Member Opportunities
As a service to the members, the Guild keeps a listing of current bees and their members and contact persons. The beekeeper maintains a record of available openings for new members and helps any member get a bee started and on track. The beekeeper is also responsible for contacting and coordinating the bees as needed for guild activities.
Some guild members meet regularly in a quilting bee in members’ homes for informal quilting and idea sharing. Some bees are very large and some very small, meeting mornings or evenings, every week or once or twice a month. Many of the bees are “as big as they should be,” while others are looking for new members.
Name Tag Drawing
CQG encourages all members to make a quilted name tag and to wear it to the meeting each month. This helps others know who you are and identifies you as a quilter when you are representing the guild. Before each meeting, members wearing handmade nametags enter their names in a drawing for items donated by local retailers.
Secret Pals
To give members an opportunity to know other members and to have fun at the same time, we started Secret Pals in 1996. To participate, members fill out a questionnaire and return it at the September meeting to the Secret Pals Chairperson. In return, each participant draws the name of her secret pal (must be someone she doesn't know). Then each month, October through May, she sends a card or small gift to her secret pal (for example, a Halloween card and a few charm squares of fall fabric in October). Gifts need not be expensive, but should be quilt related. Secret pals are then revealed at the June meeting/end-of-year party.
Social
The Social Committee oversees the social activities for the Guild. The responsibilities of the Social Chairperson may include providing refreshments at regular Guild meetings and coordinating the Christmas Party at the December meeting.
Sunshine and Shadows
Our Sunshine and Shadows Chairperson will coordinate get-well wishes, expressions of sympathy or congratulations to members on behalf of the entire guild. You may contact the chairperson and inform her of any members who could benefit from the Sunshine and Shadows program.
Quilt Blocks
The block party program is an educational program for CQG members. The monthly blocks cover a variety of techniques, which can include simple to advanced piecing, applique, curved strip piecing, etc. The block party chairperson is responsible for selecting patterns and fabric (if needed), submitting patterns and instructions to the newsletter editor, distributing fabric, overseeing the receipt of blocks and entry slips and drawing winners.
Block Party is open to all members. Each month, members have the opportunity to construct a different quilt block and to enter their names in a drawing to win set of blocks. The number of winners will depend upon the number of participants returning blocks. If fabric is provided by the guild, it will be available at the meetings.
To enter the drawing, sign up at each month’s meeting at the block of the month table. Instructions will be made available at the table or in the newsletter. Make a block(s), following directions. Bring it to the next meeting and write your name on a piece of paper (no larger than 2”X3”) and put it in the “hat” for the drawing. Write your name on another slip of paper and attach it to your block.
Holiday Block Party
Holiday Block Party is one of the educational aspects of the guild. Each year (for a nominal fee) kits containing instructions, a pattern and enough fabric to make one block are distributed to participating members at the October meeting (for a nominal fee). Every member who participates has a chance to win a set of blocks at the December meeting. Blocks must be completed and turned in at the December meeting. Categories of blocks try to cover a variety of techniques and skill level, which can include simple pieced, advanced pieced, miniature, traditional holiday, and intermediate/advanced applique
Charity Quilts
Quilts for Kids
The Quilts for Kids program is one of the guild’s charitable services to the community. Quilts made by CQG members are donated to Wake and Rex Hospitals Neonatal Intensive Care
Units. Kits are available for members to assist them
in making the quilts. Recommended size is approximately 35" x 40". Our goal for 2007-2008 is 500 quilts.
Quilts on Wheels
Quilts on Wheels is another guild charitable service. This program provides lap-sized quilts to residents of local nursing homes. Kits consisting of fabric for a quilt top and backing as well as quilt batting are available or if you prefer, you may make a quilt using your own pattern and materials. Finished quilts are 36” square to 45” square and may be machine quilted, hand quilted or tied. Labels will be provided to sew on the back of your quilt. The labels say Capital Quilters Guild and have a line for your name. Our 2007-2008 goal is 200 quilts.
Feel free to suggest nursing homes that you would like to see benefit from this program.
SAFEchild (Stop Abuse For Every Child)
Quilts are provided through the SAFEchild organization for children who have been identified as abused or neglected in Wake County. SAFEchild’s family-centered programs strengthen families and protect children by addressing the conditions associated with child abuse and neglect. Capital Quilters Guild (CQG) members make and donate varying sizes of quilts (crib-size to twin-size) which are then tagged with a card that reads, "My quilt is special to me because...." The recipient of the quilt (or the parent) writes a brief note about why they chose the quilt or what it means to them. Those notes are returned to the SAFEchild committee chair who distributes them to the quilt’s maker at monthly CQG meetings.
Quilts for the SAFEchild program may be any size, and may be machine quilted, hand quilted, or tied. Completed quilts have a label sewn on the back identifying “Capital Quilters Guild as the quilt’s maker. The quilt or label can also be signed with the quiltmaker’s name.
Donations of fabric, batting, thread, unfinished projects, orphan blocks, or quilt tops are always welcome. Large pieces of fabric, fat quarters, strips, squares, traditional cottons, decorator fabric, flannel, denim, and “cheater” panels can all be used.
During the 2006-2007 guild year, 121 quilts were donated for the children and two quilts were raffled to raise funds for SAFEchild. The goal for the 2007-2008 guild year is 200 quilts.
Education
The guild promotes quilting education, both within the guild and in the community. In addition to the monthly Block Party, workshops and CQG Quilt Show every two years, the guild sponsors other educational events. We provide volunteers to demonstrate quilting techniques, display examples and discuss the art of quilting at various events. We demonstrate quilting at elementary schools and special event celebrations at the North Carolina Museum of History and the Historic Oak View County Park. Volunteers make weekly visits to the Women's Correctional Facility where we provide fabric and instructions. We also provide donated fabric and embellishments to the "Scrappy Quilts" of the Raleigh Girls Club. Some groups give honorariums, which help replenish our treasury. Anyone wishing to participate in any of these activities is encouraged to call the Education Chairperson.
Annual Events
Silent Auction
Once a year, we hold a silent auction. Quilting-related items are donated by members and then auctioned to the highest bidder to raise money for the guild’s charitable projects or library. Bids are written on slips of paper. The person making the highest bid at the end of the bidding period gets the item at the price bid.
Nominating
Officers are nominated in April and elected in May. A Nominating Committee is responsible for selecting a slate of officers to present to the Executive Committee and the membership. The Chairperson of the Nominating Committee oversees this process and reports to the Executive Committee.
Other Guild Resources
Guild Scrapbook
The chairperson gathers information, photos, newspaper articles or anything pertaining to the founding and history of the guild, publicity, awards won by guild members, thank you letters, etc. This information is kept to document the history of the guild.
Yearbooks are distributed each year at the October or November meeting. These contain a directory of members, officers and committee chairpersons, workshops and program schedules, the bylaws, and general information about the Guild.
Small Grants
Do you have a hankering for more quilting related knowledge? Maybe you would like to01/14/2008rby or across the country? Maybe you would like to learn a specific technique? Maybe your passion is learning about the history and quilting traditions of a specific group (like the Amish) or of another country?
Each year the guild awards a Small Grant to a member who would like to further their knowledge of techniques, craftsmanship and creativity. This year it is up to $750. In return we ask that you share this knowledge with the guild at one of our regular meetings, usually in January.
Put your proposal in writing by February 2008 and perhaps the guild will help you to achieve that goal. The winner will be announced in March 2008. Send enquiries or submissions to Lisa Louque.
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