Finish it up challenge

What a great response to this challenge!  We had a total of 38 entries from 13 members.  Each finished project was an entry in the prize drawings with a max of 4 entries per person.  I used a random number generator to pick 8 winners and then from among the 8 winners for the Grand Prize winner of a gift certificate.  So in no particular order the winners are:

Emily 

Julie

Eva Marie

Jill

Veronica

Brenda

Penny

and the Grand Prize goes to Connie!!!!

We will have the prizes at the October meeting so make sure you come to pick up your prize.

Voting at Next Meeting

Hi all!  First, I want to remind everyone that we are having a sewing day this Saturday, September 13th from around 9:00am to 9:00pm at the LDS building in Ankeny, which is 721 E. 1st St. 

Our next meeting will be September 18th at the Fred Maytag Scout Center.

We will be voting on a couple of issues and I wanted to outline them here so that members could come prepared to vote.  If you know you will not be able to come to the meeting, please email your votes to dsmmqg@gmail.com.

The first issue is deciding if we want to stay as a group with the national Modern Quilt Guild.  We have discussed this some at a previous meeting, but we will now vote.  I would also like to note that if our group decides not to stay with the National MQG, individuals can still sign up for $25 annually.  Here are some pros and cons on the issue:

Pros -

• We are able to participate in fabric challenges
• We have access to the community website
• We have access to webinars from the MQG
• Discounted prices on events held by the MQG
• Under the MQG 501(c)3 status

Cons -

• Costs a very large portion of our membership fees
• Not many members are using the community website and/or find it to be not what was expected
• Not many members are attending events held by the MQG
• Has not generated new members for us
• Benefits may not outweigh the cost
• Reporting, communication with MQG considerable work for local board members 

The second issue we will vote on will depend on the result of the first vote, but the board discussed it quite a bit and we want to let you know about this as an option.  If we decide to not stay with the national Modern Quilt Guild, do we want to remain our own guild or essentially disband as "The Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild" and no longer have membership to our group, BUT become a sub-group of the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild. So first, here are some pros and cons of being our own guild:

Pros-

• We have our own leadership, programming, budget, etc.  
• We choose how we spend our dues.

Cons-

• We need enough people to regularly volunteer to serve on the board.  If we became a sub-group of the DMAQG, we would still need leadership, but we could get by with fewer volunteer leaders and the roles would require quite a bit less work.  
• We would probably have a harder time getting speakers and having good attendance with the size of group that we are

Now, pros and cons of becoming a small group of the Des Moines Area Quilters Guild:

Pros-

• Many of our members are already members of the DMAQG.  They would only have to pay one membership fee instead of two
•  We may attract more attenders to our group this way
• We would have access to their programs and speakers.  Even if they are not necessarily modern, we can certainly learn skills and get inspiration from them.  And it would be fun to see members turn a traditional skill or technique learned at a program into something more modern
• As mentioned above, we could get by with fewer volunteer leaders and the roles would require less work
• We could still meet at our regular time (and hopefully someday we'll have a regular place)
• Getting to know other quilty people!

Cons-

•  People may feel they need to attend both meetings (though maybe some already do!)
• Meetings may become a different style - more just show and tell and sewing together, although we still would plan some programming or demonstrations.  

Ok, sorry for so much information, but please look it over and be prepared to vote.
If you have any further thoughts or want to ask any questions, please send an email to dsmmqg@gmail.com

Thanks!
Emily V.

Congrats to our State Fair Winner!

2014 is the second year the Des Moines Modern Quilt Guild sponsored a modern quilt category at the Iowa State Fair. This year the Blue Ribbon went to one of our members, Janeen Pearson. Here is her Blue Ribbon Quilt:

Congratulations, Janeen!

If any of you claimed the 2nd, 3rd or honorable mention ribbon, let us know in the comments!