Submitted by, Paula M., Secretary

The April meeting was called to order on May 3^rd at 6 PM by President Lisa B.  The meeting was held in person at Christ Lutheran Church and via Zoom.  There are now 101 members with 55 attending in person, 3 guests and 7 people on Zoom. 

As people were arriving and shopping the De-Stash sale, pictures from the Ken Burns tour and from some members who went to the Paducah AQS week were shown.

We started out with our Kona Mini Challenge Quilts displayed around the room – so much talent in this group!

Our refreshments were provided by Ary A., Stormy Dawn H., and Susan C.

It was a busy night! BNMQG gear was available for pickup and we also had membership sign in and Fabric Raffle ticket sales happening in the lobby Kona Quilt check in and 10th Anniversary Block drop offs were busy places!

Our Spring De-stash sale was a success! A total of $442 was raised from the sale of the donations. Thank you so much for your donations and for shopping! These funds go towards guild activities, including speaker fees.

Pat S. provided us with an update on the anniversary log cabin blocks.  211 blocks were turned in tonight! We have over 220 so far, with more coming in monthly.  They will be made into 60″ X 70″ quilts, adding negative space to get as many quilts as we can for Community Outreach.  Keep making these addictive improv log cabin blocks! We have a running total of blocks turned in and lots of information on this webpage.

We have some upcoming events.  In June, the Kona Challenge mini quilts will be displayed at the Mattoon Arts Council & Lyle Park Quilt Show.  There will be a viewer’s choice award for our mini’s – good luck everyone! Jaimie W. graciously took all of the Kona Challenge Quilts that were submitted to Mattoon with her that night. Other guild quilts will be displayed as well.  For more information and the forms that are needed, please visit this website. Quilts can be received up until June 1st, so you can bring any quilts to the May 28th meeting.

The Great Wisconsin Quilt Show Mini Challenge will be virtual.  You can enter your quilt here – make sure to do so before May 20th, which is the deadline.

In 2023, we are working with the Decatur Area Arts Council to feature a curated selection of our Kona Challenge quilts of 2022 and 2023 and possibly our Modern Mystery quilts. 

The Ken Burns’ exhibit and tour in Peoria was enjoyed by those who attended. Our tour leader, Pierre, had lots of fun information about the exhibit. He told us before the tour that he was a little nervous since our quilting group would know lots more about the patterns, etc. than he knew. We reassured him that we were there for his “something extra” that he could add to the tour. He did a great job! If you haven’t seen it yet, please pop over to Peoria Riverfront Museum to see the exhibit. If you go this week, you will also see member Pam R.’s quilt on display outside of the exhibit!

Our library was available at the meeting. If you have questions, please contact Valerie S. No cost involved, just a deposit, which is returned when the book is returned. BNMQG has a great library – check it out at the next meeting and know the books are listed on the Members page.

Nancy led a zipper improv activity with paper and glue for those in attendance.  It is all about proportion on your original strip set. It was easy, so hopefully some of us will use this in our quilts. Instructions were also emailed to all members.

Paula M. reported on the fall retreat.  It is full with 3 on the waiting list now.  Final payments need to be made by the meeting in June to make sure your place is secured, otherwise you risk that your place will be forfeited and offered to people on the waitlist.  Lots of planning has been happening for this – there will be a hospitality suite, delicious food, amazing swag bags, as well as having chair massages available on Friday. Looking forward to all of the creativity that will happen! If you haven’t signed up yet, we do have a waiting list.

Nancy P. drew for this month’s mystery challenge prize.  Lisa B. won a book by Maria Shell. Challenge 5 is live now. It is so inspiring to see everyone’s palette’s come together in each month’s challenge.

The fabric raffle was won by Erin H. and Pat S. won the survey prize. 

The 2022 Kona Challenge minis were checked in and displayed.  For show and tell everyone showed his or her mini and told something interesting about their inspirations or thoughts about it.  Pictures without the member’s face showing are quilts that were at the meeting, but the member was not – some were shipped to us, to be included in the show and tell and then to be included in the Mattoon Arts Council Outdoor Quilt Show on June 11th in Lytle Park.

We also had “regular” show and tell. Reminder: Show and tell can be of a favorite gadget that you love! Kathy C. shared a telescoping magnet that can be found at the hardware store!

For the May meeting on May 31st, we will have a hands on demonstration/activity night.  If anyone is interested in showing us something related to quilting, we would appreciate it. Talk to Lisa B. if you would like to lead a demo station. Thanks to all who have already volunteered to host a demo table. We will have stations that demos how to do the improv log cabin blocks for our 10th Anniversary, heartbeat quilt design, facing a quilt, flanged binding, rope bowls, and many other fun activities. 

In June we will have a game night.  July’s meeting will feature our member Kathy Cook who will provide the program “Big Stitch Quilting”. You won’t want to miss this!

See you at our May meeting on May 31.