event page. Keep in mind that this event is for members only. If you are shopping at the sale that day at the St. Louis location, be sure to stop by the sewing room to say hi. Link to Event
OP - Elections for the 2024 Board will be held in January. Please contact Hope Wyss if you are interested in serving on the board. She is particularly interested in finding someone for the Secretary position. She can be reached at hope.wyss@gmail.com. If you would like to review the duties of each board role, please refer to this document. -Link to Officer Roles
The slide lists that the November Hand Sew Happy Hour has been canceled. That has now changed. Tess McMahon has graciously offered to host the event on November 14 (also a change) at the Bread Co. on Chippewa. Please see the event for the address. Link to event
OP also mentioned that we are attempting to spread out the hand sew events throughout the month in 2024 so if you want to attend all three, you can!
The slide also incorrectly indicates that the date for the David Owens Hastings event as January 24, 2024. The correct date is January 25, 2024. This event is virtual and free for members and $10 for nonmembers. We do ask that members register and that registration will open on November 26. An email will be sent that day. Link to event
Events for 2024 are now on the calendar. Please review the website/phone app frequently to keep up to date on what is being offered.
We are currently seeking committee members for 2024. The sign-up page is available on the website along with descriptions of the committees and current members. We will be also looking for leaders of the committees so please consider volunteering for one of those roles. Link to committee page
The early-bird pricing for the Quiltcon quilt show ends on November 30. Members that register get into the show for free. So even if you are not sure if you are going, you might as well register. Link to Quiltcon
Don’t forget that all library books need to be returned by the December meeting. It is also time to turn in any charity quilts that you have been working on.
Mark your calendars for the December meeting. It will be a celebration of what the guild accomplished in 2023. Please note that it is for members only and it is highly recommended that you register ahead of time. See the slide or event for a reminder about the Favorites swap. Link to Event
The quilt top has been pieced together and handed off to Emily Wall for quilting. The committee thanks everyone that helped by creating the blocks.
Quilt Show Committee
Robyn Passig, committee chair for the Quilt Show, updated us on the timeline for the show, which you can see on the slides. An event for the January registration period has also been added to the website calendar. A link for registering your quilts will be added to the event and Quilt Show page once it is available.
OP reminded us that the renewal of membership for everyone that joined prior to 2023 is happening now. Renewals for members joining in 2023 will be the date that member joined. You can see the date of your membership on your member profile on the website or the phone app. See below for more information if you are currently renewing.
OP reminded everyone that we are meeting at McAlister’s for lunch after the meeting. Thanks to the social committee for organizing these lunches. They have been great fun.
OP reminded everyone of the Free Table in the back and noted that Nancy Kingston evidently cleaned out her sewing room because she brought a lot of stuff for the table.
The Program - ENGLISH PAPER PIECING
Amy Suiter, the program committee chair led this month’s activity. Everyone worked on an English paper piecing project with a fall theme. We created bookmarks using hexagons. Attendees created either a straight bookmark or a very cute turkey bookmark. Link to pictures
There are links in the slides to various tutorials. A special thanks goes to our EPP Helpers; Leila Gardunia, Tess McMahon, Sally Koczan, Gayle May, Susan Muszynski, Janice Samson and Octavia Pitts who were on hand to help everyone with their project. Thanks to Amy, the committee and all the helpers for a fun activity.
2023 ROUND ROBIN REVEAL!
The final pass was made for the 2023 Round Robin Challenge and again, we were amazed by the talent of our members. 42 members participated in seven nests. A special thanks goes to the “mama birds”, the members that volunteered to keep their group (“nest”) organized; Marie Hill, Em Komiskey, Kristina Olson, Nichole Lewis, Edy John, Pam Hartig and Sybil Fisher. Check out the photos on the challenge page.
The winner of this month’s prize of a Carolyn Friedlander FQ bundle went to Jolene Grosch. An overall prize of a Cotton Cuts Modern Maker one-month membership went to Pam Waske. Congratulations everyone!
MORE PRIZES!
The monthly attendance prizes were drawn and once again, Susan M did not win. Remember to wear your handmade name tag to future meetings to receive a chance at the attendance prizes. If you have anything to donate for prizes, please see Susan Muszynski.
This month’s prize of the Riley Blake FQ bundle, Arrival of Winter was awarded to Candy Grisham and Robyn Passig. Thank you Cotton Cuts for your generous donation. Robyn Passig was asked at lunch about her frequent success at winning the fabric raffle and she just replied that she likes to increase her odds. So, be sure to participate in future raffles, you do not need to be in attendance to win. We raised $115 this month in the raffle and the proceeds will help pay for the meeting room.
SHOW & SHARE
We saw lots of great quilts in the show & share. Check out the photos here. Photo Gallery
ATTENDANCE / MEMBERSHIP
87 Members attended in person, with four attending by Zoom. We had six guests of which three have since joined. Membership currently stands at 215.
FINANCIALS
The guild’s checking account is currently $18,722.99. There was a big drop from October because the venue bill for the SewMeSTL retreat was paid.
