Submitted by Barb S., Secretary

The BNMQG meeting was called to order by President Lisa B.  She welcomed the members and guests as well as our speaker.

Sarah Ruiz presented an interesting program called “100 Days of Creative Bliss”. Sarah shared some of her background including working at NASA on the space shuttle program. She reminded everyone that we are the boss when doing a 100 days program – do what works for you. That could be doing 1 day at a time or catching up doing a week at a time or mix it up during the 100 days. Sarah also graciously included a discount code for BNMQG members, that code expired on April 2nd.

Following the program Lisa thanked the volunteers who provided the treats tonight:   Barb B., Kathy C., Erin H. and Nancy B. 

Mary Rose H., co-chairman of the hospitality committee, mentioned that we need one more person to provide treats for the April meeting as well as several for upcoming meetings.   Treats do not have to be elaborate – store bought is fine.

Those willing to bring treats can sign up on Sign up Genius.

This is a way to be part of the village – it takes a village to keep the quilt guild up and running!

Noemi reported that we currently have 121 members.  At tonight’s meeting we have 55 members attending in person and 6 guests as well as 21 attending on zoom.

At the time of the meeting, we were still in need of a nominating committee to contact members who may be interested in serving as an officer.   Open positions are President, Vice President and Treasurer.  Anyone interested in one of these offices should contact a present member. After the meeting, several people volunteered to be on the Nominating Committee – Carol Lou E., Ann U. and Stormy H. Thank you so much for volunteering for the Nominating Committee.

Many thanks to Maria C. and Nancy P. for all of the wonderful pictures from tonight’s meeting. Lots of things to photograph and they did a wonderful job!!

Raffle tickets for the Community Quilt which was displayed at Quilt Con were available at the meeting. We are hoping that each member will sell 4 tickets at $5.00 each.  Profits will be given to the Midwest Food Bank (75%) and Modern Quilt Guild Charities (25%).   The drawing will be at the August meeting

We will have our Modern Showcase at the April 28 and 29^th Hands All Around show.  Members wishing to have a quilt (s) displayed should contact Nancy.   During the show we will be members to assist in our booth and can sign up through sign up genius.   The HAAQG has graciously offered to let those working at the booth to enter the show for free. 

Thank you to our Mission Statement Subcommittee members Barb S. and Marge E. The Board has finalized the Mission Statement.  You will begin to see this on emails and on the website.

Our mission is to support and encourage the growth and development of modern quilting through Art, Education, and Community.

The Bloomington-Normal Modern Quilt Guild fulfills its mission through active membership participation in charitable activities, member education, monthly member meetings, both in person and virtual, and volunteer opportunities.

The winner of the  poll question was Theresa A. and the winner of the fabric raffle was Stormy Dawn H. 

The completed mystery quilts were on display throughout the meeting.  It is amazing how all of us took the same prompts and created such wonderfully different quilts! They were all so inspirational.

The winner of the Viewers Choice Mystery Quilt was Jean B. and the winner of the mystery drawing was Vicki A.  She was presented with her prize of $340.00

Special thanks to Nancy P. who led this project for the last year. Her wonderful teaching style and support made even the newest improv quilter into a confident improv quilter.

We also had the completed Kona challenge quilts were on display throughout the meeting.   This year’s color was Crush. We utilized the chairs at church to be our quilt racks for our Kona Minis.

Here is a video walkthrough:

Individual Kona Challenge Quilts in case you want to see more details.

Nancy explained to the members the various upcoming quilt shows which our members can display their quilts.   Those desiring to participate had a form to complete to indicate which shows they want their quilts to go to.

Lisa updated the Anniversary Quilt project.  As of today, we have donated 39 quilts to the cancer center.   Anyone with quilts not yet completed should let Pat S. know how many they have.

We also had wonderful quilts and projects for Show and Tell