A2MQG Meeting Minutes November 2023

The meeting was held at Maker Works with 16 members and 3 guests in person, and 6 members via Zoom.

Retreat: The retreat has 15 members signed up.  Tara will send out more information in January.

Dues: Reminder that annual dues are due now.  Please go to the link at the right and fill out the form and submit payment.  We will be cutting off access to emails and social media in January to those who have not renewed.

Round Robin participants shared their progress.

Skill Share: Sheryl R shared how she uses a Flynn Frame for quilting small quilts.

Swaps/Challenges:  Participants swapped postcards.

Charity: Reminder that we are asking for donations for homeless vets for the December meeting.  Continue to get those charity quilts to Carol.

Programs:

• We are working on programs for 2024.  The map making class will happen! Cheryl S will be scheduling it and we will be looking into other programs as well.
• We have the opportunity to join another group who is hosing a Voltron, Irene Roderick class in April.  Sign-ups have gone out. (NOTE: This class is currently full, however we do have a waitlist in case of cancellations.)
• It was suggested that we have a sew-in where members work on a similar pattern or project like a bag.  (NOTE: This has been scheduled for Sunday, December 17th at the Chelsea Library.  See your emails for the sign-up link.)

Show and Share:  The Board would like to ask members to limit (if possible) the number of show and shares to no more than 2 quilts.  We also are setting a challenge for the January meeting for anyone who has not shared a quilt in the last 6 months.  There will be a prize!

Breakout groups:  We will be trying something new at future meetings such that if members have questions on a particular technique or how a quilt was made that we will give time at the end of the meeting for breakout groups .  This will also be a good time for attendees to get more information on skill shares.

Sound and other acoustic issues:  The Board does recognize that some of the meetings have more background noise from the workshop than others.  We will be investigating some possible sound deadening measures (assuming Maker Works is okay with us doing so) as well as tweaking how we place seating for the meeting.  We also will be encouraging members to hang their show and share quilts around the meeting perimeter which hopefully will aid this as well.  We also have a good camera and microphone solution for Zoom participants (which was not available at this meeting) and will continue to work on ways to make the meeting enjoyable for all.

Next meeting: Wednesday, December 27th Maker Works.  This will be our annual holiday party.  Members are requested to bring snacks to share.  We will have show and share but the bulk of the meeting will be for socializing.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - October 2023

The meeting was held at Maker Works with 14 members in attendance and 2 via Zoom.

Retreat - January 25-28, Creative Passions: We have a few openings for retreat. Please check your emails for the sign-up information.

Elections:

    The following slate of board members and officers were elected by unanimous vote of those in attendance for the 2024 calendar year:

• President : Kathy Koch
• VP Programs: Cheryl Smallwood
• VP Membership: Deb Spring
• Treasurer: Amy Stevenson
• Secretary/Webmaster: Sheryl Rihacek
• Board member pro tem: Tara Parks

• Committee Chair appointments:
  • Charity: Carol Ullmann
  • Retreats: Tara Parks
  • Swaps/Challenges/Round Robin: Tara Parks
  • Library: Heidi Kumao

Dues:  Time to pay your dues now.  Please go to the link at the right, fill in your membership form and select your payment method.  Dues are $45 whether you are paying by check or PayPal.

Skill Share:  Kathy shared a method for making your cutting board magnetic.

    We discussed some ideas for future shares including: Sheryl R - Flynn Frame demo; Y-Seams; Freezer Paper paper piecing; Twining

Swaps/Challenges:  None this month but note that the Postcard swap is due next meeting. 

Charity:  

• Most of our charity quilts have been delivered to their various agencies.
• The MQG Community Challenge Quilt will have its build day on November 4th at the Chelsea Library.

Programs and Sew-Ins:  We are still looking for a day for the map making class but it was also suggested that we have a sew-in where we do a bag making class similar to what we did before for the Sew Together Bag.  The Round Bottom Bag that Brenda shared was one suggestion.

Round Robins:

Show and Share:

Next meeting: Wednesday, November 29th Maker Works

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - September 2023

The meeting held at our new location at Maker Works in Ann Arbor was small but mighty with approximately 8 in person and 1 by Zoom.