The October Profit & Loss has been posted to the website. Link to Statements
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
For the vast majority of us, it is time to renew our membership. You can easily renew online at the website, stlmqg.org or on the handy smartphone app, Wild Apricot for Members. You use the same password and userid on the app that you use online on the website. You can renew at either place by simply going to your profile. The profile will tell you when your next renewal is in case you can’t remember if you have renewed or not (no judging here, it happens). The actual link is not highlighted on the website so it is easy to miss. The link says Renew to 01/01/2025 (The Website won't let me post a picture here).
You will be reminded again, 30 days before it is due and then again seven days prior. To avoid these annoying emails, just go ahead and renew! You are welcome to pay by check if you don’t like to pay online but please go ahead and start the renewal process and create an invoice. Your treasurer will mark it paid once the check is received. Doing this helps her save several steps and she thanks you for it. Her address should be on the invoice or you can pay at the meeting.
NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS FOR 2024
Let’s get into the habit of registering for the monthly meetings ahead of time. This helps the board and committee with meeting planning by letting us know how many people to expect. Plus, once you register, it is very easy to add the event to your phone calendar.
CONTACT INFO
Email - stlmqg@gmail.com
Website - stlmqg.org
Facebook Page - St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild
Instagram - @stlmqg
If you need to find someone in the guild, there is a Directory on the website Members Resources and phone app (far left on bottom menu). If you don’t want to list your name in the directory, please go to the Privacy section of your Member Profile. It currently defaults to Member Only and the public cannot see this information.
Respectfully Submitted,
Gail Luther - Secretary, 2023
Note to readers. To streamline the meeting, items will be referred to in the Recap that weren’t discussed in the meeting. Please read through the entire Recap to stay updated on the Guild’s business.
PDF of meeting slides
Meeting called to order at 10:05 by the president, Octavia Pitts.
Notice to those attending via Zoom. Due to the ongoing issue with sound quality and the fact that not many members are accessing the guild meeting through Zoom, the board has decided to stop offering this as an option in 2024. It will be available for the November meeting but not in December due to the nature of the planned meeting. Zoom will continue to be available as a resource for committee members to host online committee meetings.
Also, because of the nature of December’s monthly meeting, it will be limited to members only.
Treasurer’s Report – We have $29,399.24 in the checking account though be aware that all the bills from the SewMe Retreat have not cleared yet.
Attendance this month - 89 members with two additional on Zoom. We also had three guests.
Please note that the December meeting will be on the 3rd Saturday of the month, December 16th and will be for members only.
Octavia Pitts went over the Board Updates. Charity quilts are due by November 30. If you are a new member in the past several months, make sure you pick up a new member bag at the Welcome Table.
Blocks for the Quiltcon Challenge quilt are due today. If you were unable to drop off your blocks, please contact Marianne Belcke at msbelcke@gmail.com as soon as possible. They are putting together the blocks next weekend.
There is an exhibit at the Buder Library of projects created by the group that meets there twice a month. Photos of Exhibit
We voted on the amendment to the Guild’s bylaws which passed.
It is time to start considering nominations for the board in 2024. The open positions are President, Secretary and Web Director. If you are interested in being nominated, please contact Hope Wyss at hope.wyss@gmail.com. These are two-year positions; Jennifer Deck and Susan Muszynski will fulfill their remaining year on their two-year terms as Vice President and Treasurer in 2024. Elections will be held in January. Oct. 18, 2023 Correction - the Web Director election will be for a one-year term while the President and Secretary are for two-year terms. Starting in 2025, the Web Director will transition to a two-year term.
Octavia reminded everyone of upcoming guild events which can be found on the website and the trusty Wild Apricot app.
Oct. 17 – Hand Sew Happy Hour – Chippewa Bread Co
Oct. 18 – Hand-Stitchers at Buder Library
Oct. 28 – Virtual Sew hosted by Susan Muszynski
Nov. 18 – Free Sew Day at Jackman’s Fabric – register for this on website
The after-meeting lunch was held at Cowbron’s and November’s lunch will be at McAlister’s Deli. Note to the Social Committee from the Secretary – let’s do Cowbron’s again, it was great!
Mary Beth Oberlin and Ann Regal of the Quilt Show committee presented an update on the quilt show planned for March 23 – 24, 2024. The committee is calling for volunteers to hold demos during the quilt show. This will be an opportunity to share techniques and skills in presentations of up to 20 minutes. Please email quiltshow@stlmqg.org if interested. Mary Beth reminded us of important dates; quilts will be submitted in the month of January and dropped off at the February and March meetings. Details can be found on the website. Keep working on those projects and watch for volunteer signups in February.
Octavia reminded everyone of the Favorites Swap that we have scheduled for the December meeting. There is no official signup required, just bring your favorite items as instructed below in a paper bag for the swap. The combined bag of items should be under $20. The random swap will be done with a version of left, right, and center game.
Your favorite notion
A FQ of fabric by your favorite designer
A FQ of fabric in your favorite color
Please make sure FQs are modern and quilt-shop quality.
Octavia thanked the SewMe Retreat committee for an excellent retreat and mentioned that some rulers and a rotary cutter were left behind. Our beloved raffle caller, Laura Patterson, also said that a cream colored sweater was left behind. So, if you left stuff behind, please contact stlmqg@gmail.com and let us know. We are trying to reunite these lost items with their owners.
