Pdf of slides 

Meeting called to order at 10:04 by the president, Octavia Pitts.

Octavia started the meeting by doing the financial review in lieu of absent treasurer, Susan Muszynski. Susan is taking a well deserved vacation in Europe though OP did note that she did not have official permission from the board to be absent.

As noted on the slide, the guild has $26,573.84 in the guild checking account. Specific expenses noted was the Tia Curtis workshop which had a loss of $2680.00. Other upcoming significant expenses include the SewMe Retreat next month.

Monthly attendance numbers remain quite healthy, June’s meeting had an attendance of 93. August’s attendance was 89 in person, 1 guest who has since joined and 6 via zoom. 

Quick reminder; there are many ways to stay in touch with the guild’s board and other members. Facebook: St. Louis Modern Quilt Guild, Instagram: @stlmqg, Website: stlmqg.org, and Email: stlmqg@gmail.com. 

Jenn Deck (vice president) went over the various events happening throughout the community. Please see the slide for the list and links. Special reminder to those wanting to register for QuiltCon this year, it’s a good idea to log on before the registration date to ensure that there are no issues with your membership on MQG. Contact stlmqg@gmail.com if you find that you can’t log on. Registration is August 15 so this warning may too late.

Jenn also went over the upcoming events/activities that the guild has planned; all of which can be seen on the website’s calendar (home page – very bottom, or the events page). Even more conveniently, they are all listed on the smartphone app where you can also register for events. Link to Events Page

Remember that there will be no guild meeting in September because of the much anticipated SewMeSTL Retreat on September 15 - 17. National Sew a Jelly Roll day just happens to be 9/16, so whether you're at home or at SewMe, grab that jelly roll and get sewing!

The board is looking for someone to host the Hand Sew Happy Hour on September 19, please contact stlmqg@gmail.com if interested. 

Mark your calendar and save the dates for our 2024 speakers and workshops. On January 24 we'll host David Owen Hastings' lecture on zoom, April 12-14 for an in-person trunk show and workshops by Kitty Wilkin, Night Quilter and August 16-18 virtual trunk show and workshops via zoom with Carolina Oneto.

Octavia presented the current business. Again no meeting in September. She went over the proposed bylaw amendment to add a new officer position to the board that will be voted on in October.  Link to PDF

She shared an online resource for new and secondhand sewing supplies at A Thrifty Notion. 

Octavia discussed some tentative plans for the December meeting. Based on member feedback, we are changing the structure of the meeting to be more fun, fair, and reflective. Most notably, we will not need member donations for a raffle.

She also mentioned that she and Jenn are planning on sending a survey to see members' interest in future lectures and workshops. Stay tuned for that.

Committee Announcements - 

Swap & Challenge - Jessica Schunke reviewed the rules for the current Log-Cabin Challenge. See the website page for all of the rules and prizes. She explained that judging would be based upon how well the completed project fit the given brief or criteria. 

Post meeting note from Jessica - Participation Survey for STLMQG Log-Cabin Challenge

--- As we mentioned at Saturday's meeting, the Swap & Challenge Committee is trying to gauge how many entries to expect for the Log-Cabin Challenge, which is due at October's meeting (details on the challenge can be found here. If you expect to participate in the Log-Cabin Challenge, please complete this quick, two-question form by Sept. 1: Questionaire

Don't worry, this won't lock you into participating if something comes up (and you won't be barred from participating if you don't complete it), but if you're pretty sure you're going to participate, please help us out by completing it. Thanks! ----

Kristy Daum went over the newest challenge issued by the committee. We are having a Favorites Swap at the December meeting. No need to sign in, just bring your items to the December meeting if you wish to participate. The challenge is to bring three “favorite” items in a paper bag to swap. Those items will include your favorite notion, a fat quarter of fabric from your favorite modern designer and a fat quarter of fabric in your favorite color. Please limit the total value of the items to approximately $20 and the items are expected to be new, not used. A random swap will be done with a version of left, right, center game. Please make sure the FQs are modern and quilt-shop quality. This swap isn’t listed on the website yet but will be added in the next week.

SewMeSTL - Kristina Olson reminded everyone that registration for next month’s retreat is still open. There are few openings left on Saturday and Friday and several openings on Sunday. Registration will be closed on August 15 at 5:00 pm to allow the committee to work with finalized lists of attendees. 

