Meeting Recap January 9th, 2021

We've made it to 2021! And this past Saturday we had our first STLMQG meeting of the new year and it was a smashing success! We had a chance to use the breakout room feature on Zoom and it was a wonderful opportunity for our members to have a little more one on one time with each other and share some laughs with fun things they found in their sewing rooms. We are so delighted to have you back with us this year you are our quilty people. 

Guild Business:

• Gail Luther, our new treasurer, started off with an update of the guild financials. For those interested our year end P&L Statement is located on the members drive. We are set up well this year for any financial decisions we want to make this year.
• Christine Boyd, our new secretary, gave us a brief overview of our membership numbers. In 2020 we hit an impressive 175 members, and in the last year we gained 21 members, six of which joined in December alone. We are currently sitting at 133 members. Anyone who has joined and is interested in joining should check out  how to join.
• Our Vice President Em Komiskey covered some of the online happenings coming up, below is a list. 
  
  - Rebecca Bryan Modern Triangle BOM - Wildflower 
  - Corinne Sovey Playground Skillbuilder BOM 
  - Murder Mystery Quilt
  - Leila Gardunia Patch Party BOM
  
  - Alderwood Studio - New Direction Quilt Along
  - Then Came June - Campfire Glow Quilt Along
  - Kielys Quilt Room - Evolve Quilt Along
  - Quilts From the Attic - Shoal Quilt Sew Along
  - Slice of Pi Quilts - Exploding Heart QAL
  
  - Lo & Behold Stichery - Beginner Quilting Academy

Items Covered:

• Committee Sign Ups - Biggest of thanks to all our members who have signed up to help out the guild. If you are still interested in signing up, please email us at stlmqg@gmail.com and we can get you signed up.
  
  
• Zoom Use:
  - Please remember the STMQG Zoom account is available for any guild member wishing to use for quilty-gatherings. Just email stlmqg@gmail.com to get things set up.
  
  
• 
  International Quilt Museum - as a member of the STLMQG we have access to the International Quilt Museum based in Lincoln, Nebraska, which as the single largest public collection of quilts in the world. A special "portal" has been created to provide additional internet resources like special downloads and virtual programs. Instructions and login information will be provided in your email.
  
  
• Amazon Smile STLMQ Guild is an easy way for you to support the guild everytime you shop at no cost to you. Shop through our charity link and .5% of your eligible purchases will get donated to the guild. Turn on Amazon Smile through your settings and look for the "Modern Quilt Guild Inc." Select the club located in St. Louis.
  
  
• 4x5 Quarterly Bees - We are introducting a guild Quarterly Block Bees - a great way to get involved and meet new folks in the guild by picking a pattern and a color scheme and joining with others to make blocks to complete a small sized throw. Check out this blog post to learn more and look for the sign up link in your email.
  
  
• Monthly Skill Builder - our president Lilo Whitener-Fey introduced an exciting new activity for 2021 to replace the block of the month for this year to help make the most of meeting through our new online tools - Monthly Skill Builder. Since many of us learn best hands on this is a great way to utilize zoom as a way to learn new skills/techniques. Check out this blog post to learn how you can learn new skills and win prizes. We'd love to hear from you if you'd be willing to teach a skill - please reach out and let us know. Our first month will be taught by our lovely leader Lilo and she'll teach us everything you need to know about chain piecing your quilt tops. First Zoom will be Wednesday, January 20th for 7-8pm be on the lookout for the zoom link in your inbox.
  
  
• Committee Announcements
  - Jessica Schunke, chair of the charity committee, presented our first charity project of 2021. We will be making quilts for homeless veterans tiny homes project being built in North City. Learn more about the 30 Twin XL quilts we want to donate by Friday April 30, 2021 and what you can do to help. 
  - Jessica Schunke also showed us the beautiful result of our QuiltCon charity quilt from 2020. Be on the lookout for more information and pictures of the final project as it debuts at QuiltCon in February.
  
  
• Scavenger Hunt - We broke out into groups of 4-5 in the breakout rooms to 'hunt' for some fun sewing items including, smallest ruler, oldest fabric, the greatest number of scissors and most disastrous pin cushion. We saw some beautiful old fabrics found that some we are averaging near 20 scissors in our sewing rooms! 
  
  
• Feburary Meeting will feature a chat from Suzy Williams on picking fabrics for your quilt patterns. We will be getting a FREE Suzy Quilts pattern and we've have worked with 2 online quilt shops to secure discounts following the meeting to put your new fabric picking skills to use. February’s meeting will be member only, so we suggest that you get signed up!
  
  
• Hand Sew *Home* Happy Hour will continue in 2021 - first meeting is January 26th form 6-9 - zoom link to come in your email.
  
  
• Fabric Raffle 
  Thanks to another very generous donation from our sponsor Cotton Cuts Gail Luther & Judy Parham are going to enjoy some fat quarter bundles of Alison Glass's new Art Theory.

We'll keep you updated through emails and on social of all the fun things coming for the rest of 2021. We can't wait for more fun times ahead, take care, stay safe, wear your masks and we hope that we will get back to seeing each other soon.