So mad at myself as I had planned on taking a couple pictures but we were so busy that I forgot! The hostess provides a main dish, beverages, plates, cups, napkins etc. The members bring side dishes and lots of desserts, LOL. There is never a lack of food. I made a Rigatoni hot dish this time and it turned out yummy:)
The meeting starts at 10am. People start arriving 20 minutes early sometimes as we have members that drive for an hour or more to get here and it is very hard to plan for traffic, weather etc. so that is expected. I was ready when the first lady arrived. We have about 36 members and usually half of them come. Yesterday there were 16 of us including myself. There have been several new members join in the last year or so. We go about the room introducing ourselves and tell what type of longarm we drive and then there is a roll call question that the president comes up with. Yesterday it was how do you show your customer what options you can quilt for her. There is always a variety of answers and gives us food for thought. Some answers were just drawing designs on paper while the customer is present, some take pictures of the quilt and then email the customer a drawing of what they think should be done, some customers just say do whatever and lets the longarmer decide.
Of course we have a few business things to discuss, right now we are in the process of deciding what instructor we would like to hire for 2019 to come in and teach us for a couple days. Jodi Robinson is being contacted. So excited as she is very inspiring in her modern work. We are also having a bus trip to Quilt Expo in Madison this fall. Then the fun begins with show and tell!! For me it is a no brainer, I talk about being an Island Batik Ambassador, here are my IB projects I showed this time.
Everyone loves show and tell but not everyone brings something for various reasons. Sometimes they don't want to haul that gigantic customer quilt they just finished, or the customer already picked up their quilt. Most of the ladies quilt for hire, but a couple just do it for their own selves, and then the odd ball me, quilting for the craft shows!! There are always thoughts and ideas we share too.
Then the meeting is done and true socializing and eating lunch begins. Everyone was out the door by 1 p.m. already. We covered lots of stuff in our 3 hours. We meet every other month in someones home. Although we take July off, as so many are very busy during the summer.
And there you have it in a nutshell of our longarm meeting! Since it was National Quilting Day I went in and sewed a bit after they left. Here is what I am working on-a new quilt. I am loving it!!! I'll tell more about it in a later post. Although I am using a fat quarter bundle for this you could certainly do this with scraps and I may just do that in the future.