Susan Muszynski thanked everyone that participated in the Chihuly mini-quilt challenge. There were 21 entries, and some were displayed at the meeting. We are working on building a web page of pictures of the entries and will let you know when that is available. The Board was blown away by the entries and once again, realized just how talented our members are.
Everyone that entered this year’s Log Cabin Challenge presented their projects with their artist’s statements. There were 33 entries. Photo Display. Again, our members showing just how talented they are. We are so excited to have all of these items in the 2024 Quilt Show!
After break, our featured speaker was Kacie Starr Long of Sew Hope Community Sewing Room. She talked about her journey and her mission and some of the many projects going on at the Sew Hope. If you are interested in knowing more about Sew Hope, please check out their website at www.SewHopeSTL.com.
One event that they have coming up is an Open House of their new annex. See details on picture.
Some of the attendees from the recent Barn Quilt painting event presented their projects. Nice job everyone. Pictured L to R - Jennifer Deck, Noreen Schneider and Susan Muszynski.
2023 Log Cabin Challenge
The winners for this year's challenged were announced after everyone shared their projects and artist's statements. Photo Display
1st place ($150) – Dottie Vaughn
2nd place ($125) – Angie Henderson
3rd place ($100) Mary Beth Oberlin
Honorable Mention ($25) – Gina Shelley, Patti Baymiller and Marie Hill.
Thanks everyone that entered, your projects were amazing.
The winners of this month’s fabric raffle of Tiny Frights by Ruby Star, generously donated by Cotton Cuts, were Dottie Vaughn and Melissa Eagan.
This month’s winner of a $25 Jackman’s gift card for the Round Robin challenge was Laura Patterson. Please remember that next month is the last month for the round robin.
The winner for the FQ Paintbrush solid bundle for the Chihuly challenge was Ann Mohan.
Show and Share photos
Other News –
Renewal of Membership – please read this post
Volunteer Opportunity – please read this post
Thanks everyone, see you next month.
Meeting called to order at 10:04 by the president, Octavia Pitts.
Octavia started the meeting by doing the financial review in lieu of absent treasurer, Susan Muszynski. Susan is taking a well deserved vacation in Europe though OP did note that she did not have official permission from the board to be absent.
As noted on the slide, the guild has $26,573.84 in the guild checking account. Specific expenses noted was the Tia Curtis workshop which had a loss of $2680.00. Other upcoming significant expenses include the SewMe Retreat next month.
Monthly attendance numbers remain quite healthy, June’s meeting had an attendance of 93. August’s attendance was 89 in person, 1 guest who has since joined and 6 via zoom.
Quick reminder; there are many ways to stay in touch with the guild’s board and other members. Facebook: St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, Instagram: @stlmqg, Website: stlmqg.org, and Email: stlmqg@gmail.com.
Jenn Deck (vice president) went over the various events happening throughout the community. Please see the slide for the list and links. Special reminder to those wanting to register for QuiltCon this year, it’s a good idea to log on before the registration date to ensure that there are no issues with your membership on MQG. Contact stlmqg@gmail.com if you find that you can’t log on. Registration is August 15 so this warning may too late.
Jenn also went over the upcoming events/activities that the guild has planned; all of which can be seen on the website’s calendar (home page – very bottom, or the events page). Even more conveniently, they are all listed on the smartphone app where you can also register for events. Link to Events Page
Remember that there will be no guild meeting in September because of the much anticipated SewMeSTL Retreat on September 15 - 17. National Sew a Jelly Roll day just happens to be 9/16, so whether you're at home or at SewMe, grab that jelly roll and get sewing!
The board is looking for someone to host the Hand Sew Happy Hour on September 19, please contact stlmqg@gmail.com if interested.
Mark your calendar and save the dates for our 2024 speakers and workshops. On January 24 we'll host David Owen Hastings' lecture on zoom, April 12-14 for an in-person trunk show and workshops by Kitty Wilkin, Night Quilter and August 16-18 virtual trunk show and workshops via zoom with Carolina Oneto.
Octavia presented the current business. Again no meeting in September. She went over the proposed bylaw amendment to add a new officer position to the board that will be voted on in October. Link to PDF
She shared an online resource for new and secondhand sewing supplies at A Thrifty Notion.
Octavia discussed some tentative plans for the December meeting. Based on member feedback, we are changing the structure of the meeting to be more fun, fair, and reflective. Most notably, we will not need member donations for a raffle.
She also mentioned that she and Jenn are planning on sending a survey to see members' interest in future lectures and workshops. Stay tuned for that.
Committee Announcements -
Swap & Challenge - Jessica Schunke reviewed the rules for the current Log-Cabin Challenge. See the website page for all of the rules and prizes. She explained that judging would be based upon how well the completed project fit the given brief or criteria.
Post meeting note from Jessica - Participation Survey for STLMQG Log-Cabin Challenge
--- As we mentioned at Saturday's meeting, the Swap & Challenge Committee is trying to gauge how many entries to expect for the Log-Cabin Challenge, which is due at October's meeting (details on the challenge can be found here. If you expect to participate in the Log-Cabin Challenge, please complete this quick, two-question form by Sept. 1: Questionaire
Don't worry, this won't lock you into participating if something comes up (and you won't be barred from participating if you don't complete it), but if you're pretty sure you're going to participate, please help us out by completing it. Thanks! ----
Kristy Daum went over the newest challenge issued by the committee. We are having a Favorites Swap at the December meeting. No need to sign in, just bring your items to the December meeting if you wish to participate. The challenge is to bring three “favorite” items in a paper bag to swap. Those items will include your favorite notion, a fat quarter of fabric from your favorite modern designer and a fat quarter of fabric in your favorite color. Please limit the total value of the items to approximately $20 and the items are expected to be new, not used. A random swap will be done with a version of left, right, center game. Please make sure the FQs are modern and quilt-shop quality. This swap isn’t listed on the website yet but will be added in the next week.