Gail Luther would like to interject at this point and remind everyone to make sure they have paid if they are planning to attend. We had a hiccup with the payment processor during the initial sign-up. You may have thought you paid but it didn’t complete. Emails will be going out this week to remind those that haven’t paid to please complete their payment. If you are sure you have paid (have a receipt or confirmation) but your membership records says you have not, please contact Gail at secretary@stlmqg.org and we will get this straightened out.

Back to Kristina, raffle donations are being accepted. Please contact her at stlmqg@gmail.com if you have something to donate.

Additional volunteers are still needed for various items and duties, please use this link to sign up. Sign Up Link. Currently, two hotel rooms are being raffled off and the winners are listed at the end of this recap.

Laura Patterson commented that charity quilts would be an excellent item to work on during the retreat. We have 50 quilts donated so far. There will be someone at the retreat to accept any completed charity quilts.

QuiltCon Community Outreach Challenge - Leila Gardunia and her committee presented their much anticipated plans for this year’s Quiltcon challenge quilt. She described the challenge and explained this year’s theme is symmetry and the palette which can be seen on the slide (and eventually on the website). 

Patti Baymiller described their design process and showed examples of various designs that they looked at and Marianne Belcke unveiled the final design which can be seen below. 140 blocks will need to be completed by members and the committee has prepared packets that contain the instructions and necessary fabric. We are asked to sign up for at least one packet and again, an excellent project for this year’s retreat. The blocks will be due back at the October meeting and they ask that the blocks be put in a plastic baggie if mailed.

All this information will be put on the website in the challenge in the coming weeks.  Final Design - 

Post meeting note from Leila - 

--Each year the Modern Quilt Guild invites member guilds and individuals to make a quilt to be displayed at the next QuiltCon and to benefit charity. Our Community Outreach Challenge Committee presented their quilt design and members were invited to sign out quilt block packets and make a block for our challenge quilt. The packets contain both fabric and instructions for the block. Further detailed instructions can be found at: Tutorial

If you were not at the meeting, block packets may also be signed out any day of SewMe STL (Sept 15-17th). Blocks will need to be returned at SewMe STL or at the October 15th meeting. Blocks may also be mailed back if posted by Oct 7th.--

Quilt Show - Robyn Passig caught us up on what the quilt show committee has been doing.

The show will be on March 23 - 24, 2024 with setup on March 22 and will be held at Greensfelder Recreation Complex at Queeny Park. Some important dates to keep in mind: submission of quilts online will be the month of January, the drop off of quilts will be at the February and March meetings.

Robyn asked for a show of hands on members planning on entering at least one quilt and there was a majority of hands which bodes well. Robyn went over the requirements which can be found in the slides and on the website.

She reviewed the jury process which she reminded us is separate from the judging process. She also went over the definition of modern quilting; the guild will be following the definition set forth by the Modern Quilt Guild  She presented the categories that will be included; new this show will be Art Quilts and Maximalism. 

Most importantly, because the show has been moved up several months, the committee needs to expand and they are looking for more committee volunteers. She listed the various subcommittees with the hope that we are able to have two volunteers for each subcommittee. 

In addition to volunteering for a committee position, we can all help now by distributing postcards to quilts shops and posting on social media. There is a website page just for the Quilt Show and Gail will ensure that it is updated in the coming week.

Hope Wyss asked if there was a description of the duties involved in the subcommittee. Here is the description that was included in a guild-wide email last month.

• Publicity – Create communications (print ready postcards, social media posts) for members, other guilds, quilt shops, newspapers, and quilt lovers.

• Vendors – Contact vendors and invite them to vend at the show.  Track acceptances and payments, be their main contact for any questions or setup needs.  

• Registration – Find software package to allow members to register their quilts.  Copy quilt info into individual documents (placards) for printing.

• Quilt Storage – Accept quilts at meetings and store in animal-free room, grouped by rows.

• Staffing – Using SignUpGenius, ask members to sign up for shifts for Friday Set up, Sunday Take Down, Saturday/Sunday Admissions, Raffles, white glove walking, etc.

• Display – Draft area layout to include rows of quilts, Admissions, quilt booths, vendor booths etc.  Determine the flow of quilts in each category.

• Wood conduit purchase, sanding, varnish – Yep, We will need more!

• Admissions – Review past year's processes with Treasurer to see what can be streamlined and emphasize welcoming our guests

• Set up – Coordinate running quilts to correct section, demo how to hang quilts on Friday (create a video?)

