2019 President Erin Case welcomed new and old members to the January meeting. A lovely spread of member potluck was shared, along with chatter and new friends made at the round tables around the room. We acknowledged 12 members who were able to join through scholarships and the January member birthdays.
Erin shared the board’s goals for 2019: Community and Education. Some of our ideas about Community include celebrating our 10th year, our members and hopes to diversify our membership and work together on charity work. We’d like to work together on solving our challenges with the MQG rate increase and are exploring cost-conscious PMQG SWAG. In thinking about Education, we want to revel in our many talented members, bring national speakers to our meetings, have fun with Block of the month, create opportunities for more people to participate through lotteries and scholarships. Erin and board Veep Sara Flynn announced the idea of starting a YouTube channel for BOM and announcements. Check out a preview of tutorials to come! https://app.biteable.com/watch/digital-sunrise-alternative-options-2140305/
PMQG members have several shows of Word Quilts showing. The first exhibit is Outspoken: Modern Quilts at PSU. This show runs from January 14 - March 15. On January 29th there is a Lecture featuring member Sam Hunter about “A Brief History of Word Quilts” from 5:30 - 6:30 at Lincoln Recital Hall. Next, more PMQG Word Quilts are featured at the Lake Oswego Library to celebrate the Lake Oswego Reads program. This exhibit continues until the end of February. Finally, PMQG member AnnMarie Cowley is showing Day of the Dead Quilts at Lake Oswego Library. These quilts were made to celebrate her daughter, born on the Day of the Dead.
A general request was made for volunteers as there are some board and committee positions still wanting for leadership. Sew Day, in particular, is in urgent need of 4-6 volunteers. It’s a great way to meet people, learn new techniques, and try volunteering on for size.
Jennie McKee gave us an overview about the UFO Club and Anne Matlak explained how books can be borrowed from the Guild library. Michelle Freedman garnered over 50 participants in her low volume fat quarter lottery and the two lucky winners of 25+ fat quarters each were Mona Wu and Patty Nisbett. Sara said next month the lottery (or Blottery) would be a Block Lottery. If you’re interested in participating, make an extra January Block of the Month, the Digital Sunrise. Blocks will be collected and grouped together with winners will be chosen via raffle from the participants at the February meeting.
Erin announced several calls for participation at regional quilt shows. The Clark County Quilters have invited PMQG to have a special exhibit. If you’ve ever been interested in showing your quilts, this is a great first chance! The first 10-15 quilts submitted will be accepted into the exhibit. To submit your quilt, email the guild with a photo! The Willamette Valley show is happening in Albany February 1 and 2nd.
Our spring retreat is coming up, April 11 - 14 at Camp Tilikum in Newberg, OR. Registration for this year’s retreat will post on the PMQG website at 10am on February 2. The cost is $275 There are sleeping accommodations for 32 and additional volunteers are needed. This year it will be organized by the two original organizers, Mary Ann Morsette and Kim Lumapas. A fall retreat location is being explored, so stay tuned!
Kimberly also requested volunteers to staff the meet and great PMQG table at the show in Sisters and shared speaker information for February and March. We’re excited to host a barn quilt painting workshop with Sheila Sinclair Snyder on February 9. One spot is still available.
MJ Kinman will be teaching a Gem Workshop on Monday, March 18. Spots for this workshop will be going on sale on February 9th, stay tuned for the announcement of the time!
Treasurer Judy Livingston gave us an overview of the Guild’s financials for 2018 (positive balance of $1,500) and our budget for 2019. The board has allocated this money to increase the opportunity for scholarships this year, as well as our Charity quilting. Judy indicated that we are coming into the year with a hold-over balance or reserve from several years.
Erin kicked off a spirited discussion about the increase in MQG membership this year, the benefit of being members, and asked the group to contribute ideas of ways the MQG could benefit our Guild more directly. A good cross section of thoughts were shared with many members strongly expressing their desire to stay in or out. It was agreed that a member survey would help us come to consensus and many felt a vote should be held before our payment is due in March. Susan Beal offered to put together a task force to identify specific requests for MQG to bring forward before the next meeting.
Three of our members will represent the huge talent Portland has in this year’s Quilt Con: Sam Hunter, Karen Lee and Rachel Cook. Erin requested they share images and details about their work so the Guild can promote them through social media.
As the evening came to an end, the winners of the January raffles were announced. Ann Jenkins won a Fancy Forest quilt pattern donated by Elizabeth Hartman and fat quarters. Maryann Todd-Thompson won 2 Charm square packs donated by Robert Kaufman and The Applique Book. And Chelsea was ecstatic to win the English paper piecing book donated by Tuva Publishing and Charm pack from Benartex Fabrics.
Check out the slideshow of quilts we got to see at the meeting posted below!