Charity:

• We continued with our stash sale to support ongoing and future charity efforts.  We were able to make $235 at last month's sale and so plan on continuing this as long as members would like to purchase and contribute.
• Carol has connected with Ozone House and they do want to continue receiving twin size quilts from us. She has 7 quilts she will donate to them this week.  We also have 8 quilts that will be delivered to the Veteran's Hospital and we will continue to look at other charitable organizations if we have quilts that do not fit these organizations' needs.  We are hoping that Food Gatherers will eventually hold their summer auction again so that we can donate our MQG Community quilts.  Some suggestions made by members included Ronald McDonald House.
• The VA is also looking for donations of NEW physical items.  The members decided at the meeting that we would like to add collecting items to donate to the VA during our December holiday party so please start collecting/preparing for that.  Here is the list of suggested items:
• Gift Cards: Grocery (Meijer, Walmart, Kroger ect.), Gas stations, Fast food.
• New men’s T-Shirts all sizes
• New men’s boxers/briefs—all sizes
• Women’s underwear and sports bras (all sizes)
• Snack Kits for Homeless Veterans:
• Roll of Lifesavers (or other hard candy – non-melting)
• Granola bar, etc.
• Pre-wrapped plastic utensils
• Ritz snack mix (cheddar) (or other trail mix, etc.)
• Easy open can of tuna or canned meat.
• 4-8 oz Water bottle
• MQG Community Challenge Quilt – quilt "build" will be November 4th at Chelsea Library McKune Room, 10:30-1:30.

Retreat - time to plan and pay the first deposit.  January 25-28, Creative Passions.  Cost: $170, deposit of $85 due by October 15th, final payment due before Dec 15th.  Form has been sent by email - let the guild know if you need it resent to you.

Elections planning: Elections will be held at the October meeting.  Please let the Board know if you are interested in running.

• President - resides over meetings, sets board meetings and agendas
• VP Programs - plans and coordinates programs and classes, both virtual and in-person
• VP Membership - keeps the MQG membership log up to date, meets and gives info to new members, coordinates guests attending meetings
• Treasurer - does all the money things
• Secretary - takes minutes, takes or coordinates someone else taking photos at meetings and classes, posts to the website and other social media

• Charity chair (Carol has agreed to continue in this role) - coordinates making and delivering quilts to various charities
• Retreat chair (Tara has agreed to continue in this role) - plans and coordinates the annual retreat
• Swaps and challenges (Tara has agreed to continue in this role) - plans and coordinates swaps and challenges including those between other guilds
• Library chair (open position) - holds the library books, updates the database, manages loans of books to members

Dues

• MQG dues:  note that MQG dues for the guild are increasing by approximately $2 per member.
• Guild dues: October is also the time to be paying your dues for 2024 - will be $45.  The Board has decided to have the same fee whether you pay by PayPal or by check. All members need to fill out a membership form (on the website - right top!) which will then give you the info for how to pay.

Maker Works Open House:

We gave a report on the MW Open House and thanks to Sheryl for pulling together an awesome display with very little notice.

Programs: Map Making class plans are still in the works.  We are trying to decide on a good location.

Swaps/Challenges: 

• Next swap is the Postcard swap.  This will be due at the November meeting. This will be a blind swap - no partners are being assigned.

Other:

• Round Robins

• Show and Share

Next meeting: Wednesday, October 25th, Maker Works

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - August 2023

Our first meeting at our new location was held on August 30th at Maker Works in Ann Arbor.

Swaps and Challenges:

• The guild held the postponed from last month "smalls" swap with 6 participants.  Here are a couple of the prizes exchanged:

Charity:

• QuiltCon Community Outreach Quilt - Maya and Rossie have been coordinating the effort. To date:
• all fabrics have been distributed and all tasks assigned
• blocks need to be completed by September 28 - check your emails on how to get the blocks to Maya
• Rossie will be coordinating the "build" event (watch your emails for date and location)

• Finished charity tops were handed out for quilting

• Members donated fabrics and other quilt-y items for the guild to resell to support our charity projects - most specifically to fund the QuiltCon quilt but any amount over that needed will be used to purchase things like batting and backings for the charity quilts.

