Introductions
10 members present,
Business meeting 10 am 12 pm, sew day 12 pm – 1 pm
Michael Miller Fabric Challenge
Official deadline June 23rd , submit to official
forum. There is a current challenge in
progress topic you can look at and upload to. We’ll look at our guild member’s
pieces at the June Meeting. 8 members received their fabric. Thanks to Terry
for giving her fabric to Katie!
MQG Webinars
Design Fundamentals & Starting a Business online, check
the Webinar section in the forums to view in case you missed the live feed.
Meeting Ideas –What do you want from our TMQG?
I am very glad we brought this topic up. I personally have
had ideas of what I want this guild to be and how I currently see it. Everyone chimed in and was happy to have new
ideas for things to occur during our meetings. The biggest topics all related
to building a better “Community” between the members. We enjoy seeing each other but know little
about each other and when we leave have little to know about the next meeting.
The main ideas were skill building, a bigger online presence, reaching out to
more members, and charity sewing.
The group decided instead of having Sew days every month
when you are unsure of people staying, we should use that time to learn
something new. The group consensus of
the Improv Workshop we previously had was very successful and to continue in
that fashion. Ideas brought up were free motion quilting, paper piecing, curved
piecing, new binding techniques and even technological related ideas such as
how to photograph your quilt or blogging.
If anyone wants to volunteer to teach the others something at a meeting,
please let us know! We return to Inspire in May and do not have any skill
building topics set for the meeting.
There was also a stress on a bigger online presence to
inform current members and to help reach out to new members. Current members
were unaware that we have a blog (
http://tampamodernquiltguild.blogspot.com/)
and that our personal TMQG website is under construction and never been used.
The group brainstormed ideas to be put on either places such as lists of
member’s personal blogs, calendar dates of meeting times and places, meeting
minutes and local quilty stuff happenings. For example listing quilt shows that
you can submit your work to or places to go as a group as a field trip, such as
a museum or quilt show. Also adding our challenges and sewing items to the
blog. A Guild newsletter was also
mentioned, and highly received. We will begin creating a format and sending
these out. The blog can be directly linked to the website.
Our Flickr group was also mentioned pertaining to its little
use. Members have requested to join the
group and have not heard back. We are unaware of who is in charge of the flickr
group, to accept the newer members. This could also be added as a gallery or
side bar to the blog and website.
There were many ideas in terms of reaching out to
others. In its simplest form, a TMQG
avatar/button needs to be made so our current members can have a link on their
own personal blogs to direct people to us as a group. Ideas were mentioned to create a simple flyer
to put at local quilt shops to let others learn of us, and on their
websites. Also putting flyers at local
libraries if allowed. We will contact our current two locations that we hold
our meetings first to add our information on their site. There was a question of USF having a quilting
group, to reach out to them to visit us. For local quilt shows, to look into getting
information together to have a table/booth to show our work and members, to
help gain others. And then in the hopes
of finding these new members, we need to have a ‘New Member Packet’ to give
them all the information so they too will not feel lost.
Also looking at building community amongst our members, we
decided to have a yard swap/sale type of event twice a year. Starting in
September, then again in March, members are encouraged to bring fabric, books,
patterns, and anything crafty to our meeting for a swap. There was the question of actually selling
the items or having this as a swap. We are
still a small guild, the comfort of just swapping works for now. However if we
do plan to move forward with some of our larger ideas such as quilt shows or
field trips, we may add prices such as 10 cents a fat quarter or the like, to
help build guild funds.
We already have our Holiday Party Swap set for July, where
members will bring in a handmade item wrapped to swap. Other ideas for
community building were to start sewing for each other. Looking at the size of our group, we decided
against bees and round robins as of yet.
Ellen initiated our ‘Modern Block of the Month’ for each meeting. A member will be selected to bring in
directions for a quilt block for the other members to make. The member will pick a color scheme for the
members to follow. This will give all
members the opportunity to make something during the month to bring at the
following meeting. The block information
will also be posted online. (See the next post about Aprils BOM.) Members are
not required to make the block. Blocks should be from a free pattern
source. The block does not have to be
seen as ‘modern’ although this is where we can challenge each other! All
members present were very excited about adding this to our meetings! (Yay! Glad
I thought of it and brought it). Emily has chosen May, Ann has chosen June,
Katie has chosen July, and Terry has chosen September.
The final item we discussed at our meeting was charity
sewing. The group feels the need to give
back to the community, even if it is only a small amount. Ideas were proposed such as ConKerr Cancer
Pillowcases, Project Linus, Downy Quilts for Kids, NICU Quilts, Quilts for Kids,
Easter Seals, etc. Ellen will look up
more information about these charities before the next meeting. She will bring
her findings for the group to discuss and vote on a group to support. There was also the idea to have a sew day
specifically for one of the charities, such as a Pillowcase Sew Day. We could
support two groups in this fashion. Having a more quilt based charity for the
year and then the pillowcase sewing day.
Other small ideas that were discussed for future meetings were
the topics of food! We all agreed for the July Holiday party that it should be
a potluck (food to be assigned later.) There was an idea to bring our lunches
to meetings so not to lose time going elsewhere. For the moment this will be up to each
person, but perhaps later we can decide on lunches in house to eat together at
specific meetings.
Another idea members had was to add an evening meeting to
the month. The idea was to have the
evening meeting as the business meeting so then the sew day can be spend on all
sewing! This idea appeared in favor, but will take more planning on our part.
We will have to find locations that can accompany us and an evening that will
work for the majority of the group.
There was an idea to have the business meeting at those houses of us who
have the space. Since it will be the
business meeting, there would need to be room for people but not machines. We
will also look into this for the future!
We hope everyone enjoyed the meeting and what we
discussed! I see some great things in
our future! Let’s turn our guild into what we want it to be!
Next Meeting: May 10th, 10am, Inspire Quilt Shop
