Please join us for our virtual October Guild meeting and Sew Day!

Join us Saturday, October 24 at 1 pm for our monthly guild meeting where we’ll be doing something a little differently! While we’ll still use Zoom, it will be a Virtual Sew Day and we encourage you to pick a project to work on during the meeting. See below for a few tips on making this work successfully.

Meeting agenda:
For the meeting itself, we’ll cover the following:

• Check in
• Show and Tell: Show off our modern projects and share what we’re working on!
• Tip Time — Ironing: One of the great things about belonging to a group like the BMQG is all the experience and knowledge our members have — and their willingness to share that knowledge. Recently, one our members reached out to us about her struggles with ironing piecework and quilt tops….so, let’s discuss what types of irons you use, ironing boards and wool pressing mats, tips on pressing seams and finished quilt tops, how to store pressed pieces and tops, starch solutions, etc.

Tips for making this Virtual Sew Day meeting work for everyone:

• Pick a project to work on during the meeting, and set up your device to allow you to see the meeting and us to see you while you work on it. You might experiment with your device’s camera position if you are going to be sewing at your machine or cutting at your table, for instance. If you can’t reposition your device very easily, perhaps you can pick some hand work to do.
• Be sure to mute! We love discussion during our meeting — we just don’t want to hear everyone’s machine’s humming loudly in the background. So know how to mute yourself when you aren’t chatting and how to turn the mute off when you are ready to talk.

Next meeting
We will be combining our November and December meetings as we do every year. Instead of meeting in both November and December, we will meet December 5. This will be our annual meeting that will include board elections and an amendment to our bylaws so we can vote virtually.

Some notes about using Zoom if you are new to it:
If you haven’t been able to join us the past few months, we promise Zoom is really easy to set up! If you haven’t done this before, we recommend that you do the following ahead of time to make sure you have it set up correctly before it’s time to meet.

1. You’ll need to choose a device with a camera, microphone and speakers. This could be a computer, tablet or phone. Keep in mind that some computers don’t have a microphone built in, so by testing ahead of time, you can decide which device would work best.
2. Next, go to https://us02web.zoom.us/signup and it will walk you through downloading and installing the Zoom app. You’ll be prompted to create a free account but once you do so, you won’t need to log in again.
3. Then at our meeting time, go to the email that you received as a member, click on the Zoom link at the top of the email and it’ll bring you right into our meeting.

Here’s a few best practices for using Zoom:

• Plug your computer or device into a power source
• Mute your microphone when not actively speaking
• Be aware of your surroundings and behavior (We can see you!)
• Add questions/comments in the “Chat” section to be addressed by moderators
• Use the “Raise hand” button if you would like to address the group
• Make comments short and succinct, mute for responses

Let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to it!

Please join us for our virtual September Guild meeting!

Join us Saturday, September 26 at 1 pm for our monthly guild meeting, where we will be using Zoom again to conduct our meeting.

Meeting agenda:
For the meeting itself, we’ll cover the following:

• Check in
• We are going to keep our meeting this month quick and casual. Since we haven’t met for the past two months we want to see what you have been working on! We will only have 40 minutes of meeting time, so have your projects ready to show off!

If you haven’t been able to join us the past few months, we promise Zoom is really easy to set up! If you haven’t done this before, we recommend that you do the following ahead of time to make sure you have it set up correctly before it’s time to meet.

1. You’ll need to choose a device with a camera, microphone and speakers. This could be a computer, tablet or phone. Keep in mind that some computers don’t have a microphone built in, so by testing ahead of time, you can decide which device would work best.
2. Next, follow the link (sent to members via email) and it will walk you through downloading and installing the Zoom app. You’ll be prompted to create a free account but once you do so, you won’t need to log in again.
3. Then on Saturday Sep 26 at 1 pm, come back to this email, click on the link again and it’ll bring you right into our meeting.

Here’s a few best practices for our virtual guild meeting:

• Plug your computer or device into a power source
• Use a headset if you are in a crowded or noisy space
• Mute your microphone when not actively speaking
• Be aware of your surroundings and behavior (We can see you!)
• Add questions/comments in the “Chat” section to be addressed by moderators
• Use the “Raise hand” button if you would like to address the group
• Make comments short and succinct, mute for responses

Let us know if you have any questions. We are looking forward to it!

This will come as no surprise, but due to rising health concerns we are canceling our March Sew Day. However, we are working on creating a virtual event where members could do a bit of a show and tell (sewing room, projects, etc.) and chat. More information to come – stay tuned!

June Workshop
At this time we are still planning the Big and Bold Modern Quilt Workshop, but naturally we are in a wait-and-see mode. We’ve been in contact with the instructor and she is in agreement that we will just see how things unfold. For those that have signed up – thank you! As things develop we will be in touch.

Thank you for your understanding and stay healthy!

When: Saturday, February 22, 1 pm – 4 pm
Where: Library – Bown Crossing (Martie Brennan Multipurpose Room) 2153 E Riverwalk Dr.

This month we will be working on individual projects so bring your sewing machine and sewing/quilting projects to work on.

As always, please bring your completed modern projects to share with the group.

If you have them, it’s always a good idea to bring a power strip and/or small extension cord as well.

Not familiar with how our meetings work? We typically follow this format:

• Quick announcements
• Show and share
• Sewing on individual projects, and of course conversation (or tutorial/presentation if one is scheduled)

When: December 7, 2019, 1-4 p.m.
Where: Library at Cole and Ustick, 7557 W Ustick Rd, Boise, ID (Sagebrush Room)

It’s that time of year again! Since we are a non-profit we are required to hold an annual meeting to take care of a few quick – but important – items of business. We promise to make the business part go quick! Below is an outline of the meeting as well as some other announcements.

A few changes for your calendar:
We are combining our November and December meetings. Instead of meeting in both November and December, we will meet December 7. Our annual after-holiday party will be January 25 at our regularly scheduled sew day.

Annual swap:
At our January after-holiday party we will exchange table runners. We emailed members a form to fill out so swap partners can learn a bit more about each other’s likes and dislikes. The last day to complete the form is 12/1/19 and we will let you know who your swap partner is a day or two after that. The table runners will be exchanged at our After-Holiday party on 1/25/20. If you haven’t signed up for the swap yet, fill out this form.

December 7th meeting
Business:

• Dues: If you are interested in being a member of the Boise Modern Quilt Guild in 2020, we’ll be processing memberships. If you’d like to take care of your membership beforehand, or if you can’t make it to the meeting, please go to the Boise Modern Quilt Guild Membership page and use the PayPal option to pay your $20 dues online. Or you may mail your $20 dues to Shelly Harshman at 1196 W Bear Track Drive Meridian ID 83642. Checks should be made payable to Boise Modern Quilt Guild. Please have your dues in by December 8, 2019.
• Financials: We will review our financial information – where money was spent in 2019 and what we expect our expenses to be in 2020.
• Voting: We will vote on the Board of Directors. Our Board is currently comprised of: Christy Foltz-Ahlrichs, President; Angela Bowman, Vice President; Lindsie Bergevin, Secretary; Sally Bradley, Treasurer.
  • A few rules about the vote:
    • At the meeting any member in good standing may nominate another person to the board with the second of another member.
    • To be qualified as an elected officer, a member must be in good standing, and have been active in the Guild for at least one year (with exception for the founding officers).
    • Renewing and new members are allowed to vote.
    • A member does not have to be present to be on the ballot, but you must be at the meeting to vote.
    • See Position Descriptions of Board Members for more information.

Fun:

• After business is taken care of we will transition into a regular sew day, so bring a project to work on!
• As always, bring your modern projects to show off!