crystal Coast QUilters' guild

A MESSAGE FROM the PRESIDENT

As we say goodbye to 2023, I would like to extend a very big Thank You to Jeanne and her holiday crew for the exceptional Christmas Party we had on Dec 8th. Lots of fun for everyone, and all the blocks in the Christmas Block exchange were beautiful!

Happy New Year 2024 – new ideas, new projects, and new fabric and thread; what every quilter dreams of!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends and is looking forward to making this year even better. We currently have a lot happening in 2024 for our guild: Day of Sharing in March, 40th Birthday Party in July, Workshops with national instructors and a Birthday Surprise each month.

Mark your calendar and please plan to attend our monthly meeting on January 18, 2024. Let’s kick the New Year off with lots of members in attendance.

Until then – Keep Stitchin’

Nancy

To All Guild Members:

I am hoping you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends.

I am very thankful for the super group of creative and friendly guild members and my Executive Board members in our Crystal Coast Quilters’ Guild. You have given me your support during my 6 months of being the guild president, and I really appreciated it.

Congratulations to Nancy Smith, who will become the guild President for 2024 & 2025 and Sharon Ward the Treasurer for 2024 & 2025. The installation ceremony was enjoyed by all.

Look forward to some great workshops in 2024 including three teachers from outside our guild and our 40th Anniversary events all year.

See you at the Holiday Party at King Mackerels in Morehead City, Thursday, December 7th. Remember to make your 12 -1/2’’ Christmas Block in Red, Green and Cream to exchange. The 2024 Scholarship winners will be announced.

Keep Stitching,

Joyce

I want to thank Jeanne, our Vice-President, for conducting the October Guild meeting in my absence.

After the official voting at the meeting, the CCQG Constitution has been ratified. We will continue to need the 2/3 membership vote number to make changes to the Constitution and the By Laws. We will be able to vote on other items with the amendment made to the Policies and Procedures due to adding “Voting may be done by electronic means, paper ballot, show of hands or other means as determined by the Executive Board”. Those changes took effect immediately after the vote.

Congratulations to Lisa Rechkemmer, who will become the guild President for 2024 & 2025 and Sharon Ward the Treasurer for 2024 & 2025. You will both do a great job.

Gail Reitz of Jacksonville, NC had the winning ticket for our 2023 Raffle Quilt. She was very happy winner.

The committee is finishing work on the 2024 Raffle Quilt.

Don’t forget the Christmas Party at King Mackerel in Morehead City. Remember to make your 12- 1/2” Christmas Block in Red, Green and Cream to exchange. Let’s get lots of entries this year. I still haven’t made mine yet, but I will.

I’ll see all who registered for the “Make & Take” workshop on November 4 at the Western Carteret Library. I am looking forward to it.

Our next monthly business meeting will be Thursday, November 16th, 5:30-6:00 for social time and the business meeting at 6:00 pm. Bring a friend who is interested in quilting. See you then.

Keep Stitching,

Joyce

Dear Guild Members:

Thank you all for returning so many of the ballots to Ratify the Constitution and add to the By-Laws. We are still missing some ballots to reach our 2/3 membership majority vote. Please return your ballot by October 10. Any Guild member who has not completed a paper ballot can vote at the October meeting.

Our thanks to the Nominating Committee for their work on the Slate of Officers for the President and the Treasurer for 2024-2026. The ballot will be presented for a vote at the October monthly meeting and we will also accept nominations from the floor at that time. Please come to the meeting and vote.

We will continue to sell Raffle tickets at two more events and the WINNER will be drawn at the October monthly meeting. The winner will be called during the meeting! It is so beautiful, and I can’t wait to hear who wins the quilt.

Remember the Hero Quilt Workshop will be Saturday, Oct. 21st; sign up and join us.

The “Make & Take Workshop” with Bonnie Sturdevant and Patti Marraro that was cancelled has been rescheduled to November 4. Look for a notification from Wild Apricot. Looking forward to seeing you all then.

The “Mystery Block” bags were given out, and we look forward to seeing the blocks next month.

Nan Miller will present more information regarding the new partnership with the Carteret County Library to create a quilt that was voted on and approved at our September meeting.

Remember to make a “Christmas Block”- a 12&1/2” block in Red, Green and Cream. These will be exchanged at the Holiday Party. Let’s have lots of entries this year.

Our October monthly meeting is Thursday, October 19th at 5:30. Remember to come early for the social time from 5:30-6:00.

