January 2013 Meeting

We met as usual at Helen's house on January 15. Attending were Randi, Dawn, Peggy, Ellie, Margie, and Tricia. Yay that Dawn was in town and able to attend. Sad to be missing Rita, Helen, and Linda. Although we met at Helen's house, Helen was not at the meeting, but she invited a surprise guest -- her friend Kay. Hopefully we made Kay feel comfortable as we acted our silly selves during dinner and the business meeting. Kay commented that she found the meeting "interesting."

Dinner consisted of Dawn's flavorful chili, a winter salad from Margie, cornbread from Tricia, garlic bread from Randi, and a whipped cream cake from Peggy.

Next Meeting

*** Tuesday, February 19 ***
Peggy and Tricia will take care of dinner.

Business Meeting

Nevada Quilt Guild: During dinner, Randi informed us that the Nevada Quilt Guild has formally disbanded. The website is defunct, and the annual quilt show has been canceled. It's sad that this endeavor did not succeed as common ground for the widely dispersed quilters in Nevada, and it's hard to know exactly what lead to the guild's demise. But sometimes quilters' most creative works are made from scraps, so who knows what may emerge from the remnants of the former Nevada Quilt Guild.

Financial report: Margie, our faithful treasurer, gave a financial report and collected updates to our contact information. She will email the Bees an updated roster.

Goals: During the business meeting, the Bees decided to take a break from setting goals. Instead, we decided to follow our hearts and honor our instincts as we approach our beloved hobby. Many of us came up with mottos and watch-words to live by during the coming year. It's amazing how these just flew out of our mouths, with each of us sharing her own perspective, which very well may apply to life in general and not just quilting.

• Margie: "Lead with love."
• Dawn: "Finish what you start."
• Tricia: "Who knows what tomorrow may bring?"
• Peggy: "I'm free!"
• Randi: "Spontaneity works."
• Ellie: "I can see clearly now, the brain is gone," and "Do what?"

Other sentiments to think about: "It's a totebag, not an heirloom." "It doesn't have to be perfect." "Nothing is set in concrete."

Ellie also came up with the idea of embroidering the sayings onto a quilt. Food for thought at a later meeting.

Bees who were absent in January -- Please feel free to email me your mottos, and I will add them to the Goals page, where I have stored them for future reference.

DAR award: Margie, Tricia, and Peggy reported on the DAR meeting at which the Bees received a community service award. Please see the permanent tab at the top of the blog where a description of the award will remain permanently. We then discussed something we might be able to do for the DAR chapter to show our appreciation. We wondered if they have any fundraisers for which we might make a raffle quilt or something of that nature. Margie is going to discuss the idea with Anita Parker.

Donation projects: We discussed briefly dontation projects for the coming year, and in the absence of anything compelling, we decided that this could be a year where we all decide individually what charities we want to make quilts for. We also agreed that we would discuss this agenda item again later, in case anyone comes up with a better idea. All of us seemed a bit uninspired at the January meeting. Maybe it's the cold weather, or maybe it's just that we missed three of our creative, resourceful sister Bees.

Show & Tell

Dawn has been keeping busy while staying with her father.

This quilt was designed and the quilt top sew by Randi's little Helen. Randi helped out with the quilting and finishing. Helen is eagerly looking forward to displaying it in a quilt show. 

A quilt Randi made for her son. He picked out the fabric.

 Tricia's, Margie's, and Randi's donation quilts for the domestic violence shelter.