Members displayed their starting blocks for the 2023 Round Robin Challenge.

Slides presented at meeting - File edited 4/7/2023

Meeting was brought to order at 10:03 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 $24,484.33 in the checking account. We have an upcoming bill for the April speaker of approximately $3,500. The Profit & Loss statement is posted on stlmqg.org under Member Resources/Finances. 

Gail Luther (Secretary) reported that attendance at the February meeting was 91. At this time, this day’s attendance wasn’t known but it was later reported that we had 97 members attend with an additional 3 guests and 4 members attending via zoom. Four joined as members at the meeting. Current membership was reported at 177 (as of this writing, the membership is now 182), this includes 24 new members since the beginning of the year (now 29). 

Gail went over the communications slide, pointing out to new members the different ways to have contact with the guild.  She forgot to mention the smart phone app that’s available which allows members to easily access our website on their phone. Some functions are not available in the app; however, it is a quick way to view the guild’s calendar and membership directory. Seriously, everyone should get this Wild Apricot app. 

She reminded everyone that all things guild-related should be on our website, www.stlmqg.org. Please log in and become familiar with the website. If there is something that you think should be included, please contact Gail at secretary@stlmqg.org.

Follow the guild on Instagram @stlmqg. Use hashtag #stlmqg for general items you want to the guild to see, #stlmqgufo2023 for the current 2023 Modern UFO challenge and #stlmqgRR23 for the 2023 Round Robin challenge. You can read more about these challenges on the website under the menu tab, Guild Activities. 

Jenn Deck (Vice President) reviewed upcoming guild activities. All of these can be found on our website or phone app event calendar with more details.

• Mar 15: Hand-Stitchers, Buder Library 5-7:30 PM, Host – Lynda Mueller Drendel

• Mar 21: Hand Sew Happy Hour, Brentwood Bread Co 6-9PM, Host – Jenn Deck

• Mar 25: Virtual Sew, 10 am - 12 pm.,  Host – Susan Muszynski

• Apr 8: NO REGULAR MEETING

• Apr 18: Hand Sew Happy Hour

• Apr 19: Hand-Stitchers

• Apr 22: Virtual Sew

Jenn discussed the upcoming workshops on April 28 – 30; Rainbow Remix and Design Improv with Triangles by Rebecca Bryan. See website to register for trunk shows and workshops. Registration is required. Registration will open to non-guild members on March 17^th. Secure your seat now!

Jenn also went over some activities happening in the community. All of these are listed in the slides; the link is at the beginning of the post.

Member Announcements

Candy Grisham spoke to us about the upcoming quilt show hosted by Bits ‘N’ Pieces guild, Fanfare of Quilts on March 18 – 19 in Queeny Park. It’s the first show by this guild in five years and should be fabulous. There is a group of our members planning to attend on Saturday at 11:00 am and another group on Sunday. So, plan to work this into your weekend schedule.

There is a play scheduled at the Alton Little Theater on March 24^th, 25^th (7:30 pm) and Mar. 26^th (2:00 pm) about the Gee’s Bend quilters. The play was written by Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder and centers on a family from Gee’s Bend in Boykin, Alabama. The tickets are $20 and more information can be found at www.altonlittletheater.com.

Susan Veenstra told us about The Midwest Fiber Festival scheduled for April 28 – 30 at St. Louis Community College, Meramec Campus. More information can be found at https://www.midwestfiberfest.com.

Committee Announcements

The magnet swap is due at the May meeting. Find more information on the website under Guild Activities.

Sarah Linker (Social Committee Leader) reported that the March meetup location is at McAlister’s Deli at Deer Creek, conveniently located near Joann’s. The May lunch meetup will be at Fuzzy Taco’s on Watson in Webster Groves. 

There is an event on the website for Walk & Picnic on April 15^th at Creve Coeur Lake at 10 am with the picnic schedule for 11:30 am. Registration not required but helpful. Link for event and more info here.

The Sew Day event on May 20^th will open for registration on Monday, Mar. 13^th at 7:00 pm.  20 tables will be available for 40 members with machines (2 machines to a table) and additional spaces for hand sewers. Snacks are highly encouraged but no slow cookers or coffee machines. No charge for members, you should have received the announcement by the time this recap is published. Sew Day link.

Watch for an announcement for a social event to visit the Chihuly exhibit at the Botanical Gardens sometime in July. 

Kristina Olson (SewMe STL Committee Leader) reported that the first committee meeting was held on March 2^nd for introductions and subcommittee assignments. Future committee meetings will be held the 2^nd Thursday of the month with the next one on April 13^th at 7 pm via zoom. Three more volunteers are needed on the committee. Save the date, September 15 – 17^, 2023. 

Tonya Cass (Charity Committee Leader) and the rest of the charity committee presented their plans for the charity activity this year; Lap Quilts and Wheelchair Quilts. The organizations that will be getting the donations – 

• Blue Circle Rehab and Nursing, St. Louis City, 
• Green Park Nursing and Rehab, St. Louis County and
• Frontier Health & Rehab, St. Charles, Co.

Patterns, videos and other resources will be added to the website soon.

Susan (Treasurer) reminded us the UFO challenge has begun. Post your completed modern UFOs on Instagram with #stlmqgufo2023 or email a picture to stlmqg@gmail.com. Tips and information are posted on the challenge page on the website. As of March 7^th, we have 27 UFOs completed, can we make 100?

Octavia then led a discussion of what is modern and what is not. See the slides for examples and information on the modern aesthetic.

After a few miscellaneous business items and a reminder that there wouldn’t be a regular meeting in April, Octavia excused the guild for a brief break. The first round of the round robin was exchanged during the break.

Program - Modern Quilting

Kristy Daum led a very interesting discussion on what makes a quilt modern. See the slides for pictures and examples of the various components typically considered. There were many questions/comments from the members. Here are a few that were noted – 

If upcycling fabric for a project, be sure to check the integrity of the fabric.  Old fabric can be very fragile and may not be suitable for your project. 

Many people wonder how the MQG goes about picking quilts for the Quiltcon show and how they judge them. Kristy who has worked separately as a jurist and a judge at Quiltcon (at different shows) explained the jurists pick the quilts that will be in the show, the panel of judges are separate people and use different processes. Different jurists/judges will value various aspects differently. She mentioned that various quilters are currently posting the comments that they received from their judges on Instagram. 

Dottie Vaughn also commented that judges for the MQG pay a lot of attention to the artist’s statements that are submitted with the quilts.

Someone asked for a list of fabric designers that are considered modern and the committee said that they would look into that.

Lilo Whitener-Fey presented the rules for the 2023 Log Cabin Challenge. All the rules are on the slide and on the challenge page on the website.  This challenge comes with generous prizes this year and we were all reminded that this is not to be expected for all the guild’s challenges.   These slides are also available on the challenge page on the website. The committee said that they would welcome emails if a member wanted to run their ideas for the challenge by them. You can email stlmqg@gmail.com and the board will forward the email to the committee.

Marie Nicholson-Hill and Gayle Larson then demonstrated various things you can do with log cabin blocks. Pictures of this demo are included on the slide PDF.

Octavia mentioned that we are collecting pictures of Quiltcon for the website. If you have some to share please send to Gail at secretary@stlmqg.org.

After the program, we drew attendance prize winners. The winners of the fabric raffle donated by Cotton Cuts were Suzanne Domalewski and Wilma Schmitz.

Check out the photos from our Show & Share, Photo Album. 

Meeting Adjourned 

Submitted

Gail Luther

Secretary, STLMQG