PDF of Slides

The meeting was called to order at 10:06 on January 13th by the president, Octavia Pitts. We had 67 people attending with one new member joining at the meeting.

Octavia (President) went through the financial slide. The balance at the end of the year was $20,770.21. We’ve got a couple of big expenses coming up; MQG dues will be around $2,700 and speaker fees of $1,800 for Kitty Wilkin in the next month. We will present the quilt show finances after the show, once the expenses have been paid. The financials are posted on the website under the Member Resources tab, you will need to log in. Link

We voted on the 2024 Board slate; Octavia to continue as President for another 2-year term, Gail Luther as Web Director in an one-year term and new to board, Abbie Stolzer for a 2-year term as Secretary. Spoiler alert, the officer slate passed almost unanimously.

Octavia went over the survey results from the survey sent out in December. You can see the results in the slides. We have a member forum on the website and invite any comments or questions about this or anything guild related to be posted there.

One note, the board is looking at other locations for 2025. Shrewsbury has already been contracted for 2024. 

Another note, the board has heard loud and clear that we must have Show and Share every month. As we continue tweaking the way we present information at the meeting, please know that we know that the viewing of quilts is our top priority. Note from Gail. Pictures of previous Show and Shares are on the website  whenever you need a quilt viewing hit. Link

It's time to sign up for our 2024 committees which can easily be done on the website. We also had paper signups at the meeting. For those of you new to the guild, committee assignments are a great way to get to know other members. Most committee meetings take place over Zoom, no more than once a month.

Hope Wyss proposed a vote for a one time donation of $100 to a Donors Choose project that is teaching 5th graders sewing skills where they will be making blankets for Project Linus. Link to Project. That proposal also passed.

Those that need to renew and haven’t, please renew now. Oops, those that didn’t renew were archived on January 15th. If you want to rejoin, go ahead and hit the Join Us button on the website. Link

Robyn Passig (Quilt Show Committee chair) announced that while the Quilt Show committee is full, we will be needing many volunteers at the actual show. Watch for a volunteer signup in February. Never fear, you will be reminded. Lots of volunteers are needed.

Laura Patterson volunteered to lead the Hand-Sew Happy Hour on January 23, and it will be at Bread Co. on Chippewa. See the event for details. Link Thanks to Laura for stepping up!

Lots of events are coming up, we highly recommend checking the website often. This is very easy on the phone app; look for Wild Apricot for Members on your phone’s app store. The 2024 calendar has been updated with the dates that we know about. If we forgot something, let us know. You can email Gail at webdirector@stlmqg.org.

We still have openings (not many) for the David Owen Hastings lecture. This is free for members to attend and $10 for guests. Registration will close when we reach 100 attendees. Zoom instructions will be sent to those that registered during the week prior to the event. Link to event

Save the dates for Kitty Wilkin’s workshops and trunk show April 12 - 14, and Carolina Oneto on August 16 - 18. More information can be found, you guessed it, on the website. Link to Wilkin. Link to Oneto.

For those of you that are not going to QuiltCon this year, there will be a special Jackman’s sewing day on February 24th. We are calling it Quilt-Non! We will be collecting personal care items for St. Vincent DePaul. Body wash, lotion, laundry soap, diapers, and feminine hygiene products are always in high demand. You will need to register for this event on the website. Link

Guild t-shirts can be ordered through the website store until January 20th. We will be bundling the order and hopefully have shirts to hand out at the February meeting.

Occasionally, the Board gets a whim and issues challenges but we also have a committee that issues challenges so we decided to call the Board’s challenges, Board Games. The first board game is being handled by our president, Octavia. It is an Improv BOM Sampler. You can find details on the slide and on the website, you will need to scroll down a bit. Link

The second board game is being handled by Susan Muszynski (Treasurer) and is the Scrap Buster. You can find those details on the slide or the website. Link This one starts now and runs to the end of July. 

Robyn Passig and Janice Samson from the Quilt Show committee came up and demonstrated the registration process to submit quilts for the upcoming quilt show. There were many, many questions about the process so Janice wrote up a document about it and it has been put on the Member Resources for Quilt Show page on the website. Link

The items noted included that the fields on the registration marked with a red asterisk are required. You can register up to nine modern quilts/projects. The projects will need to have been completed in the last five years. You will need to have the dimensions of the project for the form. The committee will use this in the planning of the layout of the show.

