May Meeting Minutes 2016

Pre-Meeting   

Our summer retreat will be at Create-Away Cottage – you were treated to a slideshow of the retreat facilities.  

Call to Order  

Our April meeting was called to order at 6:34 by our President, Stephanie Schroer.  

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 information:  
Membership: We had 45 members in attendance, two new members, and 2 guests.  
Treasurer: We started with $5101.83, expenses were $678.31 (national speaker) and income was $360.00.  We ended with $4783.52.  
Secretary: Minutes from April 2016 are posted to the website and a number of formatting mistakes in April's minutes were edited at May's minute posting.  April was also updated to include the winners of the @ModaLissa challenge.

Community Service   

Community Service Sew Days have commenced!  Join the McKMQG on fifth Fridays of the 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: Jul 29, Sept 30, and Dec 30.  April's technique and sew theme was #scrappytriparoundtheworld quilts for charity.  See Instagram for pictures of all the fun!  Start planning to join us on July 29th from 6-9 pm at Stitched with Love!  
Dusty also accepts donations of fat quarter's (FQ's) up to completed quilts for our charity at the start of each guild meeting.  At our charity sew days, we 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 topor FQ(+) fabric donations.    
May Drawing Winner: Mary (you read correctly, Chris didn't win this month)  

Business   

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 sign-upyou can still participate!  Just purchase some of the Sashing Stash Collection and make something quilted!  
We are transitioning to a new monthly challenge called Modern Mystery Block of the Month, created by Alice Dutton.  Our goal as a modern guild is to create together and continue to learn more about modern quilting techniques -- this should help expand your arsenal of quilting skills!  Our Modern Mystery quilt will be revealed one block at a time.  You must attend the meetings (or pick up an extra paper copy at Stitched with Love) to participate.  We will not post pattern instructions online.  Our first set of instructions is for a "Plus" block, playing with scale, symmetry, and negative space.  Bring back your completed block next month and you will be entered into a drawing to win a PRIZE.  Leftover patterns not handed out at guild will be left at Stitched with Love, first come first serve.  Once they're gone, they're gone!  Our first block will measure 18" finished.  If you need help constructing the block, e-mail alicedutton at gmail dot com.   Tag your creations on social media with #modernmysterybom and #mckmqg.    
Retreat this summer will be held at Create-Away Cottagenear Collinsville, TX, about 40 miles/50 minutes north of Stitched with Love.  The price is $130 for July 22-24th (Friday-Sunday), food is not included in the price.  Attendance will be limited to 14 participants – we chose this location based on guild participation at last year's summer retreat.  Your spot will held by a non-refundable $30 deposit required when you sign up and fill out this online sign-up form.  Seven deposits have been received at the time of the meeting.   
Our quilting bee queens 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 Rachel wonky log cabin blocks and Ellyn's group made Stephanie quarter log cabin blocks in solids.    
Triad Modern Quilt Guild and McKinney Modern Quilt Guild will both host a Triad meets McKinney Mini Quilt Swap!  Signs-ups are open – pair up with a TMQG member and make a modern mini considering your partner's preferences.  See the newsletter or here for the signup form and all the details. Sign-ups will be open until May 17th, partners assigned the following week, bring your completed mini to the August 2 meeting and guild will ship to guild so NO EXTRAS for this swap, and we will receive quilts at the September 5th meeting.  If you do not send a quilt, you will not receive a quilt.   

Program  

This month, Lori Hartman of Lori Hartman Designs presented.  Lori started quilting in 2010 and was the a founder and first president of our guild.  She shared a program discussing what low volume fabrics and how you use them.  Every quilter may give you a different definition of "low volume" however Lori highlighted some particulars for us.  Part of understanding low volume fabrics is understanding value in quilting and color theory.  Low volume fabrics are usually high value fabrics - light colors.  However these are not completely synonymous.  Low volumes are generally divided into 3 categories - pop, muted, and neutral.  Pop low volumes are generally a high value with pops of low value color.  Muted low volumes are usually soft colors in the high value range.  Neutral low volumes are usually high value creams, blackswhites, and greys.  Usually low volumes are paired with bright colors to pop out from the patterned low value fabrics.  They create texture in a quilt background. 
How do you start a stash of low volumes?  Pink CastleWestwood Acres, and Sew Lux Fabric all have monthly low volume clubs - pay a monthly fee and have low volume fabrics sent to you, curated by each shop.  Stitched with Love also curated two FQ bundles for you this month - they have a muted low volume and pop/neutral low volume bundles for sale at the shop.  
Lori also showed us live examples of her love of low volume fabrics with a trunk show of some of her creations to highlight how to use low volumes.   
Upcoming programs - Part of our goal as a board is to highlight all of the talent we have within our guild. Continuing this trend, in June some of our members will be featured in a spotlight program.  We'll get to hear some of our members discuss how they came to modern quilting and what modern quilting is to them.  We will also get to see some of their modern creations.  In July we are planning some breakout groups, getting to know one another better in a small group setting and learning from one another's experience.  Several small discussion groups will explore quilt labeling ideas and present the best ideas from each group at the end of the program time.  

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 and discuss why their creation is modern.  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.  One birthday certificate was handed out.  Door prizes were drawn - including free patterns from Lori!  Join us for our next meeting!  

Next Meeting: June 7 @ 6:30, 6:00 social hour