Programs:

• We are still working on finding a new location for the Timna Tarr Map Making class
• participating members will need to purchase the class from Timna - we will provide a discount code
• class will be done with some pre-work and then working on sections together after or while watching portions of the video

Other:

• Members shared some classes they've taken recently
• GuicyGuice in Grand Rapids
• Brittany Lloyd
• Rainy Barn Exhibit in Athens, OH

• Show and Share 

• Josh from Maker Works gave a quick talk on their programs and noted that they are having an Open House on September 17.

Next Meeting: Wednesday, September 27, Maker Works.

Maker Works Open House - September 17, 2023

We hope you can join us at our new location for the Maker Works Open House on Sunday, September 17th.

http://www.maker-works.com/events/openhouse12/

Maker Works is excited to be celebrating 12 years serving our community! Come join us in this celebration at our Open House September on 17th and we will show you what we have in store!

Drop in any time 2pm - 5pm for exciting demonstrations of new programming, projects, and tools across our individual shops: Wood, Metal, Electronics, Textiles, and Jewelry. Meet and mingle with some of our local makers, members, and staff. Plasma Cutting, Lasers, CNC Machine Embroidery, Wood Carving and more! 

In addition to this, we'll have hosts and information from a few of the monthly gatherings: GoTech, Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild, and Southeast Michigan Woodworkers.

Maker Works is located at 3765 Plaza Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48108.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - July 2023

Neither sleet nor snow.... well obviously we didn't have that issue, but weather definitely attempted to derail our July meeting.  Originally planned for outdoors at a local park, threatening thunderstorms swayed us to move it to an indoor location.  Unfortunately the storms turned severe causing power outages, downed trees and torrential downpours in the area.  The place we were to meet was one of those who lost power so we shifted to all Zoom (yay Zoom!).  Since many of our members were also without power, this meant a much lower turnout than usual and a much shorter meeting but the eight of us who met had a grand time.

Skill Share:

Thanks go to Sheryl who did a couple of impromptu skill shares, first showing us her planning process on a recent quilt and then some video highlights to answer questions on what a Flynn Frame is.

 

Speaking of skill shares, this is exactly the type of thing we are looking for.  We typically want just a 10-15 minute sharing of a technique or tool or just something you've learned that others in the group might be interested in.  Some examples of past shares include how to choose batting, board basting, english and foundation paper piecing.  We also are interested if you know of very short videos that show a skill you think is well presented (because we know not all YouTubes are created equal).  So if you have learned something from a short (again less than 15 minutes) YouTube, please send the link to the board and we will see if we think it will work at a future meeting.

Swaps and Challenges:

• The Smalls Swap has been moved to the August meeting.  Please bring your "small" item such as a pin cushion, zipper pouch, coin purse, small stuffie, mug rug, mini wallhanging, etc. to the next meeting and we will Yankee swap.

Charity:

• MQG Community Outreach Quilt - Maya and Rossie have been working on creating plans for the MQG quilt.  The pattern is being finalized and they have chosen fabric.  We hope to have a group effort to cut and divvy up fabric on Saturday, September 30th.  A form will be going out for sign-ups shortly.
• We are planning on having a STASH SALE at a future meeting to cover the costs of this quilt.  Please help out by donating fabric (quilt shop quality/modern or at least with a modern bent) at the next meeting.  We will then re-sell it to members to raise the needed funds.

Community:

• Please join us for the first annual A2MQG/DAMQG meet up in Plymouth.  This gathering will be Sunday, August 27th from 2-4pm at Kellogg Park in downtown Plymouth.  Please bring a small swap item to yankee swap.  Information has gone out via email and on FB for specifics.