SewMeSTL - Kristina Olson reminded everyone that registration for next month’s retreat is still open. There are few openings left on Saturday and Friday and several openings on Sunday. Registration will be closed on August 15 at 5:00 pm to allow the committee to work with finalized lists of attendees.
Gail Luther would like to interject at this point and remind everyone to make sure they have paid if they are planning to attend. We had a hiccup with the payment processor during the initial sign-up. You may have thought you paid but it didn’t complete. Emails will be going out this week to remind those that haven’t paid to please complete their payment. If you are sure you have paid (have a receipt or confirmation) but your membership records says you have not, please contact Gail at secretary@stlmqg.org and we will get this straightened out.
Back to Kristina, raffle donations are being accepted. Please contact her at stlmqg@gmail.com if you have something to donate.
Additional volunteers are still needed for various items and duties, please use this link to sign up. Sign Up Link. Currently, two hotel rooms are being raffled off and the winners are listed at the end of this recap.
Laura Patterson commented that charity quilts would be an excellent item to work on during the retreat. We have 50 quilts donated so far. There will be someone at the retreat to accept any completed charity quilts.
QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge - Leila Gardunia and her committee presented their much anticipated plans for this year’s Quiltcon challenge quilt. She described the challenge and explained this year’s theme is symmetry and the palette which can be seen on the slide (and eventually on the website).
Patti Baymiller described their design process and showed examples of various designs that they looked at and Marianne Belcke unveiled the final design which can be seen below. 140 blocks will need to be completed by members and the committee has prepared packets that contain the instructions and necessary fabric. We are asked to sign up for at least one packet and again, an excellent project for this year’s retreat. The blocks will be due back at the October meeting and they ask that the blocks be put in a plastic baggie if mailed.
All this information will be put on the website in the challenge in the coming weeks. Final Design -
Post meeting note from Leila -
--Each year the Modern Quilt Guild invites member guilds and individuals to make a quilt to be displayed at the next QuiltCon and to benefit charity. Our Community Outreach Challenge Committee presented their quilt design and members were invited to sign out quilt block packets and make a block for our challenge quilt. The packets contain both fabric and instructions for the block. Further detailed instructions can be found at: Tutorial
If you were not at the meeting, block packets may also be signed out any day of SewMe STL (Sept 15-17th). Blocks will need to be returned at SewMe STL or at the October 15th meeting. Blocks may also be mailed back if posted by Oct 7th.--
Quilt Show - Robyn Passig caught us up on what the quilt show committee has been doing.
The show will be on March 23 - 24, 2024 with setup on March 22 and will be held at Greensfelder Recreation Complex at Queeny Park. Some important dates to keep in mind: submission of quilts online will be the month of January, the drop off of quilts will be at the February and March meetings.
Robyn asked for a show of hands on members planning on entering at least one quilt and there was a majority of hands which bodes well. Robyn went over the requirements which can be found in the slides and on the website.
She reviewed the jury process which she reminded us is separate from the judging process. She also went over the definition of modern quilting; the guild will be following the definition set forth by the Modern Quilt Guild She presented the categories that will be included; new this show will be Art Quilts and Maximalism.
Most importantly, because the show has been moved up several months, the committee needs to expand and they are looking for more committee volunteers. She listed the various subcommittees with the hope that we are able to have two volunteers for each subcommittee.
In addition to volunteering for a committee position, we can all help now by distributing postcards to quilts shops and posting on social media. There is a website page just for the Quilt Show and Gail will ensure that it is updated in the coming week.
Hope Wyss asked if there was a description of the duties involved in the subcommittee. Here is the description that was included in a guild-wide email last month.
Publicity – Create communications (print ready postcards, social media posts) for members, other guilds, quilt shops, newspapers, and quilt lovers.
Vendors – Contact vendors and invite them to vend at the show. Track acceptances and payments, be their main contact for any questions or setup needs.
Registration – Find software package to allow members to register their quilts. Copy quilt info into individual documents (placards) for printing.
Quilt Storage – Accept quilts at meetings and store in animal-free room, grouped by rows.
Staffing – Using SignUpGenius, ask members to sign up for shifts for Friday Set up, Sunday Take Down, Saturday/Sunday Admissions, Raffles, white glove walking, etc.
Display – Draft area layout to include rows of quilts, Admissions, quilt booths, vendor booths etc. Determine the flow of quilts in each category.
Wood conduit purchase, sanding, varnish – Yep, We will need more!
Admissions – Review past year's processes with Treasurer to see what can be streamlined and emphasize welcoming our guests
Set up – Coordinate running quilts to correct section, demo how to hang quilts on Friday (create a video?)
