In June, we had our Annual General Meeting to take care of Guild year business, including elections for some new Executive members. However, that was after we welcomed back Deepika Prakash, founder of PatternReview.com, as guest speaker. This time, she spoke to us about Indie Sewing as members had picked this among several topics about which Deepika was willing to talk to us.

In her talk about Indie Sewing, Deepika gave us tips about choosing a pattern and pattern company, starting with reading reviews, and following with checking specs and drawings, trying a free pattern that is often offered, and matching your interests to the company and/or pattern’s identity features. Of course, in talking about Indie Sewing, Deepika shared some of her favourite Indie pattern companies, and patterns themselves with pictures of what she made from them,. Among these, we were proud to learn many were Canadian! Deepika also offered the crowdsourced perspective from most used Indie patterns on PatternsReview.com, which also had its share of Canadian companies:

1. Jalie (Canadian)
2. Itch to Stitch
3. Closet Core (Canadian)
4. Lutterloh (Canadian), and
5. Style Arc.

Finally, Deepika also talked about PaternReview.com’s many contests, of which one running at the time had notable entries by our past President Lorna, and colourful member Suzanne. Overall, members thoroughly enjoyed Deepika’s enthusiasm, knowledge and sense of community, and all agreed that she should have lifetime, membership privileges to the Atlantic Sewing Guild! Thank you, Deepika!

 

AGM Business & Thanks

After Deepika, the Guild got down to business… Annual General Meeting or AGM business that is. We started with approval of the previous AGM minutes, followed by a review of the year’s budget from Treasurer Marilyn (thank you!). Both were approved as is.

After these approvals, our President Julie acknowledged the hard work and dedication of two outgoing executives. First was our Secretary, Carolyn, who has provided us with splendid meeting minutes, among many other duties and endeavours from guest speakers to leading community contribution efforts over three years. Thank you, Carolyn!

The other Executive finishing up her three year term was one of our two Librarians, Karen. During her time as Librarian, she has expanded our library, as well as kept it in low entropy, among making many other contributions to the Executive and as a member. Thank you, Karen!

Additionally, thanks and acknowledgement were given out to various other executives and members for their notable contributions during the year. Thank you to:

• Norma, CindyH, and Josee for Zoom support during our COVID restricted meetings to make them relatively seamless and enjoyable experiences for all;
• Norma for Sewcial Sewing via Zoom that was a new feature to keep up some socialization among members despite physical distancing requirements keeping us from doing so in person;
• CindyH for the Sew It Now (SIN) group that continued to thrive via Zoom throughout the pandemic, despite being smaller than the Guild as a subgroup and having less resources;
• Minh for keeping up on communications;
• Reina for the colourful and detailed power point presentations from which members did Sew & Tell and Challenge presentations during our meetings, and which you see in this year’s blog posts in the galleries; and
• LeeAnne for giving the Guild a presence on Instagram.

 

Finally, great thanks and recognition should be given to to our President Julie, for all her work and leadership to take it through a challenging COVID year where we had to pivot on many fronts to keep the Guild social and sewing spirit alive! And our Past President Lorna was also crucial to guide us in this process. Thank you very much, Julie and Lorna!

As a final announcement before elections for new Executives, our President announced that the Guild had raised $285 as for the local Immigrants’ sewing group. it will be donated in the form of sewing accessories when they are back to in-person sewing.

 

New Executives

With two outgoing Executives, we had to elect new Executives, and we are delighted and grateful to have join us:

• Linda Harris, Secretary
• Susan Hall, Librarian

The remaining Executives also had to be voted back in, and we are happy to say they were all not only voted back in, but that there was no challenges to the vote! Very Canadian as expected. We will have profiles of the Executives by summer’s end, in the same style as the 2020-2021 Executives were profiled, for those who choose to participate, and the extent to which they choose, in order to respect their privacy.

 

Summer Challenge

To continue the spirit of challenges this calendar year, our Vice-President and #1 Challenger issued a summer challenge to:

• Use that most valuable fabric tucked away in your stash.

Then bring it to the Guild’s first in-person meeting next Guild year in the fall, whenever conditions allow for it, and show it!

As well, having seen the success of the Sewing Partners Challenge this year that was among the Guild’s most popular challenges ever, Pat also challenged members to continue with it, even if only informally, because it is a motivating and fun activity! Thanks, Pat!

 

Sew & Tell

To end the AGM, we had our staple Sew & Tell that is always inspiring and motivational. This month is no different, as you can see with the variety and depth of garments and items sewn below!

 

A final thank you

With everything that went on through this pandemic year where the Guild, like most organizations, were not able to hold an in person meeting, nothing would mean much if it were not for all the Guild members who supported what was done. From just a willingness to try the tech and give the Zoom meeting experience a chance, to more contributions like submissions for Sew & Tell, challenges, articles for the blog, among many other things, you stepped up to make this year as memorable as any, even if for different reasons, though not negative reasons. For that, the Executives would like to thank you all! We hope you will have a safe and enjoyable summer, and we look forward to seeing you in the fall when we hope public health rules will allow for it… in something you’ve sewn since we had last seen you! We also hope some readers who have never been members will also come out to join us!

All the best until next time!