Meeting Location:

• Note that this is a tad different from what was mentioned at the meeting, but we are moving our meetings entirely to Maker Works in Ann Arbor starting with the August meeting.  
• Maker Works has always been very accommodating for our group and this is no exception as they will allow us to set up regular meetings at their facility.  For those of you who've been around awhile, this is going back to our roots as early guild meetings were held there until we moved to Brenda's digs at Pink Castle. 
• Maker Works is in the Airport Plaza Industrial Park over by Costco in the second row of buildings with a colorful dust collector outside and the numbers are very large at the top of the buildings.  There is plenty of parking once you get to the right section and their front door is on the end of the building.  Please visit their website for a detailed map.

Next meeting:  August 30th, Maker Works

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - June 2023

The June meeting was held at N.E.W. with 17 members attending in person and 2 via Zoom.  We had two guests present.

Membership:  Welcome to our newest member Taryn!

Skill Share: Members shared their favorite quilt tool.  There were some interesting ones ranging from seam rippers to needle organizers. One member had a vintage metal candlestick that she repurposed into a magnetic holder.

Meeting Space: Next meeting will be at Southeast Area Park.  The August meeting and all or most future meetings will be at the Ypsilanti District Library - Superior Room.

Programs: We are planning a Map Making class in October so look for more information on that closer to the date.  Cheryl is also working on getting a local quilter to come to a meeting and give a talk and trunk show.

Round Robin Progress (lots of fun being had - jump in anytime):

Swaps and Challenges:

• This month was final check-in date for UFOs/WIPs.  There was a lot of participation. Ida got the award for longest in progress (I think it was late 1990's when her quilt was started) but Cheryl M was pretty close to that. Cheryl did win for the most UFOs finished (3) and Jes won the drawing. Thanks all for participating.  You now have 6 months to finish more as we will have another challenge in December.

• We also had a lot of participation in the Modern Block Challenge.  Participants were given a traditional block and asked to create a modern version. The creation did not have to be a completed quilt. Examples of blocks were Shoo Fly, Broken Dishes and Bear Claw.

• Our next swap, due at the July meeting, will be a "Smalls" swap.  This swap is for participants to make any small item they wish (examples are: pin cushion, small purse, small stuffy, mini quilt, mug rug).  Items will be exchanged via Yankee Swap.
• This month's Bring a FQ, Take a FQ was Bold fabrics.  Next month will be Solids.

Charity & Outreach:

• There are quilts to be quilted - check with Carol.
• MQG Community Quilt Challenge for QuiltCon - discussion was held on many 12 concepts that were submitted and a vote was held.  The 'winning' design was an original by Rossie H. called Chained.  Maya has agreed to chair the project.  Rossie will get together with her on the pattern and how we can break it up into workable pieces for the guild.
• The group decided we would like to have interested members donate fabric from their scraps and then sell them to go towards funding the MQG quilt.  More information will be sent out in email.

General information was shared on upcoming shows. There are no sew-ins planned at present and there was no library report. The rest of the meeting was Show and Share and an awesome give-away by Katie of many of her bag creations (thanks Katie!!).

Next meeting will be at Southeast Area Park in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, July 26.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - May 2023

The May meeting was held at N.E.W. with 14 members and 2 guests attending in person and 2 members attending via Zoom.

Membership: The guild now has 52 members. Welcome to Mike S. our newest member from Clare.

Meeting Space: A report was given on the move of meetings from our current location.  The current plan is to have our June meeting as planned at N.E.W, however we will have an outdoor meeting at Southeast Area Park for our July meeting and the remainder of the meetings will move to the Ypsilanti Superior Library location for the remainder of the year.

Programs:

• A report was given on the Lisa Ruble, Intro to Improv class on April 15th.  The class was moved from NEW to Amy's home due to a power outage but the attendees had a great time.

• Future classes may include a group viewing of a Timna Tarr Map Making Class and possibly a presentation by Mother Cyborg.  More to come!

Skill School:  Kathy gave a presentation on Foundation Paper Piecing.