Keep Stitching, 

Joyce Dimock 

CCQG Constitution is still in Draft form and has not been ratified. We need 2/3 of the membership to vote to be able to ratify the constitution and make any changes to the By-Laws. We have 72 members in our guild and since we do not get 48 members at a meeting the Executive Board amended our Policies and Procedures at our last meeting and added the following:

“Voting may be done by electronic means, paper ballot, show of hands or other means as determined by the Executive Board.”

The Executive Board will be sending by mail a paper ballot to all members to allow them to vote on two items:

1) Accept or Reject the Constitution as written. Draft dated September 16, 2010. The Constitution will be included in the voting packet.

2) Accept or Reject the one (1) change made to the By-Laws.

Please return your ballot by mail by October 10. Thank you all.

My first monthly Guild meeting was last week and thanks to all whom attended. We did have a lot of new information from the Committee chairs. Please see all the updates in the Newsletter.

The nominating committee is working on filling nominations, there are some exciting workshops coming this fall, and we all need to continue to sell Raffle tickets. Our Raffle Quilt will be shown at two events prior to our drawing a winner in October.

The Day of Sharing planning in March of 2024 is well underway and Mary Henris presented the “Bee Fun” Day of Sharing challenge. Let’s all get creative so we will have many wonderful entries - I understand there will be some good prizes.

Don’t forget the Vice President’s Christmas Challenge and place your 3 favorite Fat-Quarters in a sealed paper bag with your name inside and give them to Jeanne Biddle.

How many of you are planning to create a “Christmas Block”? Remember it is a 12-1/2” block in Red, Green and Cream. Let’s get lots of entries this year. I am planning to make a block this year.

Hope to see many of you at our next monthly meeting on Thursday, September 21st at 5:30.

Keep Stitching,

Joyce  

Dear Guild Members,

As you know, Laurie and her husband, Colin, have moved to their new home and from her Face Book posting they are enjoying living in the country. As the interim president, I am looking forward to the next 5 months with all the great meetings and events we have planned.

Our Guild Birthday Celebration was held at Riverside Grill and Sub in Morehead City with 35 members attending. We had a lovely room to ourselves, decorated with balloons and flowers. Everyone attending received a Gift Bag containing a Clear Pouch that has our new CCQG Logo printed on it. It’s a great place to store your sewing accessories. The Gift Bag also included a piece of fabric with the logo printed on it, (that you could use to create a new personalized name tag if you want), three fat quarters, a quilting book and a bookmark with a picture of Fran Lindley, whose estate sale provided the books and fat quarters for the luncheon gifts. Thank you, Jeanne Biddle and her committee, for all your work on the Birthday Party for our guild.

During the summer, “Drop-In” continues to have a fair number of members attending and the Hand Quilting group continues to meet monthly.

The Nominating Committee is working on nominees for our next President and Treasurer. If you have someone you would like to suggest, you can contact Jan Willis, Mary Henris, or Nancy Smith.

The BOM Mystery Quilt sign-up ends August 31st. The September block will be given out at the September monthly meeting or at drop-in the following week. Sign up online through the guild website or with Chris, Joyce or Karen.

Remember the “Make & Take Workshop” to be held September 23rd. Two of our members will be teaching us how to do sashiko and wool embroidery.

Laurie gave me a large bag of “scraps”. If there is anyone collecting these for animal shelter bedding or any other purpose, please let me know. I will bring it to our next monthly meeting which is August 17th.

Keep Stitching,

Joyce Dimock 

Dear Guild Members,

For those of you who were not at the June meeting, or have not heard through the grapevine, we have sold our house and will be moving at the end of next week (July 6th). We have found a house in Carthage, which is 25 minutes from where our daughter, Caitlin, lives. Our other daughter, Shannon, has also decided to move out in that area. Eileen teases me that we are going to turn into the Cartwright family from the Ponderosa! Joyce Dimock has agreed to assume the duties of president for the remainder of my term. She was installed at the June meeting. I’m sure she will do a great job until the next president begins her term. Thank you, Joyce!! 

The Nominating Committee has been selected and they are going to work on suggesting nominees for our next President and Treasurer. If you have someone you would like to suggest or you would like to volunteer yourself, you can contact Jan Willis, Mary Henris, or Nancy Smith. They will present their nominees at the October guild meeting.

At the last meeting, we tabled the discussion about whether or not to join the Quilts of Valor organization. Please take a few minutes to look at their website and familiarize yourselves with their program and procedures, so you can make an informed decision, when it comes up for discussion again.

