Spring is upon us and it is time, once again, to share what the Piecemakers have been up to. Like flowers the Piecemakers are blooming with news to share.
In January the Guild held a garage sale at Paradise which was very popular and several of our members sat up tables to sell wares.
The beginning of the year brought in 11 new members. WELCOME! One of the new members, Lucy Rowntree, is from Canada where she spends most of her time managing her own Quilt Shop. We unfortunately lost a couple members as well. Pat Jillian moved out of the Villages and we traded members with other chapters because of home purchases.
We now have 53 members and are still welcoming any resident that wants to join.
Esther and Barbara, Co-presidents, asked members to complete an evaluation to get feedback. A few changes were made resulting from the input.
The business meeting now begins at 9am and end by 9:45 allowing more time to accomplish work after the meeting.
A new quilters group, (NQ) began because of interest / needs of members. The group is presently creating a sampler quilt using information and hints that they acquire from chapter members and NQ leader, Barbara.
Along with these changes the chapter members voted in a budget for 2012 and the by-laws were amended, by vote, to include a nominating committee for the office positions of President/Co-President, secretary and treasurer. Members have volunteered to chair or assist with the various activities we do. Donna Starr agreed to be the Member at Large and attend Executive Board Meetings if one of the co- presidents are away; Barbe Brolley will be helping our secretary, Brenda Barkley, with the newsletter and act as our "foreign correspondent" to interface with our winter members; Carla Tiling and Donna Parisi will work with the Charity Committee Chairs, Ida Hoover and Rosemary Simone to investigate and set up our charity efforts; Christy Shaw will head up Brunch with the Bs hosting duties with assistance from Mary Whitmore and Connie Paquette. Wanda Marsh will assist Barbara Rule-Mispel with the website duties; and Rosemary Simone and Carla Tiling will assist Barbara in welcoming new members by creating "new member packets."
Recent demonstrations/teachings have been done by Mary Shara, Barbara Rule-Mispel, Lucy Rowntree, and Debbie Cable. Mary taught the members how to create a tote bag that has become very popular, Debbie Cable recently taught members how to create a "1600" quilt from a jelly roll or fabric cut into 2.5" strips, Lucy Rowntree gave a lesson on fabric, and Barbara demonstrated a tool used to finish off the binding of quilts with ease and began a "new quilters" group.
