January Meeting Minutes 2016

Call to Order

Our January meeting was called to order on time by our new President, Stephanie Schroer.
We had 5 new members join, 11 visitors, and a "whole lot of people" in attendance.  

We started a new "icebreaker" poll that will run during our "mingle" time before the meetings start.  A question of the month will be posted and you can text your reply.  Our question this month was "What is the most prominent/favorite color in your stash?"  Aqua led for most of our mingling time, but at 6:30 the final winner was a 3 way tie between Blue, Turquoise, & Aqua (which Lissa Alexander pointed out during our program, are all somewhat the same).  Tied for second were pink, purple, and teal.  


Membership Renewal & Directory

Martha Wolf (Membership) and Chris Simon (Treasurer) oversaw collection of dues as this is a new year!  Annual dues are $50 and not only give you the benefit of membership in our local guild, but also the benefits of membership in The Modern Quilt Guild.  If you forgot this month, please bring your dues to the next meeting - pay with cash (correct change) or check (made out to the McKinney Modern Quilt Guild).

As requested, Martha is also developing a directory of guild members with contact information, including name, email, and Instagram "handle".  Members are given a choice whether to opt out of publication in the directory.

2016 Board Member Introduction

President - Stephanie Schroer
VP Programs - Ellyn Zinsmeister
VP Events - Alice Dutton
VP of Communications - Catherine Dutton
VP Membership - Martha Wolf
Treasurer - Chris Simon
Secretary - Rachel Reid

Committee Reports

Secretary - Our membership chair Martha posted minutes from December 2015 to the website.
Treasurer - Chris presented our current treasury report.  National dues will be paid this month, so expect expenses to be higher next meeting.
Community service - Dusty Allendorf is our community service committee chair.  Chris Simon donated the 1st quilt top of the year.  Joellen Brill donated her completed quilt from the paint chip challenge.  Susan Cooksey donated blocks she made after taking Chris' class on Improv at Stitched with Love.

Business 

#NotGoingtoQuiltConRetreat - last call for signups for this retreat at Sunset Retreat Center February 11-14.  Over 30 of your fellow members and friends have signed up already!  Find more information here.

Alice Dutton ran our FQ Lottery of modern, high quality quilting cotton.  The theme for this month was text prints.  Stephanie Schroer, Julia Lewis, & Lisa Lake each won a bundle of 12 FQ's.  February's theme will be Red, Pink & White.

Our two quilting bee's collected blocks.  There is currently room in Allyson Talbot's group if you are interested in joining.  Ellyn's group constructed for Bee Queen Joy Hinkleman, who chose a scrappy spiderweb block.

If you signed up for the Modern Quilt Guild Riley Blake challenge online, the fabric will be shipped to the guild.  More information will follow.

The UFO challenge is due in February!  Get your 3 projects completed & bring them in for show & tell.  You'll get a ticket for completions & we will have multiple prizes to raffle.

Program

Lissa Alexander from Moda gave a wonderful presentation about the company and fabric printing processes.  She is a 19 yr Moda veteran & has been quilting for 35 years.  She is found on Instagram @modalissa.  Moda is a 3rd generation family company with ~50 designers that prints high quality fabrics & sells only to independent quilt shops.  They use two plants in Japan & Korea to produce all their fabric.  Almost all fabrics are screen-printed with engraved 24" x 45" screens.  The dots on your selvage show the number of screens & the order of printing.  After about 3000 yards are printed, the screens have to be re-engraved.  Moda fabrics are a consistent 60 x 60 thread count.  She showed several fabric samples to demonstrate the printing process & matching repeats and passed around unfinished fabrics for us to feel.  At the end, she handed out goodie bags!  Moda & Aurifil generously provided us 4 mini charm packs and a thread pack from Aurifil.  With the swag came a challenge - add 1 yard of Moda solids or grunge to the mini charm packs & make something.  You can add more than 1 yard if you wish.  Bring your item to the April meeting and prize winners will be chosen!  

Business Continued

We had a nice long "show & tell" at the end.  The Paint Chip Challenge completions were shown first - at the December meeting we all drew 3 random colors from a bag.  The challenge was to add a neutral color and "make something" with your 3 colors.  Members also showed recent projects/completions/swap items.  4 birthday certificates were handed out.  Door prizes were drawn.  Chris Simon won the charity drawing - a Villa Rosa pattern.  Marsala also showed up on the icebreaker poll as a favorite color at the end of the meeting. 

Next Meeting: February 2