Cincinnati Modern Quilt Guild Meeting
April 10, 2013
Centennial Barn
Opening
To begin our guild meeting, Jessica gave a fun 2-minute assignment to speak with someone we
don’t know and tell our oldest UFO.
Upcycle Challenge (sorry, we didn't get pictures of everything!)
Members who participated in April’s Upcycle challenge showed their creations:
• Janice had a vintage painting that became her “trash-to-treasure” project: an iPad holder.
• Christy turned an old pair of jeans into the cutest stuffed whale ever. She used an online
tutorial from Mevrouw Walvis at
valaanvillapaita.blogspot.com.
• Christine made earrings out of a cream soda can and turned ladder yarn into a beautiful necklace.
• Teresa made a cosmetic bag from some fabric using the sashiko technique that she
learned at QuiltCon. The inside is upcycled from a shower curtain.
• Carole’s husband recycles old watches, so she made a watch band using scraps and
buttons.
• Ruth made a bag out of extra strips that she had left over from quilts, and the handles are
from dog leashes.
• Janine made an improv-pieced quilt out of hand-embroidered hankies she had purchased
on eBay.
• Jessica had a set of hand-embroidered table runners that she made into a bag to hold her
shit, appropriately embroidered “Shit.”
Next, the upcycle challengers played Spin the Sharpie to select two prize winners. And the
winners were … Janice, who won Sewing Green by Betz White, who teaches upcycling on
Craftsy; and Christy, who won a bale of cotton stuffing that Teresa received complements of
Brooks Brothers. Maybe Christy will make more cute whales?
IQF and Modern Meet-Up
Then we discussed the International Quilt Festival, here in Cincinnati through Saturday! Our
guild’s quilts, on the theme A Modern Spin on the Dresden Plate, are on display right inside of
the main entrance.
Our guild is excited to host our second Modern Meet-Up for IQF, Thursday, April 11, from
7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Nicholson’s Pub downtown! We have tons of prizes from generous
sponsors to give away. We have reserved the front bar area and will be providing hors d’oeuvres
for everyone. A cash bar is available, as well as any menu items that guests would like to order.
Upcoming Events
The River City Quilt Guild has invited us to show modern quilts in their show in June in
Finneytown. If you have a quilt to display, they’d like to show something about the modern
quilting movement. They have big hanging racks to hang your quilts on. Jessica will send more
information via email.
Sew Original Quilt & Creative Expo has contacted Jessica and would like to display our
Ohio Star quilts from last year’s IQF show. The expo will be in Louisville from August 31 to
September 1. Jessica has a signup sheet for this. The expo will pay for shipping to and from the
show. There are no modern quilt guilds in Kentucky, so this would be a nice venue to promote
modern quilting. Also, 10–12 people are available and interested, we can have a manned booth
there for free throughout the weekend. Maybe we can get together in pairs and do shifts to cover
it. This could be a nice fundraiser for the guild.
Our next sew-in is Saturday, May 11, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. This will most likely be at the
Madeira library due to the number of people who have shown interest in attending. The last sew-
in was a lot of fun, and we are looking forward to more of these throughout the year.
New member Kara Sanders would love to organize a shop hop for the guild. If you have a
vehicle that could be used for this, please send Kara an email at meandelna@gmail.com
The Ann Arbor (Michigan) MQG is hosting a retreat June 28–30 at the Hankerd Inn in Ann
Arbor … and they have invited our guild to their retreat! Email Brenda at justabitfrayed@gmail.com if you are interested. They need deposits this month.
Charity and Challenges
Andie has looked into many charity projects for our guild and has lined up a wonderful project
with Quilts of Valor, who makes quilts for veterans, an often overlooked group of people when it
comes to quilts for charity. More information will come on this.
Teresa explained next month’s challenge: Nametags. Make your own nametag for the guild using
our CMQG colors that are on our logo on our website.
New Business: Joining the National Modern Quilt Guild
After the break, Jessica and Heather explained some changes within the national Modern Quilt
Guild. The national guild is formalizing their organizational structure and has a window of time
for all of the local modern quilt guilds to join the national MQG. This means that our guild
would pay a certain sum to the national guild. By default, CMQG members’ dues would entitle
them membership into both the CMQG and the national guild.
