December 2018 Meeting Review

Santa's Elvettes Tami A. & Jeri R.

We had our annual Christmas guild meeting and potluck on Friday December 14th at the Janet Goeske Center and while attendance seemed slow at first, we soon filled the hall with our jolly selves and a good time was had by all!

As a reminder, we held our December meeting not on our usual night as the Goeske Center is closed in the evenings the week before Christmas. Head Elf Jeri R. and the rest of the board would like to know if the Friday before our usual Tuesday meeting works for everyone as we'll work on booking the same night for next year - please let us know in the comments below!

We saw many beautiful quilts during our normal Show and Share segment as well as entries for the Panel Challenge and for Evie's Hoffman Mini Challenge. Check out all the photos here.

On Saturday December 1st, a group of Raincrossers handed out Happy Bags to many grateful children. Jeri relayed a story that one dad came up and told us "these bags mean so much to us!" They have four children and the kids use them all year long - to go the beach, for Halloween, everything. On behalf of Jeri, Dawn M. our Happy Bag Maven and all the grateful children and their parents, great job everyone and thank you! Dawn is already thinking about next year and does have a specific list of items we need to keep our eyes looking out for, so we'll get that list from her soon and post it here. We do know that she does not need crayons yet for next year.

Susan C. announced that next year's Quilts of Valor National Sew Day is coming on Saturday February 2nd and will be held at Susan's office at the Riverside Community College District, Office of Economic Development at 23555 Meyer Drive, Riverside, starting at 9am with a salad potluck lunch. Please remember to register with Quilts of Valor if you plan on attending and sewing so that they can get a count and you can get a chance at winning a door prize!

We still need help getting Comfort Quilts quilted - Cassandra has quilt tops ready to be quilted and more quilt kits ready to be stitched up. Thank you so much to those who have given quilts and adult bibs! Cassandra will have some adult bibs available at the guild meeting if you are looking one. And a special shout out to Jan and her gals for donating three quilts this month - thank you!

Elly H. showed us our November and December blocks of the month, Kissing Cranes (her name for the block) and It's Polite To Point (ed. note: my name for the block since she didn't name it). Both are available on our BOM page. Elly said that after these two blocks, there will be one more block of the month in January and that we should bring back our completed 2018 block of month quilts to the March 2019 meeting.

Speaking of Elly, she would like to pass the mantle of BOM and of Challenges if some folks are interested - you don't have to do both and it'd be great actually to find two people. Reach out to Elly and Jeri if you are interested!

We are also looking for a new Nancy to take over Nancy's Notions! Our current Nancy, Nancy R., fancies a break, so we're hoping someone will step up, get a name change, and be our new Nancy of Nancy's Notions! Please let Jeri know.

After a great year, we're looking forward to 2019 and will take annual dues at the January meeting. And please remember to sign into the Goeske Center on the touch screen located in the hallway - if you don't have a badge yet, you can easily sign up for one at the main information desk.

Finally, the guild gave everyone a holiday gift, beautiful Raincross Quilt Guild mugs! They were made by our vice president, Tami A., and her new mug printing machine! She is available to print mugs for anyone (giving a quilt as a gift? give a mug with a picture of the quilt ON the mug too!). Contact her for more details. Also if you weren't able to attend the guild meeting this month, you can get your gift from Tami at the January meeting.

Happy (belated) Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

Door Prizes

• 2 yd tan fabric - Shirley L.
• 2 charm packs - Barbara K.
• book on new hexagons - Fern F.
• 2 yd teal fabric - Bets
• vintage sewing pattern book - Julie M.

Mystery Box - Florence!

- Cassandra G.