Saturday, June 18, 2016

June meeting and end of year wrap-up

Well, our 2015-16 year has come to a close as we had our Annual Meeting and end-of-year potluck. It was a lovely wrap up to the year... I'm already looking forward to next year! ;)

At the meeting, we went over the results of the annual survey (you can find the full text in the Members Only section). Everyone's feedback on the survey was greatly appreciated, as it helps the executive team tailor next year's plans to suit the group's interests. So next year we will be looking into offering a few demos and/or mini-workshops on some of the subjects suggested, as well as possibly a webinar or two. We have an exciting new challenge and a related gallery tour is in the works, as well as the collaborative QuiltCon 2017 charity quilt project, and to kick off what is shaping up to the the 'Year of the Curve' for us, we will be having Cheryl Arkison visit for a trunk show on Friday October 21st and her Perfect (and Improv) Circles and Curves workshop on October 22nd. The enrollment for this workshop is full, however there is a possibility we will have another workshop (by a mystery teacher! *mysterious finger wiggle*) in the spring, so stay tuned! We will also be looking into planning a few social gatherings throughout the year as well.

We had the annual financial report from Michele, and all is looking good there. On the subject of finance, we discussed the dues for the upcoming year and due to the U.S. exchange and the growing size of the guild, we voted to increase the dues for the 2016-17 year to $35. We also held the vote for next year's executive team, which will remain largely the same as this year with a few small changes:

  • President - Stephanie Baldwin
  • Vice-President - Isabelle Jean (with Manda Elias as understudy)
  • Program Coordinator - Joanna Lemon (with Stacy Pomerleau as understudy)
  • Social Media - Fiona Nanson and Manda Elias
  • Treasurer - Claudia Pedroso

Stacy Pomerleau will continue as our photographer, Josee Carrier will continue as our registrar and Michele Fitzgerald and Lily Lam will be the charity challenge coordinators.

Once the business was out of the way, we got down to the fun stuff. We have been giving out raffle tickets throughout the year to everyone who wore their name tag to the monthly meetings, each ticket being a chance to win one of two goody bags. The grand prize winners were Maggie Hobbs and Manda Elias and the goody bags included:

Instagram photo courtesy of Amanda

  • Four fat quarters
  • A charm square pack
  • Printed quilt label fabric
  • A printed pattern
  • A journal with quilted cover and pencil
  • Gloves (for use in free-motion quilting)
  • A magnetic needle minder
  • A dish (for holding pins, bobbins, etc)
  • Beeswax (for conditioning thread for hand sewing)
  • A package of tape measures
  • A seam ripper
  • A tin of loose tea
  • Candy (because why not?)

We also had a few individual items donated by Fiona that we then raffled off individually.

The June meeting was also the deadline for the Molinari Challenge quilt tops, so we all shared our finish tops (sorry, no pictures, they're still top secret!) and discussed our plans for how they would be finished. Some of us had a plan, while others of us (myself included) are still struggling to figure out how to finish them. Still, it was great seeing the progress and how different people focused on different aspects of Molinari's work. The September meeting will be the final deadline for the finished pieces, so I wish everyone luck over the next few months in getting theirs finished! Joanna and I will also be following up with the Fondation Guido Molinari about the possibility of collaborating with them on a show of the finished quilts. We will share more info on that as it develops.

And finally we briefly discussed the Twist Fibre Festival which we will be attending in August. We are still looking for volunteers to help us staff the booth on either Saturday August 20th or Sunday August 21st, or both. Volunteering at our booth will get you free admission to the festival, and we are planning a collaborative project for the public to participate in! It is shaping up to be a fun weekend, if you are interested in joining us, please send us an email.

Our next meeting will be Tuesday September 13th at 7pm... until then, I wish everyone a wonderful summer!!!

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