Submitted by Paula M., Secretary

The March meeting was called to order by President Lisa B. at 6:00 pm.  The meeting was held in person at the Christ Lutheran Church and via Zoom.  There are now 100 members, with 32 attending via Zoom with 1 guest and 33 attending in person and 2 guests.  

Lisa reminded us that the April meeting will be held May 3 and the May meeting will be May 31. 

Marilyn B., Dee Lynn B., and Betty W. provided the food for the meeting. 

March’s presenter was Christina De Miranda with a program entitled “Thru-Quilting: My Journey Thru Modern Quilting.  Christina showed us many examples of her work, including her first projects. Detailed photographs of the quilting were also displayed. She uses mainly straight line quilting and it is very impactful on her quilts. She has likes to work in a series and explore different designs in a series with a set of parameters. Christina also creates paper piecing designs and is starting a new mystery quilt that is part of her constellation series.

Pat S. from the Outreach Committee reported that we will be designing the heartbeat quilts for the hospitals, make some for the cancer center, or the bed blitz.  The Cancer Center quilts need to be a large lap size while the bed blitz need to be a twin.

We will be celebrating our 10^th anniversary in August by hoping everyone will be making improv log cabin blocks from a list of colors that complement our guild’s colors.  They will be 10 ½”, finishing to a 10” square.  For every 10 we make, you will be placed in a drawing to win a prize.  They can be turned in at each meeting and the Outreach Committee will keep track of how many blocks you turn in. We have added a page to the website that has the details on the Kona colors as well as to keep track of the number of blocks and display pictures of all of the wonderful blocks that are turned in. The prize drawing will be held at the August meeting. Let’s get to creating and see how many quilts we can create for our community in honor of our 10th Anniversary!

Block Lotto blocks were turned in and the winners of the 3 months were: January was Betty W., February was Barb S., and March’s winner was Lisa B.  Block Lotto will be suspended for a couple of months to get the anniversary blocks under way. 

Leslie S. is heading up the nominations committee and she needs a couple of volunteers.  Please consider helping her out. 

Paula M. gave an update of the retreat September 9 – 12.  An invitation to Signup Genius was sent to the guild and by the end of the meeting, it was almost full.  We an accommodate 44 people and then there will be a waitlist.   Anyone signing up for a place will need to send either a nonrefundable deposit of $50 or the full fee of $125 within a week to stay on the list.  If the rest of the fee isn’t paid by the June meeting, the spot will be filled by the waitlist.  Shortly after the meeting ended, we reached 45 sign ups. Please continue to sign up – if we have cancellations, we will work from the wait list to fill those spots.

The Kona minis are due at the April meeting (May 3).  Make sure you get a label from Nancy for the back of your mini.  Current signup is 35. 

Survey question winner is Maria C.

Fabric raffle, provided by Kelly C., is Barb S. Fabric raffle was for fabrics that can be used for our 10th Anniversary Community Outreach Improv Log Cabin Blocks – there was a flurry of ticket sales!

The Ken Burns Quilt exhibit group tour at the Peoria Riverfront Museum will occur on April 9th at 10am. We are looking forward to seeing his wonderful collection of quilts.

Anita T. presented information on the t-shirts that we are having printed and embroidered for our guild.  It’s been quite a few years since we’ve done this and the board decided we needed to provide an opportunity for all of our new members to be able to have some apparel to show our pride in our guild.  We can order short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts, polos, hoodies, zip up sweatshirts, and a tote bag.  It will only be available to order through April 3.  After that it might be a couple of years or more before we do this again.  Order here!

Nancy drew for the winner of this month’s Modern Mystery raffle and it was Laurie S. Laurie was on zoom and unfortunately, we didn’t get her picture!

If you have any Quilt Con pictures, please upload them to our Shutterfly Share Site – the link is on the Members page.

For National Quilting Day Sew Day, we had 22 members sewing with 4 more Zooming.  The surprise 10^th anniversary block challenge was introduced at this sew day. 

We had Show and Tell. 

Don’t forget about the Destash sale next month.  Items are donated to the guild with the sale proceeds going towards guild events such as speaker fees. Please sign up for a table to put your donations on.  The Sign Up Genius link is on the Members page. When its over, you are expected to take what doesn’t sell home with you.  Fabric, patterns, and books are welcome, please no magazines.