Meeting Recap (December 8, 2018)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday's meeting! It was great to see everyone and have some fun!

• Gayle, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info. Don't forget you can now pay your 2019 dues of $40. Dues are due by Dec. 31 to remain a member in good standing. You can pay via our Paypal link or mail a check to Gayle (see our member roster for her contact info).
• Krista, our Secretary, announced our membership numbers and passed out our MQG and STLMQG membership cards and pins.
• Marie, our VP, announced several pieces of quilting news and happenings (more about these will be sent via email).
• Jessica, our President, covered several items:
• Our second quilt show has been scheduled for July 20-21, 2019! It will be held at the Kirkwood Community Center. More info in the newsletter!
• Sign ups continued for next year’s committees: Charity, Member Swap and Challenge, Quilt Show, Programming, Social (new!), and SewMeSTL. Members are highly encouraged to consider signing up for one. It’s a great way to get involved, meet new people, and have your ideas heard. A link to the sign-up sheet will be sent in the newsletter. 
• The Finished Rainbow BOM Challenge will take place in January. Now that we've finished our Rainbow BOM blocks, it's time to make something from them! Finished quilts are due at our January 12th meeting. All finished quilts (any size) will be entered to win one of three $30 gift cards to a fabric store.
• More info about next year's speakers will be coming soon!

• For this month's activity, we enjoyed our annual December ticket raffle. Our wonderful members donated over 150 prizes, which were raffled off to a lot of lucky winners. We hope the winners enjoy their new goodies! Thank you to everyone who donated and bought tickets. This fundraiser helps us to raise funds for lots more fun next year.

• We wrapped up the meeting with another great Show and Tell, including these beauties by Erin Chan and Ann Philiph. Keep an eye on our Instagram page to see lots more pics of the meeting, show and tell, and our members' projects throughout the month.

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season! See you in January!

Meeting #88 (December 8, 2018)

Hello modern quilters! It's our last meeting of the year and always one of our members' favorites. We hope you can join us!

Date: December 8, 2018
Time: 10 am-12:30 pm
Location: The Heights
8001 Dale Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117
*Childcare available, please see info here* 

   =================================================================

Agenda:

-Welcome & Guild Business
     :: Membership Information
     :: Financial Information
     :: Quilting News / Around Town
     :: Reminders

- Activity: December ticket raffle! Use your tickets for a chance to win your favorite items.
IMPORTANT! You can still donate items at the December meeting. All the information you need about donations and how the raffle works can be found in this blog post.

---Break--- 

- Draw for raffle prizes
- Reminder about Finished Rainbow BOM Challenge (due in January)

- Show & Tell (time permitting)
- Mix & Mingle

-------------------------- Reminders ------------------------------

:: We're still accepting dues for 2019, which we are holding steady at $40 for next year. Dues can be paid by cash, check, or credit card. You can pay at the meeting or online through our Paypal link.
:: Check those shelves for any guild library books you've got hanging around the house. We have several that have gone "missing," and Marie would like to do an inventory to see where we're at. If you've checked out a book, please try to return it at the December meeting. Books will be available to check out again in January.

Meeting Recap (November 10, 2018)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday's meeting! It was great to see everyone and have some fun!

• Gayle, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info. Don't forget you can now pay your 2019 dues of $40. Dues are due by Dec. 31 to remain a member in good standing. You can pay at the December meeting or via our Paypal link.
• Krista, our Secretary, announced our membership numbers and passed out our MQG and STLMQG membership cards and pins.
• Marie, our VP, announced several pieces of quilting news and happenings (more about these will be sent via email).
• Jessica, our President, covered several items:
• This month, Tess McMahon has offered to host a special hand-sew happy hour at her home. More info will be coming in the newsletter.
• Our second quilt show has been scheduled for July 20-21, 2019! It will be held at the Kirkwood Community Center. Help is needed on the Quilt Show Committee. More info in the newsletter!
• We collected items (and in several cases, raffled prizes) for the QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge, Nurses for Newborns charity project, Rainbow Block of the Month (BOM), and Block Lotto#4.

• Sign ups began for next year’s committees: Charity, Member Swap and Challenge, Quilt Show, Programming, Social (new!), and SewMeSTL. Members are highly encouraged to consider signing up for one. It’s a great way to get involved, meet new people, and have your ideas heard. A link to the sign-up sheet will be sent in the newsletter.
• We had a show and tell for the 2018 Colors of the Year Challenge entries and then voted on a viewer's choice winner (Jessica Schunke, far right quilt in second picture below). Thank you for all of the lovely entries!