Demos / Modern Quilting presentation – Ask members to share their skills, coordinate presentations
Program, ballots, raffle tickets, quilt placards – Create Print Ready copies
Show Chair Apprentice – Learn how to coordinate all committee efforts, contract with venue and convention center supply vendors, and prepare budget with the goal of being the Show Chair for 2026.
Sign up form to join committee. Link.
Em Komiskey commented many libraries throughout the area have quilting groups; those might be a good place to drop off some postcards.
Another member asked if quilts submitted in the Guild Challenge category would count against the limit of 9 per member. The answer is Yes!
Jenn Deck reiterated that high need for more volunteers so please consider volunteering. A SignUpGenius form will be set up in the coming week.
Social - Allison Maestri announced another social event; Barn Quilt Painting Night Out on September 30th, 6:30 to 9:00 pm. An event has been created, you should have received an announcement email. You will sign up for the event through the vendor’s website, AR Workshop. All of the information will be listed on the event in our website calendar.
August’s after meeting lunch was at Raising Cane’s in Maplewood, the October after meeting lunch will be Cowbron in Maplewood, check the event calendar for more details. Event will set up soon.
Member Announcements -
Melissa Eagan announced that she and Annamaria Lu were hosting a sew-in day on Sunday August 13th to work on blocks for a community quilt to contribute to You Are Not Alone quilt to benefit the AFSP which is an organization devoted to suicide prevention programs. You will have missed the sew-in day by the time you get this recap but you can contact Melissa for more information, Melissakae08@gmail.com. This picture is a screenshot of the post she made on Facebook.
Nancy Kollmar announced that she was selling raffle tickets for a Dear Jane quilt. The proceeds go to help offset the costs of a quilt show hosted by Circle in the Square Quilters, a fellow guild. Here is a screenshot of a Facebook post announcing the show. If you are interested in buying raffle tickets, you can use the QR code.
Octavia, standing in for Susan Muszynski, who is gallivanting around Europe, reminded everyone that the UFO Challenge was officially over and the prizes would be drawn later in the meeting. The Mini-Quilt Chihuly Challenge is still going on and you have until September 30 to submit your projects. Description and rules are listed on the website.
Octavia went over a bylaw change proposal submitted by the Board. You can read the proposed changes here, but essentially the board wants to add an officer position that will be dedicated to maintaining the website. The other work will be shifted between the other four directors to even out the workload. This change will be voted on in October. You must be a dues paying member and present at the meeting to vote.
Octavia called for a vote on a guild donation of $1000 to the City Sewing Room to help build their new annex which will be dedicated to Quilting. Ballots on the vote passed. The donation will be made in the coming weeks. She also announced that our speaker for October will be from Sew Hope which is a sister organization with the City Sewing Room.
Break Time - comment from Gail. Many people had difficulties buying raffle tickets online during break. I suspect the problem was volume and you might consider in the future, buying tickets before the meeting. The link is always included in the email that goes out the Tuesday before the meeting.
Program - Preparing to Send Your Quilt to a Longarmer
Our program was presented by Annie Cook, Dottie Vaughn, Emily Wall and Lilo Whitener-Fey, all professional long-armers. This presentation had a lot of information from questions to ask before you hire a long-armer, to prepping your tops, prepping your backs and preparing to mail or drop off. They also discussed things to expect from your longarm professional with suggestions on what to do if you are unhappy with the results. Please check the slides for their tips and a Resource list. So much useful information.
Unfortunately, because we went so late (so many questions for the long-armers!), we did not have time for Show and Share. Be sure to bring your projects to the October meeting.
Raffle winners -
Round Robin - Kathy Bridges won a book on Improv
Fabric Raffle - Generously donated by Cotton Cuts; thank you Cotton Cuts! We made $210 this month. The winners of two FQ bundles of Tula Pink Everglow are Nancy Dlugosz and Tess McMahon.
SewMe Hotel Room Raffle - Generously donated by Marriott St. Louis West. We raised $200. The winners are Stephanie Sachtleben and Gail Luther (YAY ME!)
The UFO Challenge - FQ Bundle Paintbrush Studios from Warm n Cozy in Columbia, IL-
Marshmallow Milk - Annamaria Lu,
Strawberry Jelly – Nancy Dlugosz,
Astronaut Drink - Dottie Vaughn.
Dottie Vaughn also won a t-shirt for submitting the most projects. Kudos to Warm n Cozy for these excellent bundle names!
Meeting Adjourned - See you at SewMeSTL 2023!
Gail Luther, Secretary 2023
Link to Slides
The meeting was called to order at 10:08 with a variety of room issues including a janky microphone and a broken projector screen. We persevered through.
Octavia Pitts (President) started through the initial slides and reviewed the financial slide that is usually covered by our treasurer, Susan Muszynski, who was off trying to find someone to fix the microphone.
OP covered the financials; the Board feels that we are still in good shape though running at a deficit, meaning we are spending more than we are bringing in. It would help greatly if we could fill the workshops. We still have some space in the July workshop, please sign up.
OP – The attendance at our last meeting was a very healthy 93. Today’s attendance was 85 with one guest who has since joined, and four attending on zoom.
OP went over the various ways that members can be in contact with the guild through social media. Please see the slide for the social media names and tags.
Jenn Deck (Vice President) went over the various events happening in the community and they are listed on the slide. Please note that the Craft Alliance has since closed their registration.
