Lorain County Piecemakers Quilt Guild
Volume 23 Issue 4 – December 8, 2022

President: Chris Yoo
Treasurer: Sue Schillig
Secretary: Bridget Coyle
Vice President: Margaret Miller
Community Service: Maria Lucki
Hospitality: Maryann Doucette & Jean Tobia
Membership: Marilyn Novak & Karen Neuschaffer
Quilts of Valor: Kaye Koler
Sunshine Committee: Val Watring
Challenge Committee:Kelly Grace, Susan Thornton, Helen Smelser
Communication Committee: Kelly Grace
Bits & Pieces Editor: Kelly Grace
Articles due by Saturday before meeting, Newsletter sent out Sunday before meeting.

Meetings:  2nd Thursday of month
Time:        7:00 PM
Location:  New Russia Township Lodge,
46300 Butternut Ridge Rd, Oberlin, 44074
Additional Info: Please remember that there is always a sew day the day of our meeting – starting around 10!

Website: https://loraincountypiecemakers.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/LorainCtyPiecemakers
Guild email: loraincountypiecemakers@gmail.com

Meeting Minutes:
Bridget Coyle

Welcome everyone, NEW members, visitors and invited guests,

Program: Tonight we are welcoming Mike Pellittieri, a fused glass artist. Mike introduced himself and told us about his art.

President’s Report: President Yoo expressed a big thank you to the Quilts of Valor Committee for hosting an award ceremony today for several veterans. It was very moving and well received.

Since President Yoo would not be seeing anyone before the December meeting she wished a Happy Veterans Day to any veterans or their family that were in the room, as well as wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.

Just a reminder that next month is our December potluck and a reminder that is starts at 6:30pm. So if you plan to participate, please make a note of the early start time so your yummy dish will be part of the feast!

At our December meeting President Yoo will announce the 2023 Presidents Challenge. It is the President’s goal to have a special exhibit at our quilt show for this challenge. She is very excited for 2023 and the fact that we are putting on our 2023 Quilt Show.

Approval of Minutes: (Bridget Coyle) The minutes from the November meeting were distributed by Kelly Grace. Are there any comments or corrections necessary? Hearing no changes necessary, the minutes are approved as distributed.

Treasurer’s Report: (Sue Schillig) The treasurer’s report is always available for review by contacting Sue Schillig and ready for audit.

COMMITTEE REPORTS (Committee Chair)
Membership (Karen Neuschaefer)
Community Service (Maria Lucki)
Quilts of Valor (Kaye Koler)
Challenges (Kelly Grace)
Sunshine (Val Watring)
Programs (Margaret Miller)

Unfinished Business: Nothing to report/discuss

New Business: Nothing to report/discuss

Announcements:
Show-n-Tell: What a fabulous Show-n-Tell we had. Always a treat to see the works of others and maybe learn of a new technique. And view an original design from our own Stephanie Fedor of Stephanie’s Stitches.

Sunshine Committee
Val Watring

Committee Report: Meeting minutes:  All is calm!

Newsletter Update: All is bright!

Fondly, Val Watring

By-Laws Section 8:  The Sunshine Committee shall notify members in case of illness or bereavement.  Cards will be sent; unless it is determined a blue basket is needed.

Blue Baskets:  When members lose a spouse or child, we support them by giving them fat quarters of fabric in their favorite colors.  The Sunshine Committee will supply the bag and card to be signed by the membership.

Treasury Report
Sue Schillig

Treasurers Report and Financial Statements of the guild are on file for audit and will be made available for review upon request.

We have paid the room rental for 2021 and are looking at what to expect for 2024.  September and October months are reconciled and I’m awaiting the statement for November.  My darling husband, the Excel spreadsheet guru, has helped to set up something simple enough I can do it  (and it does not take away too much time from my fun!   I’ll hope to have an up to date numbers report for the meeting.

Sue Schillig, treasurer

Chris met a lady whose name is Tracy Homenik, and she runs the sober living facility, E3 recovery, in Lorain.  She needs quilts for 45 twin beds and 2 full to king size for 2 terminally ill men.  She was kind of hoping to get donations for Christmas. She was informed our community service person was out of town until after the first of the year, and we have no way of knowing what she has available. So right now, if anyone has quilts they would like to donate to this project, we will be collecting them on December 8th, for a Christmas donation.

Tracy has been advised we could possibly have a workshop next year, but these things take time to organize.  This could be an ongoing program for us if she had a continuous need. She said these guys have nothing and sometimes they take the bedding when they leave.

If you have any questions, please contact Chris or Karen

STRAY THREADS…
Sue Schillig
Here we are again at the end of the year and the end of our UFO challenge.  I’ve got possibilities to finish two more, and that will be it…. maybe. There is so much that is distracting this time of year, and projects, unless they are also Christmas gifts, are not likely to be top priority.    Which is why I love the 12 days of Christmas.  These would be the days right after Christmas.  With any luck I can scrape together a couple of Sue days or better known as “do as you please” days for sewing.  Or dreaming.  Or putting together some ideas of what will be on next year’s UFO list.  Let’s just say the list might be shorter, but not as short as one might think. Because I find so many more cool ideas to try, start, or maybe sometimes even finish.  I hope that as the holidays progress, you too find a few “do as you please” days to have some sewing fun!