Swaps and Challenges:

• FQ Swap - bring a FQ, take a FQ.  This month was geometrics, next month bring solids.
• DAMQG swap was a success - plans are to do this next year as well
• Due in June - Modern Block Challenge :  get assigned a traditional block and make it modern. This can be any way you choose, e.g., fabric choice, quilt design, modifying the block, etc.  Since this is a challenge, you keep what you make.  There will be prizes.
• UFO/WIP - ongoing challenge to finish up those WIPS

Sew-Ins: Zoom sew-ins have been cancelled for now. Let the Board know if you'd like to host one.  We do not currently have a date for an in-person one.

Upcoming Shows/Events:  Be sure to check out the Great Lake Heritage Quilters Quilt Show on June 17. 10am-4pm at Mercy High School in Farmington Hills.

Round Robin:

Charity and Outreach:

• There are quilts to be quilted/finished. Check with Carol.
• MQG Community Quilt Challenge.  We have been given the theme (Symmetry) and colors below. We will need to pick 4-8 of the colors with no neutrals.  Members are encouraged to come up with design options for the quilt and either send to the board or bring to the June meeting.

Sharing:

• Amy gave a quick demo of how she uses EQ8 as well as the chat option for the guild over on Discord.  She will post the Discord invite on the FB page but let us know if you like to join the various discussions in progress or just say hi.
• Classes taken in the last month and show and share quilts were shared

Next meeting: June 28th at N.E.W.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - April 2023

The April meeting was held at N.E.W. with 22 members and one guest attending in person, 1 member and two guests via Zoom.

Programs: We will be hosting Lisa Ruble for "Intro to Improv Piecing" class on Saturday, May 20th.  Class is scheduled to run from 10am until approximately 2:00 with a 1/2 break for lunch.  Attendees may keep working on their project after class. Cost: $70 member ($85 non-members). This class was postponed from April. 

Round Robins: we had a couple more people jump in so we are looking forward to seeing some fun progress in the next month.

Swaps and Challenges:

• SWAP with Detroit Modern Quilt Guild (DAMQG) took place.  Mini-quilts were swapped and everyone had a great time and were very impressed with the creativity that ensued.

Here are the quilts A2MQG made for their DAMQG partners:

Here are the quilts that we received from DAMQG.  So purty!

  

 

• For other swaps, we continued our bring a FQ, take a FQ.  This month was Low Volume, next month will be Geometric.

• We also started the Modern Block Challenge.  Participants will take a traditional block and put a modern spin on it.  The "spin" can be anything from using modern fabrics to re-imagining the block entirely, to using the block a made but in a modern setting.  There is no size limit - it can be a block or an entire quilt.  Since this is a challenge, you keep your project which are due in June.  

 Skill School:  Amy S. demo'd English Paper Piecing.

 

Charity: Some charity tops were handed out for quilting.

Events: (be sure to keep up to date by our google calendar, accessed on our website to the right)

• Sauder Village, Archibold, OH quilt show - May 3-6
• Tulip Time Quilt Show, Holland, MI - May 6

Show and Share:

Next Meeting: Wednesday, May 31st at N.E.W.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - March 2023

The March meeting was held at N.E.W. with 18 members attending in person and one person via Zoom.

• Programs - We will be hosting Lisa Ruble for "Intro to Improv Piecing" class on Saturday, April 15th.  Class is scheduled to run from 10am until approximately 2:00 with a 1/2 break for lunch.  Attendees may keep working on their project after class. Cost: $70 member ($85 non-members).  (NOTE: As of April 11th, this class has been postponed. We will post the new date shortly.)
  

• Round Robins - so far there are only a few people participating which makes it not as much fun. Please consider jumping in and joining the process.
  

• Swaps - 
• Swap with Detroit Area Modern Quilt Guild (DAMQG) is in progress - swapees have been assigned.  Finished mini-quilts are due at or before the April meeting.
  
• We held a Heart block Lottery (winner takes all!)
  
• Bring a FQ, take a FQ has started. You may bring as many FQ's to exchange as you like.

• Skill School : Deb Spring gave a demo on bags and zippers.  Several members are also participating in the Modern Sewist Bag Bootcamp so we discussed and shared progress.