  

• Jessica announced the Finished Rainbow BOM Challenge. Now that we've finished our Rainbow BOM blocks, it's time to make something from them! Finished quilts are due at our January 12th meeting. All finished quilts (any size) will be entered to win one of three $30 gift cards to a fabric store.
• We collected items for the December raffle, but you can still bring more to the December meeting. See this blog post for all the info.
• For this month's activity, we welcomed Beth Snyder, Creative Director of One Canoe Two, for a presentation on her journey and the process of designing fabric (One Canoe Two has several lines with Moda), as well as more generally about her experience as a working creative. She also set up a small pop-up shop of One Canoe Two items during the break. Beth was just delightful and so interesting, and she shared a huge number of her lovely quilts.

• We wrapped up the meeting with a great Show and Tell, including these quilts by Em Komiskey, Kathy Bridges, Pam Hartig, and Leila Gardunia. Keep an eye on our Instagram page to see lots more pics of the meeting, show and tell, and our members' projects throughout the month.

Meeting #87 (November 10, 2018)

Hello modern quilters! Can you believe it's November already? This month, we're excited to be hosting Beth Snyder, Creative Director of One Canoe Two, at our meeting. We hope you can join us!

Date: November 10, 2018
Time: 10 am-12:30 pm
Location: The Heights
8001 Dale Ave., St. Louis, MO 63117
*Childcare available, please see info here* 

   =================================================================

Agenda:

-Welcome & Guild Business
     :: Membership Information
     :: Financial Information
     :: Quilting News / Around Town
     :: Reminders

- Activity: Presentation by Beth Snyder, Creative Director of One Canoe Two, on her journey and the process of designing fabric (One Canoe Two has several lines with Moda), as well as more generally about her experience as a working creative. She will also be bringing a small pop-up shop of One Canoe Two items.
- Present Color of the Year Challenge entries (vote during break)

---Break--- 

- Collect final block packets for QuiltCon Charity Quilt (QuiltCon Charity Quilt Committee)
- Collect and raffle Block Lotto #4 blocks
- Collect final Nurses for Newborns quilts (Charity Committee)
- Announce raffle prizes for Rainbow BOM
- Announce Finished Rainbow BOM Challenge
- Announce December raffle rules and collect donations
- Show & Tell (time permitting)
- Mix & Mingle

-------------------------- Reminders ------------------------------

:: This month, we'll begin accepting dues for 2019, which we are holding steady at $40 for next year. Dues can be paid by cash, check, or credit card. You can pay at the meeting or online through our Paypal link.
:: Check those shelves for any guild library books you've got hanging around the house. We have several that have gone "missing," and Marie would like to do an inventory to see where we're at. If you've checked out a book, please try to return it at the November meeting. Books will be available to check out again in January.

Ticket Raffle 2018

Our STLMQG Ticket Raffle is always a lot of fun, and the money we raise goes right back into our guild. This will be our 8th year hosting the raffle, and while many of our members are well aware of how it works, we want to make sure that everyone can get in on the fun. Plus, we're making a few changes this year to hopefully improve the process, so be sure to read through the full post.

How the Raffle Works:
Members donate fabulous items at the November and December meetings and are issued tickets in exchange for the retail value of their complete donation. Items are bundled, if necessary, and displayed at the December meeting. In December, members can purchase tickets or use those they were issued for their donation to take a chance at winning donated items.

What Should I Donate?
Donations should be things that your fellow members would like to win and should generally be modern, new, and unused. There are, of course, a few exceptions (for instance, books may be gently used). The key to donating is to ask yourself -- will others in the modern guild be excited about this item? If the answer's yes, bring it on! If not, leave it at home. Do not use this as an opportunity to unload your magazines from 1997, that box of items you were going to donate to Goodwill, or items that would otherwise be trashed. 

Acceptable Donation Items:

• Quilt-shop quality modern fabric (pre-cuts, yardage, gallon-size bags of modern fabric scraps, etc.)
• Patterns for totes/handbags, modern quilts, etc.
• Finished handmade items (modern quilts, handbags, wall hangings, pillows, etc.)
• Quality thread (quilting, applique, embroidery, etc.)
• Crafting supplies and sewing/quilting notions (English paper piecing supplies, embroidery kits, quilting rulers, etc.)
• Sewing-themed decor and art
• Quilting and sewing books
• Be creative! We've had donations of wine, chocolate, and restaurant gift certificates in the past, which are also fun.

