President’s Message

Organizers Rosemary and Linda

Auctioneer Sandy

January’s Ugly Fabric Auction was a great success, netting $676 to help support guild activities. Thanks to all who bid and donated!
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I am pleased to announce that the guild has been awarded a $1,000 grant through ArtsWestchester’s Arts Alive program to help fund our speakers.  We are honored to receive the money and are thrilled that ArtsWestchester recognized quilts as an art form.  We hope to use this relationship with them to publicize the guild, and help build interest in quilting and increase our membership.  Thank you to all who helped in writing the grant application.

Now for some not so good news.  We were informed several weeks ago by Western Connecticut State University that in 2020 the first weekend in May will no longer be available to us for the quilt show (don’t worry we are okay for this May).  They are going to start using the arena on the Friday of that weekend for their sport’s award dinner, which will impact with our set up.  The Board looked at possibly moving the show to another weekend, but found that it would not be possible without conflicting with another quilt show or a holiday.  We are starting to examine our options and will be reporting back to you as we develop them.

Remember the Challenge Quilts are due this month.  I hope we have lots of submissions – it will be great having a large display at the show.  Our program will be demos by various guild members and it looks like we will have a good variety of presentations at the meeting.

If you have not signed up for Super Saturday, you can still do so.  Contact Pooa Bloomberg at Supersaturday@northernstarquilters.com to register.

Unfortunately, we have had to cancel this year’s Lancaster trip.  We only had 10 people who had signed up and paid by the January meeting.  After struggling last year to get enough people to sign up to cover our costs, we decided not to risk losing our deposits and cancelled the trip.  We plan on offering it again in 2020, and maybe a year’s hiatus will create more interest.  Thank you to Jen Cannizzarro for keeping on top of things so we will not lose any money.

Stay warm and see you on February 19.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Comfort Quilts ready for Christmas delivery to Westchester Medical Center’s Behaviorial Unit

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all!

As the weather starts to turn bad, remember our snow policy.  If the Somers or Kennedy Catholic schools are closed or have early dismissal due to the weather, our meeting will be cancelled.  We will send out an email to members notifying them of a cancellation as early as possible and post an alert on the website. Be sure to check if you are in doubt.

Quilt registration for A World of Quilts XL opens in just a few weeks.  We hope to have a spectacular display of quilts for our 40^th show anniversary celebration.   Don’t forget, your quilt does not have to be finished to register it – it only needs to be done by quilt drop off on April 27.  Daisy and Debby have been busy coming up with new ideas for the show – be sure to read their announcements of the changes for this year.

The Ugly Fabric Auction will take place at the January 15 meeting with an early preview around 6:30.  Be sure to bring lots of cash and be ready to bid.  I have heard they will have a great selection of fabric for the event.  February will be mini-demos and your completed Challenge Quilt is due (voting will be at the March meeting).

We will be starting the nominating process for the 2019-2020 Board.  If you are interested in serving on the Board, please let me know.  We will need to fill the elected positions of President (no I am not serving again), Secretary, Treasurer, Communications, and Programs.  A brief description of the jobs is on the website page Membership-Board dropdowns, Being on the Board is quite rewarding.  It is a good way to give back to the Guild, meet members, and see what the Guild does.  Please consider serving – you can also team up with a friend and be co-Chairs.

Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

Happy Holidays to all!  I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and are looking forward to all the festivities of December.  There is a lot happening at the beginning of next year and lots of reasons to quilt.  I hope you get time to work on your projects in December. After all there are many reasons to quilt – Challenge quilts, Silent Auction pieces, and quilt show entries.

January will be our Ugly Fabric Auction – last chance to donate is this month’s December meeting.  Also in January quilt registration for the show begins on the 15^th.  At our February meeting we will have short demos by members and the Challenge Quilts are due and voted on.  And Super Saturday is February 16.

We are trying a few new things at this year’s show.  One reason is to try and increase attendance, particularly non-quilters.  A second is to produce a little more revenue at the show.  Daisy and Debby will be sending out more details on these changes in the next couple of weeks – we are still working out some of the specifics, but I wanted to give you an idea of what they are planning.

We are going to change a few things at the Silent Auction, since sales have been slowly declining over the past few years. We will be accepting larger items – up to crib size quilts.  We will also have a few gift baskets that people can bid on.  Finally, there will also be a “purchase now” option for all items.

You will also have the opportunity to sell any quilt you enter in the show.  When you register your quilt there will be a new question asking whether you want to list it as being for sale and at what price.  We are still finalizing the process for how the sale will take place – more details will follow.  The guild will take a small commission on any quilt that is sold.

Our hope is that these, plus other changes will help increase attendance at the show.  We want to attract more of the general public to the show, hopefully resulting in more interest in quilting.  I know that some people come to the show looking to purchase a quilt – these changes will help.

