Meeting Recap (February 8, 2020)

Thanks so much for attending Saturday's meeting! It was a packed house with 100 members attending. We want to quickly apologize to anyone who struggled with parking, we know it is an issue and unfortunately will continue to be at The Heights until construction is complete. 

• Board and overall guild updates:
• Tess, our Treasurer, gave us the updated financial info. Last month to pay dues ($40)! You can pay via our Paypal link or by cash, check, or charge at our March meeting. 
• Lilo, our Secretary, gave an update on our membership numbers. We are currently at 172!
• Pam, our Vice President, announced several quilting/sewing related events and news items. Check the email for the list, links, and information.
• Emily, our President, covered several announcements and updates: 
• SewMeSTL, our annual in-town sewing retreat, dates and location are set! Keep an eye on the SewMeSTL 2020 tab for details as they emerge. 
• September 25-27th
• Marriott St. Louis West, same location as last year. 
• Workshop sign ups for our first speaker of the year, Tara Faughnan, are coming up! Be sure to read the email recap for those details, you don't want to miss it! 
• The 2020 Speaker tab has details on the two classes Tara will be teaching. The member rate for each workshop is $50. 
• The Trunk Show is April 24 at the Brentwood Community Center. Doors open at 6, presentation to start at 6:30. It is free for STLMQG members, $5 for non-members. 
• New Cancellation Policy: In an effort to ensure as many folks as possible have an opportunity to attend the workshops, as well as minimize lost revenue for these events, the board has instituted a new cancellation policy for all guild events requiring a registration fee. 
• Cancellation requests must be made in writing to stlmqg@gmail.com. Requests received more than 4 weeks prior to the event will receive a full refund. Requests received between 2-4 weeks prior to the event will receive a 50% refund. Requests received less than 2 weeks prior to the event will not receive a refund. 
• Hand-Sew Happy Hour's next meeting is Tuesday, February 18th at the Brentwood Bread Co. 
• 10 Year Anniversary Party! July 25, 3-8pm, Italia-America Bocce Club. More details to come!
• There is no April meeting! Due to Tara's visit, there will not be an April meeting. 
• Members were welcomed to make quilting and charitable related announcements:
• Denise Drinkwater is working on a map/areal view type project and would love some assistance. 
• Mary Beth Oberlin is still collected booties for the Mourning Project. Booties are due by March 1st, if you would still like to contribute reach out directly to Mary Beth.
• Lilo Whitener-Fey as Trace Creek Quilting is collecting #bushfireblocks for our MQG friends in Australia and will be mailing them by February 20th. If you would still like to contribute please contact Lilo directly.
• Committee Updates: 
• Programming Committee: 
• Looking for volunteers willing to do live demo(s) of any Tip/Trick/Technique (10 minutes) to share during a Guild Meeting as well as suggestions for demos you would like to see. 
• Seeking to borrow a Document Camera which would allow us to do Demo’s during Guild meeting and project on the wall for everyone to see without leaving their tables!  
• Please Email feedback to Robin Medici directly.
• Sew Me STL Committee:
• Dates and location for 2020 set. 
• Social Committee:
• Barn Quilt Painting outing, details to come!
• Welcome Committee:
• Looking for Swag from our friends and business owners in the guild to add to our Welcome Bags that new members will receive. If interested in contributing, please get in touch with Welcome Committee Chair (Lilo Whitener-Fey). 
• 2020 Block of the Month (BOM) February fabric type was announced. This month you may add Low Volume fabrics to your all solid blocks. Full details here.  We had an amazing showing of January blocks and one lucky participating member walked away with a panel of Kaufman Kona color prints! 

• Will McDonald from Just Sew STL gave a presentation on basic machine maintenance and answered several of our questions for us. He had several excellent tips such as: 
• The simplest solution is the most likely solution.
• Start troubleshooting with whatever has most recently changed; thread, needle, fabric type....
• Re-thread, change your needle, clean and oil the machine.   
• Mr. McDonald also sharpened scissors for our members!

• We wrapped up the meeting with another great Show and Tell. Keep an eye on our Instagram page to see pics of the meeting, show and tell, and our members' projects throughout the month. In the meantime, enjoy a few Show and Share examples!