November Recap
This was a busy meeting! We started off this meeting by having the 5 guests in attendance (and now new members!) introduce themselves. We are so happy they joined and now have 74 members in our guild!!
For Charity projects, we have reached our goal of 25 tote bags! We are still behind on nap mats so we showed off six that were turned in at meeting and let the guild know that we updated the dimensions. These nap mats can be as easy or complicated as you want to make them! They are great to practice free motion quilting with! We hope that making nap mats part of the focus for our December party, we will get lots more in. As a reminder, there is a prize drawing for those who turned in charitable projects this year at our December party! You still have another month to turn them in.
Additionally, it is the time of year for membership renewal! Dues are still $40 and can be paid via cash, check, or even Paypal Friends and Family! Dues can be mailed to the guild mailbox, sent in via paypal or brought to meeting. After renewing dues, please fill out the membership form here so that we can keep your information current.
Speaking of dues, we went over the awesome events we already have planned for 2018 that members need to renew for! We will be participating in the North Texas Quilt Festival, have sewcials planned, retreat (probably in the summer) and SPEAKERS! We are in talks currently with Heather Givans of Crimson Tate and Christina Cameli for workshops in 2018 and we just need to secure dates! Exciting things happening so please renew.
We also talked about our party on December 14th and what we have planned. Hop on over to our calendar page here to read all about it! If you’d like to come to our party as a guest (or bring a guest who might be interested in our guild), please do! It’s actually a great “meeting” to attend because you get to meet and mingle with everyone.
As an update on the 2018 Quiltcon Charity Quilt, we have started sewing and need all blocks done by January. We hope to have a special Sewcial Day tentatively scheduled for January 13 from 10-5, to get all the blocks sewn together and ready to quilt. If we can knock it out fast enough, the rest of the day can be spent as a regular sew day!
Now came the real “business” part of our meeting. The board called a special meeting on Oct 21, to go over our bylaws and standing rules for the future of our guild. In getting ready for a transition to a completely new board, we realized we had a few gaps that needed to be filled. First, the board decided that we would add a position of “past president” to the Standing rules. This position is a non voting, purely advisory position that many guilds (and other organizations) have. This is a way to give new board members a person to ask questions and give guidance on the guild’s past activities.
Second, the board clarified section 3.3 Term of Office in the bylaws by adding the sentence: “A director may be elected for more than 2 consecutive terms provided that they serve in a different officer position.” Previously this section was interpreted to read that a member of the board (director) could only serve for 2 years, but there was some clarification needed if that was really the meaning. We hope by clarifying this, it takes the pressure of a completely new board every 2 years off the guild and we can have more continuity!
Naturally, from this point we moved on to board election nominations! Before taking nominations, each member of the board explained their duties and what they loved about their job. We will vote on the new board at our December 14th meeting and celebrate our new board at the party afterward!
The nominations for the 2018 Board are as follows:
President: Laura Wheelis
Secretary: Cathie Devenney
Treasurer: Lazara Abernathy
VP of Communications: Trish Fowlkes
VP of Membership and Outreach: Jeanne Lobsinger!
VP of Events: ????
That’s right!! We need a VP of Events! This board position is responsible for contacting speakers and teachers for our workshops, organizing our retreats and hosting guests while they are here to teach us. Rhonda has done an amazing job the last 2 years AND she has said she is willing to help the next person to take the job. She will even pick up speakers from the airport and taxi them around as she has always done if needed! She has also gotten several speakers already lined up for 2018 and just needs the details finalized. If we don’t get a new board member in this position, we can move it to a committee. If you’d rather share this position with a friend and form a committee, just email and let us know! Nominations are open until the December meeting.
Finally, after this long meeting (with lots of laughter and comedy routines mixed in) we were not able to play the Art game we had planned due to time constraints. HOWEVER, this game is really fun and we are determined to save it for a meeting next year! Show and Share on the other hand did not disappoint at this meeting! We had it all – quilts, antique quilts begging to be finished, a Christmas ornament, tote bag, even dyed fabric – and wonderful stories to share! Our members are unbelievably talented and open to so many projects!
Carolyn showing of these beautiful minis! Cathie showed off her latest work in progress inspired by a song! She didn’t like her quilting at first, but after some love on instagram decided to not do any unsewing 🙂
Deborah took some awsome classes in Houston! These beauties were a result of an ice dyeing class and the guild had a great time finding pictures in the patterns!
L to R: New Member Debbie with an awesome quilt top, Rhonda shows off the results of her Shibori dyeing class and Lazara made this adorable Christmas Tree ornament for a swap! On the back is embroidered a quote from the movie Elf 🙂
Dr. Who fan Ian worked hard on a tote to go with his awesome shirt! Close up action shot shows the inside lining that matches the outside!
Jill is still going strong with our Vintage Quilt Revival Sewalong! She also made this beautiful baby quilt for a friend’s baby girl on the way
Laura showed a baby quilt in progress she designed that (hopefully) will be finished and given away before next meeting. She also made this mini paper pieced Agave for her mom that just needs the binding finished.
Laura found these old hand pieced quilt tops at a trade days market in Wimberley for a STEAL. She plans on finishing them eventually. Lots of WIPS with Laura tonight! Jeanne is reliving memories of the smell of her grandmother’s old quilts
Can’t wait to see everyone at the December party!