Finally, thank you to everyone who brought food items in November to donate to the local food pantries.  If you missed the opportunity to bring an item, you can always contact your local food pantry directly to make a donation.  There is a great need in our area for food pantries and any donations they receive are appreciated.

I wish everyone a wonderful and happy holiday season.
Susan Fasnacht, president@northernstarquilters.com

October Mini Mosaic Workshop with Carol Lynch

It’s hard to believe the holidays are upon us already.  The days seem to just fly by.  Reminder – our November meeting is a week earlier than normal because of Thanksgiving.  The meeting is the second Tuesday – November 13.  Our speaker will be Rayna Gillman.  You may remember that Rayna was one of the Invitational Quilters at our 2017 show.  We are pleased to have her return to the guild and talk about her work.

At our November meeting we will also be holding the Holiday Boutique.  It will take place starting at 6:00 in the lobby area just outside the auditorium (no stairs to climb).  Make sure you bring extra cash so you can buy something from one of our vendors.

I dropped off two Comfort Quilts today at Kennedy Catholic.  Every year the school holds an auction to raise money.  Sister Barbara use to donate wardrobes containing several “American Girl” doll outfits she sewed as an auction item.  With her passing the Guild started donating a Comfort Quilt in her memory to replace them.  The auction takes place on Saturday, November 10 starting at 6pm and the admission price includes dinner and drinks.  It looks like they have lots of auction items.  If you are interested, more information can be found at kennedycatholic.org/auction.

Finally, I want to write once again about volunteering to help at the Guild.  Last month’s meeting was a good example of our problem when we were unable to find a volunteer to staff the Library table for the evening.  As a result there was no library in October.  It is hard to run an organization such as ours that relies on volunteers to do the work when we lack volunteers.  Other than at the quilt show, only a small percentage of our membership gets involved with working on one of our committees or activities.  As the New Year approaches we will start looking to fill the slate for next year’s Board and I hope our search will go better than last year.  Please consider getting involved, we cannot depend upon the same people to do the work each year.  There are plenty of opportunities – some big and some small – where we can use your help.  Let me know if you are willing to become more involved, and we can find something that will fit your interests and time constraints.

I look forward to seeing you on November 13^th.
Susan Fasnacht, President@northernstarquilters.com

It was a shame the weather was so bad for our September meeting. We enjoyed a delightful lecture by Anita Grossman Solomon – it was a great start to the year. We have a great line up of speakers and workshops for 2018/19. You can find them all listed on our website here.

We have started to increase the use of social media to promote our guild and the quilt show. Helen Boland will be keeping our posts up to date on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Please be sure to “like us” and follow us on your social media accounts. Links to our accounts can be found at the bottom of our website page.

If you weren’t at September’s meeting you did not hear some changes in when things are happening this year. The Ugly Fabric Auction will be held at our January meeting and the demos in February. We realized if we held it in February and had to cancel the meeting due to weather, someone would be stuck with all this fabric to hold on to for a year. By holding it in January, we have a backup of the following month for the auction, if we need to cancel. We will start collecting donations to January’s auction at the October meeting.

Another change in the schedule will be when the Challenge quilts are due. They will be collected at the February meeting with voting taking place in March. April handed out the ruby red fabric in September – it’s lovely. If you want to participate and haven’t picked up the fabric, contact April at Challenge@NorthernStarQuilters.com and she will get it to you.

I hope the weather behaves in October and I see you then.
Susan Fasnacht

Welcome back! I hope everyone survived the heat this summer and was able to get lots of sewing in. We are looking forward to another great year. There are some wonderful speakers lined up, the Ugly Fabric Auction is returning, Super Saturday is scheduled, and we will be celebrating the 40th Anniversary of A World of Quilts! It’s not too late to get started on making a quilt to display in this special show.

To help with the show’s 40th Anniversary celebration, this year’s Challenge Quilt is ruby red flowers. April Russell will have the fabric to hand out at our September meeting. She has received a terrific response by people interested in participating. If you haven’t emailed her yet about needing fabric please do so before our meeting at Challenge@NorthernStarQuilters.com. You can also visit our website for more details.

We are looking for volunteers (no, not necessarily the president right now, although it would be nice). The Quilt Show committee has some positions that need filling, Helen May is looking for an assistant, and Linda Finnegan has gotten a great opportunity to play in the Long Bay Symphony, a Regional Symphony of South Carolina, so she will need help this fall with her position as VP of Education. Please consider helping out, some of these jobs do not require a large time commitment. Volunteering to be on one of our committees, not only helps the guild out tremendously, but it is also a great way to meet other members. If you are interested, please contact me, president@northernstarquilters.com

Remember our September meeting will take place a week later than normal on September 25.
I hope to see you then and don’t forget to bring you summer projects for Show and Tell!