Let me remind you that Jan Willis only volunteered to do the newsletter temporarily. I had planned to resume those duties after serving as President. Since I’m moving away, it doesn’t make sense to be responsible for a job such as that. The guild needs someone else to step forward and take over doing the newsletter after Jan steps down at the end of the year. It’s a good behind-the-scenes job that is an important one. Please consider helping us out in this area. Please contact Jan or Joyce, if you are interested in being the editor of the newsletter.

In closing, even though Colin and I are excited about being closer to our children and grandchildren, it’s hard to leave friends I’ve known for so long. The Crystal Coast Quilters’ Guild will always hold a special place in my heart. I’m not going to be so far away though that I won’t be able to make it back for some visits, or have some visitors! I’m sure we’ll cross paths again. Until then…keep stitching!

Fondly,

Laurie

Dear Guild Members,

Unfortunately, we missed an opportunity to sell raffle tickets at the Carteret County Arts & Crafts Coalition’s Memorial Day Show in Beaufort. Thanks to Cathy C. and Lisa R. for volunteering to sell tickets. The rain had other plans though. Let’s keep our ears open for other possibilities to sell tickets at similar events. So far, ticket sales have been very good. Way to go, ladies!

Despite not having found a house to move to, we have recently accepted an offer on our house. Right now, our closing date is scheduled for early July. I do have a fill-in replacement lined up, and I announce who she is at the June meeting. It’s going to be difficult leaving so many friends. Quilting friends are the best!

Don’t forget to go through your “stash” to help make the Silent Auction at our next guild meeting a huge success! It should be fun to see what everyone brings!

Until then, I’ll be busy packing boxes and checking out the Zillow website!

Keep stitching,

Laurie

Dear Guild Members,

A BIG Thank You to Jeanne for filling in for me at the last guild meeting, while I was away having fun at a quilt show in Greenville, South Carolina. It sounded like a lot of great information was shared about what goes on in the judging room. When interested in entering quilts in shows, it is helpful to know what the judges are looking for. I’m sorry I missed the meeting, but I did have a good time at the show. It’s only the second year Mancuso has hosted it there. It was smaller than their show in Hampton, but it was nice to attend a quilt show again after Covid messed with our lives.

I’m looking forward to the May meeting and hearing about the adventures that Jan, Mary, and Lisa had at the Academy of Appliqué. I’m sure they’ll have lots of tips to share with the rest of us!

Even though I’ve struggled with the Busy Bee Challenge the past two months, I’m looking forward to seeing who turns out to be the “Queen Bee”!!! There’s only one month left! Let’s all work hard to get our points counted!

Last month, Holly, Cindy, and I helped at the Children’s Advocacy Center’s Child Abuse Prevention Activity Day. We provided and supervised two sewing/quilting activities for the children. Thanks to Nan Miller and Sharon Ward for sharing supplies and ideas for the activities. The theme of the event was Super Heroes, and a few stopped by to visit with attendees. There were some ladies there who did express some interest in our guild. The children really enjoyed both activities!

Looking forward to seeing you at the next meeting.

Keep stitching!

Laurie

Dear Guild Members,

We’ve had a great start with selling tickets for our Raffle Quilt, with three separate events this month and more opportunities in April. Don’t forget to give Nancy Smith a helping hand at Publick Day in Beaufort on April 14th, if you’re available. Jeanne Biddle is also going to take the quilt to a Women’s Club meeting. Since we are only asking members to sell 5 tickets, it should be much easier to sell your packet of tickets this year. Also, if you can think of a community event or group where we could sell tickets that would help with more tickets sales. We appreciate your efforts!

If you have not already heard, Ramona Pennington passed away early this week. She was a fun lady, who was involved in several areas of the guild, as well as the hand-quilting group. We will all miss her.

For those of you who were not at the last guild meeting, the Board has decided to keep the Scholarship program, but in keeping with the awards being named after previous members, Dorothy Nilsson and Kay Klein, we have changed it back to two awards and raised the amount to $300 each. Four alternates will be selected. This will take effect in 2024. Scholarship winners will still be expected to present a brief program at a meeting that summarizes what they learned. We will not be conducting a vote.

On Friday, April 14th, the guild will be helping at the Children’s Advocacy Center’s “Child Abuse Prevention Activity Day”. We have a couple intro to sewing activities planned for the children. It should be a fun day!

Thank you again to Nan Miller for helping to organize the Sacred Threads exhibit this past month. I hope that most of you were able to take the opportunity to see it!

Unfortunately, I will miss the April guild meeting. I will be out of town at the Greenville, SC Mancuso QuiltFest. Jeanne will be filling in for me. I will see you in May!

Keep stitching,

Laurie