Piecefully,  Sue Schillig

Membership

We are currently collecting dues for the 22-23 year, and after the December meeting we will be updating the information, and if dues aren’t paid, your information will be removed from the list. Please review the list and let Karen know if your information needs updated.   Please rejoin as soon as possible, since next year is a quilt show year and you won’t want to miss it!! If you have any questions, please see Karen Neuschaefer or Marilyn Novak.

Karen and Marilyn

December Birthdays

Holly Francis – December 4
Marylou Kucera – December 5
Stephanie Feador – December 15
Terry Rippel – December 16
Argena Patouhas – December 17
Sandy Gallagher – December 26
Karin Knox – December 31
Linda Moor – December 31

Programs/Workshops

December:
During the Day – Sew Day
Evening Program – Year-end potluck and celebration

January:
During the Day – Sew Day
Evening Program – Deb DeChant from Artfully Quilted Designs

Challenges
Kelly Grace

UFO Challenge

Have you been working on your UFO’s? 20% of the UFO’s were completed in 2022! 79/395 items have been finished. Please remember that you must have at least 1 UFO finished in order to qualify for prizes at the December meeting. If you cannot come to a meeting to show off your finish, please send me an email (or text) or post it in our Facebook group and let me know it’s a UFO so I can mark it down as complete. Good luck this year! Start working on your lists for 2023, Sign-ups start January 1st and will only be open until January 31st. $5 is required with your list to participate, it goes toward prizes.

Fat Quarter Exchange
Fat Quarters were turned in at the August meeting and sorted and returned to participants. I saw some great fabrics and colors while I was sorting them. Think about signing up next year, it’s a great way to add some items to your stash. Signups will begin in February

Monthly Challenge
New Challenge coming at the January meeting! I have a few new ones for 2023.

If you have a suggestion for a monthly challenge, let me know!

Secret Santa Exchange
Emails were sent out 11/5 for the Secret Santa Exchange. Remember these are due at the December meeting. Make sure how ever you wrap them your partners name is prominently displayed so they can be passed out during the potluck. Rules were included in that email.

Block Exchange 2022
Tops or finished quilts are due by the December potluck. We want everyone to be jealous that they didn’t participate this year and hope they will sign up next year!

President’s Challenge
CHALLENGE yourself creatively.  When you finally do it, TELL US ABOUT IT.  Was if fabulous; was it scary; was it comical; was it the worst thing you have every done; did you suddenly realize you wish you had done it 10 years ago?  How did it go?

Double Nine-Patch Challenge

I’ve made a little Double Nine Patch, which metamorphosized into a Triple Nine Patch, which I’ll show & tell at the potluck. You all probably know what a double nine patch is, but I thought I’d show you an example in case you’d like to accept the Double Nine Patch Challenge.

I’ve been working on a red, white, and blue quilt, and it occurred to me that it might be fun to have a BETSY ROSS CHALLENGE, creating our own flags. You pick the colors, the size, whatever whimsy appeals to you. If we have enough, we could have a flag section in our next show.

Your pal,
Susan

Do you have an idea for a challenge? Please drop a note in the suggestion box or send an email to the guild email (address above).

Community Service

Maria Lucki

No Report

LORAIN COUNTY SAFE HARBOR/GENESIS HOUSE: Provides temporary safe shelter, food, and support services to victims of domestic violence and their children.  Serves roughly 25,000 annually.

BLESSING HOUSE:  Founded in 2005 to house children, birth to age 12, when their parents are addressing their own crises.

Notes from the President
Chris Yoo

I’ll start by stating the obvious…the holidays are fast approaching, and soon, we will say “Goodbye!” to 2022, which is quite unbelievable to me.   Every year I am amazed at how quickly time passes!  I hope to see many of you on Thursday at our holiday pot luck, which starts at 6:30 p.m.   I am looking forward to 2023 and hope that it brings you all good health, time with family and friends, and many hours for quilting and stitching.  I’m also looking forward to our 2023 Quilt Show.  If you are on Facebook, you will have seen a preview of our postcard for next year.  If not, I’ll have Kelly insert a link to the photo I sent her.

Julie Bragg and I will once again piece the raffle quilt for 2023, and MaryAnn Doucette has agreed to quilt it again; however, I would like to take recommendations for our 2024 raffle quilt.  It would be nice if a group of you got together to make a quilt for 2024 and someone else step up to volunteer to quilt the finished project.  Remember that although we don’t have a show in 2024, we still have a presence at the Original Sewing and Quilting Expo and we need a raffle quilt, plus the quilt will travel again at craft shows as a fundraiser for the quild.

So, if you and a friend or two want to volunteer to make the 2024 raffle quilt, please put your heads together and come up with an idea for presentation.  We have such talented quilters in our guild, so please consider helping out with the 2024 raffle quilt!

For all our snow birds who are reading this newsletter from warmer climates, know that we will be missing you on Thursday!  Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Your Pres, Chris Yoo

Quilts of Valor
Kaye Koler

No Report