JD also went over the various activities that the guild has planned; all of which can be seen on the website’s calendar (home page – very bottom, or the events page). Even more conveniently, they are all listed on the ever so useful smartphone app. You can also register for events on your phone app – soooo convenient. Link to Events Page
JD – We need a host for the Hand Sew Happy Hour on July 18. There was a signup sheet at the meeting, if interested email Jenn at vicepresident@stlmqg.org.
JD – We will not be having a July guild meeting because we are hosting a trunk show and workshops on July 28 – 30 with Tia Curtis! The July 29th workshop, Free Motion Quilting is now full and there is a waiting list. However, there is plenty of room in the July 30th workshop, All Star Improv and lots of space in the Friday night trunk show. The trunk show is free for members and $5 for guests (bring guests!) and the workshops are $50 for members and $75 for guests. The events are now open to guest registration. Link to Events Page
JD – There is a quilt show in Belleville on June 10 and 11. Hopefully, some members were able to attend.
Carol Taylor brought us a postcard advertising an event titled Shipshewana Quiltworx Academy on September 18 through 22, 2023. Here is a link with all the details. - Shipshewana Event
OP – Knotandthread is hosting a sew along starting on June 9th for the #patchworkDufflesSewAlong. I couldn't find a link to the sew-along but here is the website, https://knotandthreaddesign.com/.
She reminded us that St. Louis County Library members have access to Creativebug through their library membership. There are a lot of resources available in Creativebug. [Link to CB library access]
There will be a survey after the Tia Curtis workshop to help us in planning future events. Please watch for that in late July/early August.
Here is a link to all of the events on our website - Events. You will need to log-in for member-only events.
Just a reminder that all quilting work is welcome in the monthly show-n-share. The modern aesthetic as defined by the MQG is our priority, and encourage regular engagement with this style.
OP presented her regular “Is it Modern?” spot; she contrasted two different quilts featuring houses. Check out the pictures in the slides and decide what you think.
OP – Committee Reports
Swap & Challenge Committee - The Log Cabin Quilt challenge is due in October. The committee asked us to clarify that the prizes aren’t cash, but gift cards.
Quiltcon Challenge Committee - The committee is busy working on a design for the current gauntlet laid down by MQG. More info on that to come.
Charity Committee - It’s time to start turning in your charity quilts. Tonya Cass will be available at guild meetings and SewMe Retreat to take your quilts.
SewMeSTL Committee - Kristina Olson brought us up to date on the committee’s plans. There will be fun tutorials available such as free motion quilting, digital labels, and perfecting your piecing. Raffle items for the daily raffle are being accepted now; please only quality items that you, yourself would be happy to win, with a preference for modern items. Registration will start on July 15th, a Saturday at 5:00 pm. We do think that Saturday will fill up so don’t wait to register. The attendance fees will be changing slightly this year; $40 per day on Friday and Saturday and $30 on Sunday. Sunday’s hours are shorter, thus the smaller fee. Volunteers will be needed for valet duties and the registration table; watch for the sign up notification August 1.
Quilt Show Committee – Stephanie Sachtleben caught us up on the Quilt Show committee planning. First off, they are moving up the quilt show to March 2024. This will put us on a similar schedule as the Bits & Pieces guild. The two guilds will trade off each year in hosting a show. They have booked Greensfelder Complex in Queeny Park, like Bits & Pieces does. This will give us a lot more room and flexibility in setting up the exhibits. We will be needing more quilts to show though, so hang on to your quilts; especially the challenge ones. The venue switch will also allow us to bring in more vendors. Details on submitting quilts will be coming later, but please remember that first and foremost, they must fit the modern aesthetic. One question that was asked at the meeting was the price to submit a quilt and it is free for members. Right now we do not know what the limit per member will be. Last year each member was allowed to submit nine quilts. Stephanie reminded us that the quilts don’t necessarily need to be bed sized; they will also be looking for mini-quilts, hangings, bags, etc. Keep an eye out for more details. An expanded quilt show is very exciting.
Because of the change in date, the due date for quilts will now be January 2024.
Social Committee – Jenn Deck reminded us about the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanical Garden on July 22nd. The plan is for the group to meet inside the gates by 10:30 am. Contact Em Komiskey at em_komiskey@yahoo.com for any questions.
Jenn also reminded us that the after-meeting lunch is at McAlister’s for June. In August, we'll meet at Raising Cane's in Maplewood. You can get an address from the event on the website.
Melissa Eagan announced that she’s hosting a sew-along, Weather the Storm QAL. The link for that is QAL Link and it starts 6/12/23.
Dottie Vaughn announced that she is a representative of the Gammill Longarm company so if you have questions about those machines, come to her.
Susan Muszynski announced that the UFO challenge will be ending at the end of this month. So far we have had 87 UFOs completed and she is confident that we will make 100 by June 30th. The prizes are some beautiful fabric bundles from Paintbrush Studio and there is a mystery prize for the member who has completed the most UFOs.