 

• Charity and Outreach 
• A huge thank you to Carol Ullmann who has agreed to be Charity chair
• Ann Arbor District Library Outreach - plans for the guild to teach a class (Cheryl S. coordinating)
• Three Pines Studio in Petoskey Outreach project (Tara has been coordinating this non-guild sponsored project where towels are embroidered to support refugees from the Ukraine)
• We passed along several quilts that need quilting  
  

• Retreat - photos were shared on the January retreat at Creative Passions.

  

• Shows - We are currently looking into several quilt show opportunities. More to come.
  

• Meeting location - a presentation was given on options for meeting location once N.E.W. is under construction (tentatively September this year through 2024).  We are looking for a free location so that will save us some funds this year and next. Kathy also showed a map depicting where our membership is located (about 40% Ann Arbor proper with the rest spread out throughout the region).  The top contenders for alternate locations are the Ypsilanti Library Superior location and Maker Works.  We also are looking at the Ann Arbor District Library (although the hours may be difficult to deal with since we would need to close the meetings at 7:45pm) and the Saline Library. Look for a possible meeting at these locations in the future.

• Show and Share 

Next meeting: Wednesday, April 26th at NEW
 

 

 

Intro to Improv Quilting - Lisa Ruble

NOTE: This class has been rescheduled to Saturday, May 20th.  There are still openings at this time.

 

We currently have openings in a class coming up in April with Lisa Ruble from the Kalamazoo area called "Intro to Improv Quilting".

Class is Saturday, April 15th in Ann Arbor (1100 N. Main St). 

Pre-registration and advance payment of $85 for non-guild-members is required (payable by PayPal - link is provided with sign-up form). Class runs four hours and will start at 10:00am. Please plan on bringing your own lunch or snacks.

Description:

“Interested in improv piecing techniques but not sure where to start? Lisa will walk you through the steps to create three different improvisationally pieced blocks: wonky stars, wonky flying geese, and wonky log cabin blocks. Wonky piecing can seem intimidating, but Lisa makes the blocks along with you, and you'll leave the workshop with confidence in your improv abilities! She will also share quilts made using these techniques for added inspiration.” 4-hour workshop

Let us know if you have any questions. Non-member sign up here: https://forms.gle/nZxkz3TTRz3Ja9QX7 (Members should use the form sent out via email or on our Facebook group page).

You can look at Lisa' offerings at Quilty Zest https://www.quiltyzest.com/.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - February 2023

Mother Nature once again put a snafu in our meeting plans. Due to extreme ice storms and many power outages, the meeting was held on Zoom with a very small number of attendees (10).  Given that, much of our program has been shifted to the March meeting as noted below.

• Programs - As mentioned at our last meeting, we will be hosting Lisa Ruble for "Intro to Improv Piecing" class on Saturday, April 15th (check your emails for sign-up link).  We do not have an exact time (probably around 10am) but do recommend signing up early as we will be opening this class to non-members.  Cost: $70 member ($85 non-members).

• Round Robins - moved to March

• Swaps - 
• Swap with Detroit Area Modern Quilt Guild (DAMQG) - we will be doing a swap similar to past ones with Chicago, where members will be assigned someone from the other guild.  Sign-up link has gone out by email and on FB page.  You must sign up by March 15th.  Exchange names will be sent on the 18th and you have until the April 26th meeting to complete.  This is a mini-quilt no bigger than 24".  It may be smaller (but not too small!).
• Heart (or similar) 8.5" block Lottery (winner takes all!) - move to March meeting
• Bring a FQ, take a FQ (you may bring as many FQ's to exchange as you like) - will take place each month.  Bring yours to the March meeting.

• Skill School : Deb Spring will actually do her demo in March but we did have a show and share of sorts with some of her bags and a discussion on zippers and what will be covered.

