SCTMQG Meeting Notes, Feb 14, 2026
Happy Valentines Day All Notes by: Leslie Morgan
# in attendance – 22
We need someone to volunteer to take notes for the March Meeting as our Secretary will be away. Robin volunteered to either take the notes or find someone.
WASN’T OUR SHOW at the Westport Library a Beautiful crowd pleaser. The Gees Bend ladies stories were wonderful. We think ~100 attended the talk.
2026 EXTENDED SEW DATES
Mar 14 – red/white/blue blocks or purses
May 9 – Spring Social (bookmarks to swap)
Sept 12 - Sew powerful Sew -A-Thon There will be prizes!!!
Dec 12 - Annual Meeting
FINANCES:
The bank account currently has $11,674.29. Recent expenses include: o the Zoom account renewal ($455.80) and o the Sarah Goer Improv Letters class ($800) o Upcoming: $/member to the national org (<$1000) o Guild purchased backing fabric
o Guild labels for Charity quilts ($100)
Proceeds of $228 ($223 item sales, $5 donation) made at the 1/31 Westport Library event. [Reminder: Current balance reflects the 'high water mark' of our income we will use to fund our full year activities.]
2026 Guild Dues of $60.00 are due; a Zelle account has been set up by Nancy, this year’s treasurer. Payment may be made using the Zelle tag sctmqg, Special guild payment email sctmqg@gmail.com or via the QR Code (Click here for a link to the QR Code )
Note: Loralee will no longer accept Guild related Venmo payments.
New MEMBERSHIP Committee – Tony has volunteered (thank you) and one more will work with her starting in May.
Membership dues $60 due by March 1st.
Sign up sheets being passed around for :
250th b’day block –
Upcycle Round Robin
Member Skill Sharing
PROGRAMS
• Sarah Goer’s Improve Letters class on Zoom received positive reviews. Folks commented it’s a good entry point for improve work. Several examples were shown during Show & Share.
• A block honoring the country’s 250th anniversary is requested to be completed and brought to the March meeting. The block should be:
o 12 ½” square unfinished, o uses colors red, white & blue o expressive of the feeling of this date. o family friendly
• Christie’s Quilting Boutique is also celebrating the US birthday with a block competition and a $500 gift certificate prize. Votes will be cast by visitors to the shop; 1 vote per person per day.
o No larger than 20” x 20” o Red, white & blue o Label with Name, Address & Phone number o Drop off at shop May 15th to May 30th. Voting starts Jun 1.
• The May Meeting will include the Spring Social. Please bring a bookmark for the gift swap (Pinterest has ideas; can be any shape or concept: e.g. flat, for the corner, on elastic to hold the book/notebook closed).
• The class Mapmaking by Timna Tarr will be offered in Sept.
• 2026 Challenge teaser – ripped fabric
• Please let Programs know if there is interest in a T-Shirt quilt workshop.
• Please let Programs know if you are willing to demo/teach an aspect of quilting you particularly appreciate. Nancy Riggs has offered to show and teach Foundation Paper Piecing. Stay tuned.
Sleep Away Retreat May 14-17, 2026
Terrie and Darlene are organizing the retreat at the Incarnation Center in Deep River (same as last year). Fee is $360 for 3 nights & $260 for 2 nights. This includes room & board, shared bathroom, free sew, opportunity for beautiful hikes/walks. Half of the fee is due at the Feb meeting with the other half due in March. Attendance is restricted to 15.
• Retreat Block – 12 ½” block; white or white on white background plus bright color;
• Being a Quilt Angel is one retreat activity; prepare a random act of kindness, simple & inexpensive, for a participant in the retreat (eg tool, sweet, fat quarter).
2026 Round Robin will start in Jun with “Up Cycle” as the theme. Fabric should come from a previous use (but not stretchy or knit)
Charitable Works
• Colorful pillowcases for hospitalized children continues. (Burrito pillowcase pattern).
• Columbus House for the unhoused is a current focus for Guild charitable work.
o The team has added a new inventory system to be better organized.
o Pick up a bag please. Bag will have what is needed to finish the quilt. Some need binding; some need quilting, ….
o Please return any extra fabric and batting for other projects.
• We have a number of quilts which need binding. If you have extra binding, please bring it in. If you have excess or unwanted fabric, It would be helpful if you could cut it into strips so that we can use it as binding for charity quilts.
• We are adding Sew Powerful to our charitable efforts. Michele, who joined the Guild in June, described the charity during the meeting and offered prepared kits to be sewn. Sew Powerful makes purses for young ladies in school in Zambia so that they don’t have to miss a week a month. This has a big impact on whether they drop out or not. The purse has room for menstrual supplies and other belongings. The growth of numbers of purses has grown from hundreds to thousands, to hundreds of thousands. More information and purse patterns are available on the Members page of the website.
Adjacent Quilterly Bits
AQS Juried Show the weekend April 8-11, 2026 in Hartford.
People who attended previously note that AQS members get preference for classes which sell out all but immediately. Attending lectures is highly recommended as an alternative. Last year’s keynote by Hillary Goodwin (entropyalwayswins.com), ER Doc, was phenomenal.
Quilt Con – show put on by MQG, is in Raleigh next week. Several Guild members will attend.
If you’re not going, there will be a live stream Wed Feb 18th 7pm EST. The on-line quilt show should be up in March (sign in to personal MQG account); digital gifts. MQG membership is included in the dues for our guild’s membership. Folks commented, “The organizational skills of people running (Quilt Con) are phenomenal..”
Remember to visit the Andover booth #312 and say hello to Nelson
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Miscellaneous:
Check out the Guild’s Website –
• Brenda was interviewed by Karen’s Quilt Circle “Just Get it Done”; link on website • Lin Elmo has two quilts in shows thru Aug: i) Guilford Art Center, ii) Wilton Library
• Brenda’s husband, Robert Mars, has art on display @ the Wilton Library.
The quilt show at the Folkart Museum, NYC continues thru Feb. There is a Virtual tour. Its link to the show will be added to the Guild website.
We will discuss Fall Retreat soon.
We all enjoy prizes at our retreats; the Board would like to enlist members to help collect prizes for the fall retreat. If donated, it saves a bit on the cost. In March, we will be asking members to request prizes from vendors.
We are preparing an information packet about the guild, our non-profit info, our charitable works, etc …. We are compiling a list of companies….and will ask if you have an inside connection to a company.
Addendum - Member Share
Spoonflower offers great service with excellent customer service. However, a member suggests being wary if the background of the image print is white. Her experience is that the printed fabric background came out grey. Someone speculated, could be the impact of file being pdf. Takes special knowledge to avoid or fix. If someone is knowledgeable about how to avoid, perhaps a post to the website would be helpful.