Ticket-to-Donation Exchange Rate (November and December):

If the estimated retail value of your entire donation is…

$10 or less = 5 tickets

$11-30 = 10 tickets

$31-50 = 15 tickets

$51 and up = 25 tickets

Tickets for Purchase (December):
1 ticket for $1
25 tickets for $20

Ticket Raffle Directions (December meeting):
Buy your tickets, or use the ones you received in exchange for your donation. On each ticket, write your last name and first initial or your full name (tip! bring return address labels to use if you don't want to write it out). Find the item(s) you wish to take a chance on, place your ticket in the corresponding bag, and cross your fingers. There is no limit to the amount of tickets you can place in each bag, so if you really want an item, go ahead and put all your eggs in one basket. After the meeting break, winners will be randomly selected. There is no limit to the amount you can win.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

NO MEETING this Saturday

Just a reminder that we will NOT have a meeting this Saturday, October 13 because of our annual retreat, which took place last weekend. You can read all about it here.

We look forward to seeing everyone at Hand-Sew Happy Hour on the 23rd or at November's meeting!

SewMeSTL 2018 Recap

This weekend, we celebrated our members at the 5th annual Sew Me St. Louis retreat. This year, we expanded the retreat to include a third day, which meant hours more sewing, laughs, and fun.

The SewMeSTL Committee worked hard over the past few months to ensure this was our best retreat yet. From collecting tons of raffle prizes to sewing and stuffing our awesome swag bags, they really took the retreat to the next level. Thank you so much to the committee!

The weekend included lots of bonuses, from massages to demos on accurate cutting, sewing skinny strips, machine quilting, and featherweights. Thank you to Lauren McMillan for the massages and Emily Amizich, Pam Hartig, Gretchen Watkin, and Cindi Templin for taking the time to share their knowledge in the demos.

We also got our hands on some beautiful fabric through the fat quarter swap organized by the Member Swap and Challenge Committee and the always raucous Scrap Dash.

One of the best parts of any retreat is seeing what everyone else is working on, and our members certainly had some beautiful projects to show off. Many members worked on their blocks for the guild QuiltCon charity quilt, and it was fun to see this one coming together. Check out the @stlmqg IG feed and #sewmestl for lots more pictures of everyone's projects and the nightly Show and Tells.

We're so glad that so many members were able to join us, and we're already dreaming of next year's fun. We hope you all had as much fun as we did!

Meeting Recap (September 8, 2018)

Thank you to everyone who came out to Saturday's meeting and trunk show and workshops with Latifah Saafir! It was great to see everyone and have some fun!

• Gayle, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info.
• Krista, our Secretary, announced our membership numbers and passed out our new MQG membership cards and pins.
• Marie, our VP, announced several pieces of quilting news and happenings (more about these will be sent via email).
• Jessica, our President, covered several items:
• The hand-sew happy hours and location for the entire year have been posted to the blog. This month's meet-up will be on Tuesday, September 18.
• SewMeSTL is going to be three days of fun this year (October 5-7)! Info on activities and the schedule will be sent via email this week. You can find all the other details on the retreat in this post.
• As a reminder, we have lots of items due in November (our next monthly meeting):
• QuiltCon Charity Quilt Challenge blocks
• Final Nurses for Newborns quilts (Charity Committee). You can find all of the details here.
• 2018 Colors of the Year Challenge entries (Member Swap and Challenge Committee). You can find all of the details here.
• Final Rainbow BOM entries (be sure to finish your blocks for at least 9 of the 10 colors to receive your 5 bonus points). You can find all of the details here.
• Block Lotto#4 blocks. You can find all of the details here.
• Jessica announced the next Rainbow Block of the Month (BOM) Challenge color -- blue! You can find all of the details here.

• For this month's activity, we welcomed Latifah Saafir for a trunk show and lecture entitled "My Journey, My Vision, My Voice." You can read more about it and see lots of pictures in this blog post.

• We wrapped up the meeting with a great Show and Tell. Keep an eye on our Instagram page to see lots more pics of the meeting, show and tell, and our members' projects throughout the month.

Reminder: We will not have an October meeting because of SewMeSTL, our annual retreat, which will take place Oct. 5-7. Get excited, everyone! More details in this post.