The MQG did a lot of preparation for this and found that the three major areas that the
guilds across the country want are more organizational support, modern quilting education
opportunities, and 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. The national guild had five guilds as a test group
last year, before rolling out this plan.
We are basically already functioning with their three main requirements: bylaws, officers, and
bank account. The cost is based on the size of the guild, which would be $400 per year for our
current size, or about $15 per person. We would have automatic 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.
Another benefit is the national guild’s constituent relationship management system. Members
of the national guild would have access to organizational tools through their website, such as
online registration for events, access to announcements, membership information, and more. We
do have a website with a blog, but if we want more functionality on that site, we’d have to shell
out some money. Through the national website, we’d be able to send out e-newsletters; members
would sign in and have access to the CMQG info; we would also be able to easily locate and
contact other chapters.
The national guild also has Sew Downs planned, to which we would have discounted rates, as
well as discounted rates to QuiltCon, to other events, for other purchases. We would also have
access to certain challenges via the national guild, such as the Robert Kaufman Kona Solids
challenge that our guild participated in a couple years ago.
The change will begin in July of this year, with prorated dues for half a year; however, we can
also wait until January 2014 and pay a full year’s dues and take the time to raise money for this.
At the end of 2014 if we do not join, we would have to stop using the CMQG name and would
not have access to other MQG benefits.
We are so happy that all members present who spoke on this issue supported joining the national
guild! This limits our area of questioning to only when and how, not if.
The questions are, Do we charge members more dues? Do we have fundraisers, or raise the dues
slightly and combine it with fundraisers? Do we join in July of this year, which will give us
nonprofit status so that we could more easily raffle a fundraiser quilt for next year’s dues? Do we
get a booth at the Louisville quilt show and sell things that we make? Or sell at the Centennial
Barn’s fall sale to raise money?
We do feel strongly that we should do this, but the question is how to obtain the funds.
Several questions were asked:
Will we come up with board recommendations?
If we paid in July, could we do fundraisers this fall and see how much we need to set our dues at
for next year?
When we join, how soon will our tax-exempt status kick in?
Next month we’ll have ballots available so that we can vote on this issue. Don’t miss this
meeting!
Show and Tell!
Jessica showed her beautiful blue Scrappy Trip quilt top. It’s queen size and has 56 blocks. She’s
going to send it to a long-arm quilter.
Guest Kathy, a member of the Columbus Modern Quilt Guild, showed a cut bag that member
Kathy had given her as a Christmas present. She showed another bag, and a Madrona Road
challenge quilt with the theme Stars and Stripes. Then she showed a hands-free shopping bag
that she gave to member Kathy for “putting up” with her this week!
Christine shared another upcycle project: a beautiful, colorful T-shirt quilt made from her
favorite T-shirts. She embroidered to fill in the white space of some tees.
Ellen started a quilt at last month’s sew-in from a pattern she saw online at Happy Zombie. It’s
for a friend of hers who loves purple.
Vicki showed a small quilt that she made from a block swap a couple months ago.
Kayla showed a beautiful princess quilt she made for her daughter. Her sewing room is being
turned into a nursery for her next-born child, a son who is expected to arrive soon, so any
suggestions on places to sew are welcome. Please help Kayla with any ideas you have.
Lynn shared another do.good.stitches quilt with the Road to Tennessee block, which came
together beautifully with the blocks that her group sent her to assemble.
Emily, who is due on Monday, showed a beautiful appliqué quilt—her first appliqué project.
Gillian made the cutest Polaroid quilt for a friend whose baby is named June. The backing fabric
is Out to Sea because the family loves whales.
She also showed a square-in-a-square quilt for another baby who is due in June.
Closing
See you at our next guild meeting, May 8. Bring your newly made CMQG nametags, be ready to
vote on the details of joining the national Modern Quilt Guild, and remember that the next Sew-
In is on the following Saturday, May 11.