• Charity and Outreach (a huge thank you to Carol Ullmann who has agreed to be Charity chair)

• Next in-person sew-in is Sunday, Feb 26 at NEW and reminder about weekly virtual ones

• MQG Report - 
• Kathy reported on a meeting with MQG leaders across the country which was very informative. There seem to be quite a few guilds that are actually much smaller than ours and those guilds seem very happy with the small size.  There was much discussion on good vs. bad teachers for lectures and classes.  While leaders were reluctant to name bad teachers, a list of those considered good was shared (and this list will be passed along to our Programs efforts).  The consensus was that a good teacher (esp. if teaching via Zoom or similar online platforms) will be knowledgeable of the technology and have the appropriate equipment to teach the class.  This is especially important if the teacher is getting a high fee for the class given that they are not having to travel.  It was also stressed that the importance of accessibility and that offering recording of the class is very important for this.
• Several members are at QuiltCon this week so looking forward to a report next month.

• Retreat - report will be at the March meeting

Next meeting:  March 29 at N.E.W.

A2MQG Meeting Minutes - January 2023

Welcome to January! Because of weather issues we made lemonade out of lemons last night, meeting via Zoom instead of in-person with 15 members attending.

This meeting was our annual meeting so reports were given by board officers.  Information to note:

• Our budget for this year is somewhat higher than our expected income from just dues so it was noted that we will need to be careful on expenses including trying to make up a bit with classes.   Membership has decreased this year - we went from 60 to 47 members to date. New members help with the budget as well, so if you know of anyone who has been thinking of joining, this would be a great year for it!

• Please go to our SWAPS link above for information on this year's swaps and challenges. 
• For February we will be having a heart-filled block lottery.  Make as many blocks as you like and you will get a ticket for each for a chance to win all the blocks.  Plan on either making a heart block or using heart-related fabric to make any 8.5" block.
• We will also be featuring 'bring a FQ/take a FQ' exchange at each in-person meeting throughout the year.  This themed share will change each month with the first one in February being anything goes.  Please bring as many quilt-quality FQ's and you can exchange one of yours for one someone else has brought.
• We will have a mini-quilt swap with the Detroit guild (DAMQG) so look for more information on that at the next meeting.  In addition, start working on finishing those languishing works-in-progress (WIPs/UFOs).  We will have prizes midyear for the most finished, the oldest finished, plus a drawing from all participants.

• Guild Retreat is this weekend at Creative Passions in Chesaning.

• Sew-ins: Virtual sew-ins are every Thursday on Zoom.  We will have an in-person one February 26th at NEW at approximately 10:00 until whenever.

• Programs:  We have an exciting class lined up for Saturday, April 15th.  Lisa Ruble (Quilty Zest) will be teaching "Intro to Improv Piecing".  Whether you are a beginner or just want a fun class to round out your skills, we hope you will join us.  Tentative pricing is $70 members, $85 non-members.  We will open this up for sign-ups within the next few weeks - guild members will have first choice and then after a short period of time we will also open it to non-members.

“Interested in improv piecing techniques but not sure where to start? I can help! I'll walk you through the steps to create three different improvisationally pieced blocks: wonky stars, wonky flying geese, and wonky log cabin blocks. Wonky piecing can seem intimidating, but I'll make the blocks along with you, and you'll leave the workshop with confidence in your improv abilities! I'll also share quilts I've made using these techniques for added inspiration.”    4-hour workshop

• Round Robins and Skill Share were postponed until the February meeting.

• We also discussed QuiltCon and had a very lively sharing of what classes people have been to recently or are taking in the near future.  
• Cheryl M shared that The Great Lakes Heritage Guild has some classes that are open to non-members so check their website for details.  
• Greater Ann Arbor Guild Guild also has some very modern classes this year although most are filling up, you can get on the wait list if you are a member and some classes open up to non-members throughout the year.  
• Karen mentioned she is about to take some classes on bag making (Bag Boot Camp) offered by the Modern Sewists group.
• Brenda is taking part in the Adventure Quilting Workshops offered by QuiltFolk

Guild needs:  Still need a Secretary to serve on the Board and a Charity Chair.  Both of these can be set up as committees so the work is shared.  Please contact the Board immediately to help.

Show and Share:

 Brenda's Pocket Quilts - made for @a2freelittleartgallery

 Karen's tote - project tote pattern by @woollypetals

Wendy's quilts made for grandson's for Christmas

Plus a couple that were shared via the Zoom screen.

Next meeting will hopefully be in person at N.E.W. on February 22nd.  See you there!