Information can be saved and updated later, however, the committee won’t see the information until your form has been submitted, so take notice. 

The description form will be on the card next to the displayed quilt. Think of it as a marketing tool to convince others of how great modern quilting is. 

While you are limited to nine projects, they can be all in the same category if need be.

Bella Gurevich showed us her awesome jacket that she will be submitting and asked what category it should be submitted to. The miscellaneous category is for modern quilted items that are outside the boundaries of a blanket or wall hanging. Patti Marti offered to let the guild borrow mannequins from work to display any jackets.

You will need an image ready to upload and the maximum size for the image is 10 GB. The form will not let you proceed without an image so be prepared. The image only needs to show the front of the quilt. 

The project has to be completed to the point of binding to be registered. Yes, it has to be quilted in the photo to be registered. While it does not need to be bound for the photo, it does need to be bound and possibly sleeved for the actual show. 

Susan Muszynski has the labels from the Chihuly challenge and will give them to the committee.

Note on the form if you want the back of something shown. There will be white glove volunteers at the show to turn quilts over for viewers.

If you are submitting in the Challenge category, please list the challenge it was a part of. There’s a list on the Quilt Show website page. Link

You should receive an email after hitting the Save button. We are unsure if you get an email after submitting. The Submit button is a big, green button. We are also unsure if once submitted, if you can go back to edit the submission. So, make sure you are done before Submitting.

The committee email is Quiltshow@stlmqg.org.

Nancy Dlugosz suggested having all of the information available before attempting the registration. Organization will save time.

Marie Hill asked to please use spell check. Write out your description separately and cut and paste to the description. This is what is shown to the public. We don’t want them knowing we can’t spell.

Kate Moore volunteered to proofread anyone’s description. Her email is katestlmo@gmail.com.

If you have a project in progress, you can enter your completed projects now and not actually submit it until January 31st, if you finish the current project, then you can add it. Don't forget to submit though.

We were reminded that there will be a jury process to ensure the selection of modern quilts for this show. This is not a judging evaluation, however it is possible for a quilt to be declined for the show. The committee will be using the MQG definition of modern quilting for the jurying process.

Items smaller than 40 inches do not need a sleeve.

Please include in your description the pattern name if used and the designer, or if you riffed on someone else's work. Also include who quilted the piece. Attribute where you can.

If a project has been accepted for the show, you will receive an email before the next guild meeting.

Other announcements -

The monthly after-meeting lunch was at Cowbron and was quite good.

Suzanne Galli Koenen will be displaying her paintings at the Webster Groves Public Library during the month of February. We actually have a news post about this on the website. Link

Cindi Templin brought up flyers for a smocking class . It has been added as a News post. Link

Laura Patterson reminded us that someone left a white cardigan at the SewMeSTL retreat in September. Please, contact us at stlmqg@gmail.com if you left behind a white sweater, we would like to return it.

Program - 

After break, we then heard from our speaker, fellow member Mac Barnes who spoke about using computer tools in the quilting process. We enjoyed pictures of his projects which can be seen on the slides. He also brought two projects that we could look at up close. There are pictures of these projects included in the meeting’s pictures on the website. Link

He talked about how he came to quilting through his grandmother. He is a student at Washington University and enjoys using engineering problem solving skills in his quilting projects. You can find the stories behind his projects on his website, macbarnes.art.

Some of the software he uses is Inkscape and Procreate. Bing was also suggested as a way to get AI generated images.

He mentioned a show that was starting on the 13th at Art St. Louis. More information can be found on their website. Link

He recommended checking YouTube for videos on basically any process. He has found a variety of videos there.

Mac recommended following Matt’s Pixel Garden on Instagram. He creates art using math. @mattspixelgarden

You can follow Mac at his website, macbarnes.art and the same handle on Instagram, @macbarnes.art.

Raffles - We raised $125 on the monthly raffle, generously donated by Cotton Cuts, The winners were Susan Muszynski and Dorothy LaBounty. The prizes will be mailed to the winners.

The final event was Show and Share, everyone's favorite part of the meeting. See pictures of the projects here.

We adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Gail Luther

2023 Secretary

2024 Web Director