• Demos / Modern Quilting presentation – Ask members to share their skills, coordinate presentations 

• Program, ballots, raffle tickets, quilt placards – Create Print Ready copies

• Show Chair Apprentice – Learn how to coordinate all committee efforts, contract with venue and convention center supply vendors, and prepare budget with the goal of being the Show Chair for 2026.

Sign up form to join committee. Link.

Em Komiskey commented many libraries throughout the area have quilting groups; those might be a good place to drop off some postcards.

Another member asked if quilts submitted in the Guild Challenge category would count against the limit of 9 per member. The answer is Yes!

Jenn Deck reiterated that high need for more volunteers so please consider volunteering. A SignUpGenius form will be set up in the coming week.

Social - Allison Maestri announced another social event; Barn Quilt Painting Night Out on September 30th, 6:30 to 9:00 pm. An event has been created, you should have received an announcement email. You will sign up for the event through the vendor’s website, AR Workshop. All of the information will be listed on the event in our website calendar.

August’s after meeting lunch was at Raising Cane’s in Maplewood, the October after meeting lunch will be Cowbron in Maplewood, check the event calendar for more details. Event will set up soon.

Member Announcements -

Melissa Eagan announced that she and Annamaria Lu were hosting a sew-in day on Sunday August 13th to work on blocks for a community quilt to contribute to You Are Not Alone quilt to benefit the AFSP which is an organization devoted to suicide prevention programs. You will have missed the sew-in day by the time you get this recap but you can contact Melissa for more information, Melissakae08@gmail.com. This picture is a screenshot of the post she made on Facebook.

Nancy Kollmar announced that she was selling raffle tickets for a Dear Jane quilt.  The proceeds go to help offset the costs of a quilt show hosted by Circle in the Square Quilters, a fellow guild. Here is a screenshot of a Facebook post announcing the show. If you are interested in buying raffle tickets, you can use the QR code.

Octavia, standing in for Susan Muszynski, who is gallivanting around Europe, reminded everyone that the UFO Challenge was officially over and the prizes would be drawn later in the meeting. The Mini-Quilt Chihuly Challenge is still going on and you have until September 30 to submit your projects. Description and rules are listed on the website. 

Octavia went over a bylaw change proposal submitted by the Board. You can read the proposed changes here, but essentially the board wants to add an officer position that will be dedicated to maintaining the website. The other work will be shifted between the other four directors to even out the workload. This change will be voted on in October. You must be a dues paying member and present at the meeting to vote.

Octavia called for a vote on a guild donation of $1000 to the City Sewing Room to help build their new annex which will be dedicated to Quilting. Ballots on the vote passed. The donation will be made in the coming weeks. She also announced that our speaker for October will be from Sew Hope which is a sister organization with the City Sewing Room.

Break Time - comment from Gail. Many people had difficulties buying raffle tickets online during break. I suspect the problem was volume and you might consider in the future, buying tickets before the meeting. The link is always included in the email that goes out the Tuesday before the meeting.

Program - Preparing to Send Your Quilt to a Longarmer

Our program was presented by Annie Cook, Dottie Vaughn, Emily Wall and Lilo Whitener-Fey, all professional long-armers. This presentation had a lot of information from questions to ask before you hire a long-armer, to prepping your tops, prepping your backs and preparing to mail or drop off. They also discussed things to expect from your longarm professional with suggestions on what to do if you are unhappy with the results. Please check the slides for their tips and a Resource list. So much useful information.

Unfortunately, because we went so late (so many questions for the long-armers!), we did not have time for Show and Share. Be sure to bring your projects to the October meeting.

Raffle winners - 

Round Robin - Kathy Bridges won a book on Improv

Fabric Raffle - Generously donated by Cotton Cuts; thank you Cotton Cuts! We made $210 this month. The winners of two FQ bundles of Tula Pink Everglow are Nancy Dlugosz and Tess McMahon.

SewMe Hotel Room Raffle - Generously donated by Marriott St. Louis West. We raised $200. The winners are Stephanie Sachtleben and Gail Luther (YAY ME!)

The UFO Challenge -  FQ Bundle Paintbrush Studios from Warm n Cozy in Columbia, IL-

Marshmallow Milk - Annamaria Lu,

Strawberry Jelly – Nancy Dlugosz,

Astronaut Drink - Dottie Vaughn.

Dottie Vaughn also won a t-shirt for submitting the most projects. Kudos to Warm n Cozy for these excellent bundle names!

Meeting Adjourned - See you at SewMeSTL 2023!

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Luther, Secretary 2023