Susan Fasnacht , Acting President

 2018-19 Board Members and Emails

Thank you for the lovely basket of fabric and threads.  I am looking forward to creating some quilts with them.  I appreciate the support guild members have given me and the entire Board over the past year – thank you again.  I hope all of you have a wonderful summer and have an opportunity to get lots of sewing done.

Election Results –
At the June Salad Supper we voted on two items scheduled for the May meeting.  The first was the proposed slate of Elected Officers, as nominated at the April meeting, which was approved by the members present.
It was announced that to address the fact that the Guild still does not have a candidate for President, the Board of Directors, in accordance with the Guild By-Laws, voted to appoint me as Acting President starting July 1st.  I will fill this position until next July unless a member steps forward before then to take on the Presidency.
Additionally, Chairpersons of all Standing Committees positions were announced.  The following is the 2018/2019 Board of Directors.

Elected Officers
Acting President – Susan Fasnacht
Vice President: Communications- Julie Long
Vice President: Education – Linda Finnegan
Vice President: Membership – Rosemary De Paola
Vice President: Programs – Helen May
Co-Vice Presidents: Quilt Show – Daisy Dodge and Debby Warren
Secretary – Anne Chehebar
Treasurer- Annette Nash-Govan

Standing Committee Chairs
Assistant to the President – Carol Sterk
Charitable Activities – Althea Nolan
Hospitality – Micki Green and Christine Langan
Library – Narci Medina
Special Events – Jennifer Kramer

The second vote was the proposed by-law amendment, which passed by a vote of 81 in favor and 1 against.

Enjoy your summer and I hope to see all of you in September, Susan Fasnacht

And I thought all of my weather worries were over once we got through March.  Sorry about the late notice that we were cancelling the May meeting. I didn’t find out until around 5:00 that Kennedy Catholic had lost power in the storm.  With no power and the roads a mess there was no other option.  We worked on spreading the news as quickly as we could.

Despite the storm, we were able to hold the workshop with Sue Beevers the next day.  Helen May reported that the class was terrific and Sue gave the attendees a sample of the hands on color lecture she would have given the night before.  Since it was such a great presentation we have booked her to do her lecture next May.

Needless to say our June Salad Supper meeting will be a little busier than usual.  We will be starting the supper at 6:00 and will follow with our business meeting after – sometime around 7:00.  This will be our Annual Meeting, so we will be voting on the slate of officers for 2018-2019 and the proposed By-Laws revision.   We will also pick the winner of the raffle quilt and sewing machine, as well as presenting a check from the money raised to the Emergency Shelter Partnership.

April Russell has volunteered to run next year’s Guild Challenge and will give a short presentation about it at the meeting.  Since it will be the 40^th “A World of Quilts”, she wants to get as many participants as possible.  The traditional gift for a 40^th anniversary is a ruby and based on that her proposal is to have quilts with red flowers.  April is thinking of supplying a piece of fabric that is to be used somewhere in your quilt.  She would like to get an idea as to how many people think they will participate so she can figure out how much fabric to buy.

I hope to see you on the 19^th.  Susan Fasnacht, President

As you read this, A World of Quilts XXXIX has taken place and since I am writing my message in April, I can’t truly say how fantastic it was, but I am sure that it was.  I want to thank everyone who was involved in the show for their awesome work on it.  Chris and Noreen have done a great job organizing it, working through all the problems that arose.  Their leadership helped make its planning run so well.  Additionally, they had a wonderful group of volunteers heading the various show committees.  All of these people put in countless hours carrying out their jobs.  I and the guild thank all of them for their hard work.

Of course now that this year’s show is over, it’s time to start thinking about next year’s show – it will be the 40^th anniversary!  I am sure next year’s committee will make it a special celebration.  Some of our advance planning already takes this into consideration.  So, if there is that special quilt you want to make, start it now so you can enter in the show.

Our May meeting is the guild’s Annual Meeting.  We will be voting on two items – the proposed slate of officers for 2018-2019 (minus a President as of now) and the proposed by-laws amendment.  We will also be drawing the tickets for the winner of this year’s raffle quilt and the Bernina sewing machine.  Make sure you attend.

Finally, if you attended Maria Shell’s presentation at our April meeting, I am sure you were disappointed with the quality of the projection of her slides.  The Board has since authorized the purchase of a new projector and we will be using it for our May speaker.  It should be a big improvement.

Susan Fasnacht

Normally I would be reporting on a full slate of officers nominated for next year’s Board; however this year the Nominating Committee has been unable to find someone to take on the position of President.  The Committee spoke to nearly 50 members looking for volunteers to fill four open, elected Board positions – President, Quilt Show Chair, Membership, and Education.  We were successful in finding someone for only three of those four offices.

