Happy Holidays!
Hope you're transitioning into winter without much trouble. Gardens put to bed, exchanging rakes for shovels, sandals for boots, etc. Thank goodness we can all hide away in our piles of fabric, our warm & happy place.
Please make sure to read all the articles in our newsletter. There's some good news going on around this Guild. Make sure to read Retreat News. The latest from our venue, Land's End, has been researched and reported. Also, any changes to the norm due to COVID are explained. With that, you know that our Homer team has a fun time in store for us! The Education News will hopefully have more detail on our 2022 classes. Two of the teachers are internationally known. Pretty exciting they've consented to come up to teach us! Details of the Challenge Block will be posted. This has been such a fun event - you never know how each participant will interpret how to represent the theme chosen each year. Jan Wallace will no doubt have more interesting events, both in person and electronically, that will be well worth the effort, I'm very sure. Of course, read ahead to find out what's happening in Homer and Seward.
I AM going to report on our Holiday Zoom, aka Sit & Sew. This was quite a bit of fun! We blocked out a time slot from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 13th. Most of the attendees stayed through most of it. While it seems like a strange concept to Zoom while sitting at home at your sewing machine, it was so much fun! The extended time gave us all an opportunity to try out the three projects, and ask questions as we went. Sometimes looking at a pattern and pictures just doesn't compute. We had a loose schedule of events, and some of that was followed, some not. We did the demos at 11:00ish. During some of the hours, we did take 10 minute stretch and water breaks. A couple of us in Seward had to take a break to make it to the post office before closing (and saw each other there). The topics of discussion, besides the projects, and any tips concerning them (alternate ways to bind small projects, etc.), were fidget quilts, strange tools you use in your sewing room, UFO's, how to get gum out of a shirt after going through the wash (me), projects from classes we've done, etc. Very fun way to spend a day, very similar to a mini retreat or sewing day. Except you didn't have to drag your machine somewhere, you had all your stuff at hand, and you don't have to wear outdoor clothes. We had some very positive feedback. There may be more of these throughout the winter. Maybe we'll think of a project to do that might help us get going. Otherwise, if you don't get out to sewing regularly, it's a great way to visit and get something done at the same time.
Thank you all for attending our General Membership Meeting October 2nd. It's been a challenge this last couple of years to try to think of ways to keep our members engaged, and I'm very thankful for those of you who are with us riding out this storm. Hopefully soon, we'll be able to have meetings in person, but for now, thanks to zoom, we still have a workaround. We had our Executive Board meeting after the membership meeting, and besides some day to day business, the main focus in this meeting was the safety of our members. This mostly would apply to the retreat and classes. Details in each instance will be brought forward in Retreat News, and Education News in this newsletter.
So, stay in your happy place as much as possible, and if there's anything you'd like to see from your Guild, shoot me an email. I'd love to hear from you.
Sue Magyar