Susan also announced a new Mini-Quilt Challenge inspired by Chihuly Glass. The challenge will run from July 1st to September 30th. Quilts are to be a mini-quilt (no larger than 18” x 18”) inspired by Chihuly glass and be in the modern aesthetic. A picture of the completed quilt is to be accompanied with a picture of the Chihuly Glass that inspired the quilt and with a short artist’s statement. By short, we mean that the sentence, “I liked the color”, would be perfectly fine. The winner will be announced at the October meeting. Use #stlmqg2023CC on Instagram or email the photo to stlmqg@gmail.com. If you can’t go to the guild event at the garden just google Chihuly and you will see many examples of the art. Keep it modern.
Members were reminded to vote on the bylaw amendments and to buy raffle tickets while we took our break.
This month’s program was titled My Modern Quilt Journey: We All Start Somewhere…
Janice Samson from the programming committee led the program introducing the members and their quilts.
These quilts are pictured on the website, please use this link. [link to slide show]
The following members talked about their first quilts; Melissa Eagan, Susan Muszynski, Abbie Stolzer, Patti Baymiller, Marie Hill, Annamaria Lu and Octavia Pitts.
We encourage everyone to show their first quilt on Instagram (use #stlmqg) or the Facebook group.
After the really interesting program, we announced the winner for the Round Robin - Sybil Fisher! The winners of the fabric raffle generously sponsored by Cotton Cuts were Mary Beth Oberlin and Susan Hoernshemeyer! Thank you everyone; we raised $185.
We ended the meeting with our usual Show and Share, please use this link to see the quilts that were shown. If your quilt isn’t in the gallery, please email a photo to me at secretary@stlmqg.org, a couple of the picture files were corrupted.
We had a few questions and comments at the end of the meeting.
Tess McMahon mentioned that our quilt show allowed us to use other people’s patterns but we did need to acknowledge the pattern creator.
Kathy Bridges asked about the artist statements for the Log Cabin Challenge. The requirements for the challenge are listed on the Challenge page on the website. Link to Challenge Rules. Marie Hill from the Challenge committee mentioned that the committee was looking for the inspiration behind your quilt.
Dottie Vaughn suggested that since we have so many new members, perhaps we should start introducing ourselves on social media and the website.
Tonya Cass asked when there would be rubrics or guidelines on submitting quilts for the quilt show. The guidelines for submission will be posted on the website and the categories should be similar to last year. Stay tuned.
Another member asked why batik fabrics were not considered modern. Here is a link to an article that Octavia found, hopefully this will help with some of the questions. https://carolelylesshaw.com/modern-batiks-for-modern-quilters/
Ballot Results for the Bylaw Amendments – this was not announced at the meeting because we didn’t do the count until after the meeting. The amendments passed with the following counts.
80 total ballots turned in.
67 ballots in favor of all measures.
2 ballots opposed all measures.
4 opposed Article 6, Sec. 1 – Dues
2 opposed Article 9, Sec. 1 – Candidates
4 opposed Article 9, Sec. 2 – Candidates
6 opposed Article 9, Sec. 3 – Election
The bylaw amendments can be found in the slides.
The new bylaws are now on the website (Main page, there’s a link under the Officer name list). I will adjust the end dates of members that joined after the first of the year, this week. An email will be sent to those members, once adjusted.
Link to slide pdf
Meeting was brought to order at 10:06 am by our president, Octavia Pitts.
Octavia (President) opened the meeting with our usual Zoom instructions and welcoming remarks.
Susan Muszynski (Treasurer) presented the monthly financial report. We currently have $22,076.61 in the checking account. Some upcoming expenses include the speaker for the July workshop approximately $5,100, the speaker in January, 2024 for $400 and another estimated $5000 for the speaker in April, 2024. Susan outlined the loss ($2,050) we incurred for the April workshop due to speaker and venue cost. The board is looking for ways to keep the costs for future workshops as low as possible.
Susan reported that attendance at the March meeting was 104. At this time, this day’s attendance wasn’t known but it was later reported that we had 88 members attend with an additional guest who ended up joining and 4 members attending via zoom. Current membership was reported at 195 (as of this writing, the membership is now 196).
Jenn Deck (Vice President) reported on various community events coming up. All of these are listed in the slides; the link is at the beginning of the post.
She also reviewed upcoming guild activities. All of these can be found on our website or phone app event calendar with more details.
· May 16: Hand Sew Happy Hour, Brentwood Bread Co 6-9PM, Host – Laura Patterson
· May 17: Hand-Stitchers
· May 20: Sew-In at Jackman’s Fabrics
· No Virtual Sew in May
· Jun 7: Hand-Stitchers
Jenn also discussed an upcoming trunk show and workshops with Tia Curtis on July 28 – 30. The workshops are Free Motion Quilting on the Domestic Machine and All Start Improv. More details can be found on the event portion of the website. Registration will open for members on May 25th.
Jenn also mentioned that the library has a couple of new books. One of them is the catalog of the most recent QuiltCon exhibit. Be sure to check out the library.
Octavia went over the recent announcement from MQG (Modern Quilt Guild, our national organization) on their updated definition of modern. The changes are minor and include maximinism and items on Art quilts. Click here to see the article from MQG.
Octavia reminded everyone about the Welcome table, if you are new to the guild, please stop at the welcome table, the committee members can give you all sorts of info. She mentioned that while the Spring Walk was basically rained out there were a few stalwart people that managed to participate. She also talked about the recent workshop with Rebecca Bryan and the success it was. There are pictures of the trunk show and classes.
