Presidents Report

President's Report Town and Country Quilters Guild 2013-2014 We have had a wonderful year with several new members, interesting programs, beautiful and inspiring Show and Tell quilts, great fellowship and delicious treats. We also did not have to cancel a single meeting in spite of a winter of seemingly endless Wednesday snowstorms! There were eight Saturday workshops, all had a good attendance. In September several members earned their own PhD pins ( projects (w)holly done) when we held a PhD (projects half done) workshop. In October Elaine Parsons led a crazy friendship quilt workshop where we all traded fabrics before beginning. November was a bring your own project day when people worked on charity quilts. In January we made 20 flannel adult bibs using flannel purchased with Guild funds at Avonport. Half went to the Wolfville Nursing Home and half went to the Valley Regional Hospital Gift Shop. Many hand made light work and we had time to work on our own projects when the bibs were finished. In February Ginny Evans and Jackie Trimper led a landscape quilt workshop showing the enthusiastic participants their own special techniques. Faye Brown demonstrated the Accuquilt Go cutter in March and several members brought their cutters so everyone would have a chance to cut with their favourite die. We were all amazed at how quickly we could cut out a quilt. Faye also shared many great tips such as always have both your presser foot and needle in the down position when you travel with your machine. In March we recognized International quilt Day by donating a beautiful quilt made by Marj Taylor to the VRH for the first baby born on that day, March 15. Jane Maddin's popular sashiko workshop had to be rescheduled to early April and everyone enjoyed a chance to slow down and do some traditional Japanese handwork. We had a "do your own thing" workshop on the last Saturday in April which was very well attended and we all shared tips and tricks. To make our workshops and Retreats easier we purchased a large cutting mat to be stored at the hall, Marlene Dufour from Pins and Needles kindly made two sets of risers for the cutting tables and Faye Brown donated two Rowenta irons for guild use. Members were able to participate in two Challenge projects this year: make a quilt using fabrics matched to paint chips colours that matched your initials plus a neutral and/or make a quilt using just solid fabrics. There were two $25 gift certificates from Avonport Discount given as prizes in June. I would like to thank everyone on the executive for another wonderful year. Barb Leith as our efficient and capable secretary, Elizabeth Biggs who has been doing an outstanding job as treasurer since the very beginning, Helen Archibald for keeping the membership up to date and promptly sending out dozens of notices, Elaine Parsons and Faye Brown for providing us with interesting programs and workshops, Janet Trites for serving as Vice President, maintaining our blog, making our name tags, and also serving on the Retreat Committee with Vanessa Austin, Helen Archibald and chair Marie Armstrong. Special thanks to Sharon Manzer and Ann Steadman who have provided us with scrumptious homemade treats, coffee, tea and cold drinks for the past three years and are now retiring. I have learned a lot in the past three years and have enjoyed the job as well as all the friendships I have made. I feel very confident that with Linda Lusby as president and Dawna DeAdder as Vice President our Guild will be in very good hands. Also joining the team are Kathy Berry and Ruth Peskett who will be working with Elaine Parsons and Faye Brown on the Program and Workshop Committee. Ruth Butler Library report 2013-2014 Town and Country Quilters This year I added twenty seven new books to the guild library and weeded out twenty outdated,non-circulating items. These were sold for a nominal amount at a workshop and the money put back into the library fund. We also have subscriptions to Quilters Connection, a Canadian quilting magazine, and Quilt Canada which comes as part of our membership in the Canadian Quilting Association. I have been cataloging all new books on an app called Book Crawler and also gradually adding all the older items. I had hoped to be able to share the catalogue with everyone but haven't quite figured it out yet. It works fine on my iPad but when I send it to Dropbox many items are missing and there are no pictures. I promise to keep working on it so you can check our holdings at home and see a photo of the covers of almost every book which is a big help since there is no way of keeping the actual books in traditional library order.