Happy New Year, everyone. I hope everyone had a restful break and is ready to begin a busy and exciting new year of sewing and quilting. We are working our way toward a June Quilt Show with all of the fun, hard work and perhaps a little stress involved in that endeavour.

But before the Quilt Show comes we have our Annual General Meeting in February along with Executive Elections. During the business portion of our January meeting we will have the second and final discussion period about changes to our Constitution. Please go to our website and read through the Guild Constitution and the Community Quilts Constitution. If you have questions please bring them to the meeting or email them to Joan Herrin, Anne Pelton or myself.

As you read through these documents you will be able to see comprehensive write ups on the executive positions. To date we need only two positions to be filled, those of Vice President and Member-at-Large. In other words we have had 4 people come forward and offer to take on the positions of Treasurer, Programs, Library and Newsletter Editor. The Nominating Committee will make phone calls to each member of the Guild next month if we cannot fill the last two positions. So, please consider accepting a role on the executive as either Vice President or as a Member-at-Large.

At the Executive Meeting on November 28th we decided to increase guild fees to $50 a year. We read and listened to input from our membership and from other guilds’ executives’ comments. We listened to our Treasurer lay out our financial situation and then we made this decision. Any further concerns about our finances can be addressed at the February meeting when Bena Luxton gives her Treasurer’s report. Some other guilds are also having to implement membership increases.

We have business to attend to and money to spend. For what? To quilt, to sew, to hang out with friends/quilters, to learn, to give back to the community and to create.

I want to quote a few lines from the Introduction of one of my favourite books: The Gentle Art of Quiltmaking by Jane Brocket. “I hope to reassure tentative quilters….that quilting is easy and incredibly enjoyable, that anyone can do it in an ordinary home environment and without a dedicated room or table or design board, and that you don’t need hundreds of expensive fabrics. And I would like to convince you that, with a few fabrics and a small number of specialist tools you can create gorgeous quilts that reflect something of their maker’s personality and individuality, quilts that give pleasure both in the making and the finished article.”

We have a lot of wonderful workshops, exciting programs, Community Quilts days and in June a Quilt Show to look forward to.

I wish you all a healthy, happy and successful quilting New Year.

Happy Quilting,
Betty