Another website that Octavia brought our attention to is Feel Good Fabrics A resource for destashing your fabric and a place to shop for more fabric!
Octavia went over briefly the suggested bylaw amendments. You can find the proposed bylaw changes in the slides PDF listed at the beginning of the blog. Please review before voting in June. Briefly, the board would like to move to a rolling membership date and eliminate the prorated memberships in the middle of the year. Membership would be a year’s term ending exactly a year after joining. Members that joined prior to the beginning of 2023 would retain their Dec. 31st end date.
The other proposed change is a modification to the election schedule of new board members. This would move the election and start of new board out of the busy holiday season.
The June meeting will have a vote on the bylaw changes, the third pass of our Round Robin, opportunities to register for the July workshop and the end of the UFO challenge.
Committee Announcements –
Laura Patterson of the SewMe Committee requests donations from the members for the raffle at SewMe. Please only donate items that you would be happy to receive in a raffle.
Tonya Cass of the Charity Committee described some changes to the throw pattern to enable ease and safety of the users. She also reminded everyone that she has labels that are to be used on the throws. Charity will have a table at the Sew-In event at Jackman’s if anyone has any questions.
Robyn Passig of the Quilt Show Committee brought us up to date on what the committee has been looking at. They are diligently researching larger venues for the 2024 show and are getting excited about the choices. She asked everyone to get their quilts ready and reminded us that they don’t necessarily need to be bed sized, smaller quilts are welcome. They do need to be modern though. Definitely save your challenge quilts because there will be a section for those.
Octavia described the program for the June meeting. Following is the request from the programming committee.
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Sign up for the June Program: My Modern Quilt Journey - We All Start Somewhere
We all start somewhere with our modern quilt journey. In June, the Programming Committee is encouraging STLMQG members to look back at the first modern quilt they completed. We need volunteers to bring their first modern quilt to show to the guild.
When they show their quilt, members will be asked to answer one of three questions:
There will be a supportive emcee to chat with you and a team to help hold your quilt. Plus sharing your first modern quilt gives you a chance to look back at how far you’ve come and inspire other members.
Did you give your first modern quilt as a gift? Don’t worry! You can still sign up as long as you have a photo of your quilt (high-quality photo please). We will put the photo up on the screen for all to see.
We are looking for 5 more folks!
Please sign up to share your quilt by emailing the Programming Committee – programming@stlmqg.org – by May 31st!
Can’t make it to the June meeting? Share your first modern quilt on Facebook or Instagram (don’t forget to use the hashtag #stlmqg)
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A reminder for the Sew-In event at Jackman’s on May 20th. There are a few openings left for tables; many openings if you just want a chair to do hand-sewing. There is no charge for members. They are looking for volunteers to bring ironing boards, irons, cutting mats and rotary cutters. Register for a spot on the event page of the website, email the social committee at social@stlmqg.org if you can help with the requested items.
Em Komiskey of the Social Committee described an outing to the Botanical Gardens on July 22, 10:30 am. Em is trying to get a big enough group to order discounted tickets. Please email Em at em_komiskey@yahoo.com to be included in this group. St Louis city and county residents are eligible for discounted tickets but you have to be there by a certain time (we think it’s 10:00 but are not sure). Members of the garden at certain levels can bring guests free of charge. If you would like to volunteer your guest slots please contact Em.
Sarah Linker reminded us that the after meeting lunch gathering is to be at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in Webster Groves. For the June meeting, they are planning on meeting at Pizza World which is just down the road from the community center.
Tess McMahon reported that the City Sewing Room would be having a large sale on Saturday, May 20th from 10 to 4 and Sunday, the 21st from 12 to 4.
Em Komiskey came back and told us about a place to get quilt themed t-shirts, Maker Valley.
Jenn Deck mention that the board is looking for hosts for Hand Sew Happy Hour and Virtual Sew. There was a sheet for signing up at the meeting. If you are interested please email Jenn at vicepresident@stlmqg.org.
Amy Suiter announced that everyone was to change tables to the one that had their zipcode. We represent many zipcodes so the tables were arranged by area; west-ish, south-ish, so on.
There were a flurry of activities to be done at break time, least of all, turning in magnets for the magnet swap. See pictures of the magnet at the beginning of the post.
After the break, member Leila Gardunia presented a program on Three Strategies to Help You Choose Fabric for Scrap Quilts. Be sure to check the slides in the PDF linked at the beginning of the post. She also presented a trunk show to illustrate the different strategies. Photos. After the presentation, everyone participated in a activity using scraps brought from home. Photos.
The Swap committee then presided over the swapping of magnets.
Tess McMahon was the winner of this month’s Round Robin and was presented with a $25 gift card to Heyde Sewing. Don’t forget to email a picture of each of your rounds to either president@stlmqg.org or stlmqg@gmail.com.
Another sew along was mentioned that members might be interested in. Kitty Wilkin (@exhaustedoctopus) is hosting a Summer Lovin Seaglass. Check here for details.
This month’s winners of the lovely fabric bundle, Curio by Melody Miller is Gina Shelley and Jenn Deck. Congratulations! Thank you Cotton Cuts for your generous donation.
Check out the pictures of this month’s Show and Share.
St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. 216 Parkland Ave, St. Louis, MO 63122