This has caused great concern for me.  Volunteerism is an important factor in our guild’s operation.  It is what makes our annual quilt show so successful and is vital in carrying out our ongoing activities.  It is unfair to expect the same people to step forward to serve on the Board; it should be spread among as many members as possible.

I have had people say to me, “why don’t you just stay on another year?”  While flattered to be asked, it is not something I should be doing.  First of all, our By-laws have specific restrictions as to how many consecutive years a person can hold a position on the Board; this prohibits me from serving a third year as President.  Additionally, I have served on the Board the past 5 years; one as Membership, two as Quilt Show and two as President, and  I will still have another year or two to serve as Ex-Officio President.  While I did not find the jobs to overly time consuming, they did impact my life.  For the past four years in particular, I have had to juggle personal activities around Guild Board and Membership meetings, as well as other events.  I am looking forward to getting that flexibility back in my life.

To address the apprehensions that a job may be too much for a single person, we have used co-chairs for several positions – Quilt Show and Hospitality for example.  While it has not been done with the President’s position, having co-Presidents is something the Board would consider.  Since we need to have a President, at our April Board meeting we will discuss our options for filling the position, even if it is on a temporary basis.

I am once again asking all members to consider becoming President.  You can do this as an individual or you could team up with another member and create a co-Presidency.  You don’t need to have Board experience.  The Guild has detailed policies and job descriptions to guide you.  Additionally, I will be on the Board as Ex-Officio President to help and you also appoint an Assistant to the President to help with tasks.

Please seriously consider helping us in filling the slate of offices for the 2018-2019 year.
Susan Fasnacht, President@northernstarquilters.com

Annual Meeting – Election of Board Members and By-Laws Amendment

The Annual Meeting for the Northern Star Quilters’ Guild will be held at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2018 at Kennedy Catholic High School.  At this meeting we will be voting on Officers for 2018-2019 and an amendment to our by-laws.  The specifics of the proposed by-laws’ amendment were sent to all members via the US Postal Service, as well as by email.  The proposed slate of officers follows.

The Nominating Committee is pleased to announce the Slate of Officers for 2018-2019. The nominees will be introduced at the April Guild Meeting and voting will take place at the May Annual Meeting.

NSQG 2018-2019 Ballot
President – To Be Determined
VP Quilt Show – Daisy Dodge and Debby Warren (co-VPs)
VP Membership – Rosemary DePaola
VP Education – Linda Finegan

Returning for a 2nd year in their current positions:
Treasurer – Annette Nash-Govan
Secretary – Anne Chehebar
VP Communications – Julie Long
VP Programs – Helen May

Thank you to the nominating committee, Dee Ploufee, Julie Long, Anne Chehebar and Susan Fasnacht, for their work on putting together the slate of candidates.  I also thank the candidates for agreeing to share their talents with the Guild.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this year’s Super Saturday so successful. Pooa Bloomberg did a great job organizing the day.  I also want to thank the members who taught the classes – everyone I have spoken to enjoyed their class.  A final thanks to our Hospitality Chairs, Micky Green and Christine Langan for arranging for the food that day. It seems like we have found a home for Super Saturday at the Yorktown Presbyterian Church.  If you participated in a class, bring your work to March for our Show and Tell that meeting.

Once again we had another fun evening at our February meeting with the Ugly Fabric Auction.  A special thanks to our auctioneers, Sandy Bright and Carolyn Lewis, for doing such a good job.  Our sales exceeded last year’s auction!

We also saw all the wonderful Challenge Quilts at the February meeting.  It is always interesting to see how people interpreted the theme.  Thank you to Carla Wdowski for organizing the Challenge and to everyone who submitted a quilt.

Don’t forget to register your quilt for the World of Quilts XXXVIII.  Registration will be open until the end of the month.

Susan Fasnacht, President

There are a number of things happening this month, so make sure you read through all of the articles in this month’s newsletter for the details.  You can still sign up for a Super Saturday class, it’s a fun day and a great bargain.  There is also room on the Lancaster trip, lots of quilts to see and shopping to do.  We have exciting speakers and workshops coming in March and April – sign up for a workshop.  Don’t forget quilt registration is open.  Register your quilt early.

Our February meeting will also be busy.  This year’s Challenge quilts – Quilts Inspired by Doors – will be on display.  Come and vote for your favorite quilt.  Also, back by popular demand we will be holding the Ugly Fabric Auction.  If you missed last year’s event, make sure you come this year, it was lots of fun.  Don’t forget to bring your dollars!

Finally, I just returned from the Bahamas, and I was excited to see as we drove into town that the local guild, Stepping Stone Quilt Guild, was holding their quilt show.  Naturally, I had to add it to my things to do.  It was fun to see what people do in other parts of the world.  Their quilts were very nice and often reflected a Caribbean theme.  I was particularly amused by their guild challenge, quilting a cover for a 5 gallon water jug.
Susan Fasnacht, President@northernstarquilters.com