April Meeting Minutes 2016

Pre-Meeting  

We had a fantastic meet & greet time this month!  Our meeting space was full of people walking around, meeting new friends, greeting old ones and looking at all the beautiful creations for the @ModaLissa Challenge.   

Call to Order 

Our April meeting was called to order on time by our President, Stephanie Schroer (in a green tunic with pugs!).  Our Icebreaker quiz this month was "What time of day do you enjoy quilting the most?"  We had answers from "when the baby is sleeping" to "when making a donald trump puppet." "Afternoon" and "Late at Night" were the most common answers.   

Committee Reports  

Our committee reports will be posted online now.  We want plenty of time to interact, have fun, and show and tell our projects.  See the minutes every month to stay in the loop with the following riveting information. 
Membership: We had 48 members in attendance and 10 guests! 
Treasurer: We started with $4853.83, with expenses of $12 and income of $260.  We ended with $5101.83. 
Secretary: Minutes from March 2016 are posted to the website. 

Community service  

Community Service Sew Days will commence!  Join the McKMQG on fifth Fridays of every month from 6-9 pm at Stitched with Love.  We will learn a new modern sewing technique or pattern and create quilts for our charity, Alberta's Hope.  Future dates include: Apr 29, Jul 29, Sept 30, and Dec 30.  April's technique and sew theme will be #scrappytriparoundtheworld quilts for charity.  See you April 29th from 6-9 pm at Stitched with Love! 
Dusty also accepts donations of fat quarters or more of fabric up to completed quilts at the start of each guild meeting.  At our sew days, we will mostly use donated orphan fat quarters to make charity quilts - this is a great opportunity for your mystery (i.e. it's a mystery why I bought this) FQ's or half-yards sitting idle in your stash.  You'll be entered in a drawing for a prize with quilt, quilt top, or fat quarter donations.  April Winner: Chris Simon 

Business  

The guild purchased new chairs to help us with our (wonderful) overflow issue at our meetings.  We acknowledge that we may outgrow our current meeting space and we will make plans as quickly and as in advance as possible.     
We now have a set-up and tear-down sign-up for individual meetings!  It's a great way to contribute to the guild and socialize without much responsibility.  See the sign-up form to volunteer.  If there's another way you'd like to be involved, there's space for you to enter your ideas as well! 
Don't forget about your Riley Blake Fabric Challenge Spring 2016.  Follow the link for more information and challenge guidelines.  If you missed the signup, you can still participate!  Just purchase some of the Sashing Stash Collection and make something quilted! 
Alice ran our FQ Lottery of modern, high quality quilting cotton.  The theme for this month was Modern Dots, Stripes, and Chevrons.  Lisa, Chris, and Deborah each won a bundle of 13-14 FQ's.  April's theme is non-existent!  We are transitioning to a new program of a Modern Block of the Month, created by Catherine Dutton.  We will announce more at our next meeting. 
Retreat this summer at Create-Away Cottage, near Collinsville, TX, about 40 miles from north McKinney, TX.  The price will be $130 for July 22-24th, food is not included in the price.  Attendance will be limited to 14 participants.  Your spot will held by payment when you sign up.  More details will follow in an e-mail from Alice. 
Our quilting bee's collected blocks.  If you want to participate in or join a bee, we have a sign up sheet at the check-in desk.  This month, Allyson's group made Alice Alpine blocks.  

Program 

This month, Lee Monroe of May Chappell presented - she was a hit this year just like last!  Lori Hartman of Lori Hartman Designs will discuss low volume fabrics in May. 
Technical difficulties had us start with a trunk show of Lee's patterns and projects.  She also had a fabulous presentation of tips & tricks to help us be great sewists.  See Lee's Terrific Tip Tuesday column on her blog for some of the great tips she highlighted for us. 

End of Meeting Fun 

Show & tell!  As we grow we will continue to ask our members to show their 1-2 best finishes for the month.  We are trying to balance our love for being able to see something from everyone and yet end the meeting in a reasonable time frame.  2 birthday certificates were handed out.  Lisa Johnson & Alice Dutton won the @ModaLissa challenge!  Door prizes were drawn.  Join us for our next meeting! 

Next Meeting: May 3 @ 6:30, 6:00 social hour