The Prairie Hearts Quilters Guild has adapted to the pandemic just in time to bring back monthly meetings for this fall, and president Lizanne Knox-Beam said the club is excited to be planning things for members once again.
Beginning Oct. 1, the guild made the move to virtual meetings with members using a private Facebook group and the live video feature on the site.
Knox-Beam said the first meeting went well, with only a glitch or two, and the club is looking forward to hosting regular online meetings every first Thursday of the month at 7 p.m. throughout the rest of the year.
“We were really struggling all summer with how to keep all our members engaged, so we decided to do the Facebook live meetings,” said Knox-Beam. “We’ve adjusted to the pandemic, I guess is what we’ve done.”
The online meetings will feature the same type of presentations as the in-person meetings that members are used to, including presentations from the guild’s executive, mini trunk shows from members about their quilting journeys, mystery quilt programs and even quilting book reviews.
“We had a lot of interaction [with the first meeting], with notes coming back to us, so that was really rewarding to know that people were out there and they were enjoying and watching it,” said Knox-Beam. “We’re really learning as we go, and hopefully we can keep going with the meetings and keep everyone engaged and happy.”
At the time of printing, Knox-Beam said the Facebook group had just over 60 members, which she said is down from last year but still impressive given the circumstances.
Prairie Hearts cancelled meetings back in the spring during the initial surge of COVID-19, and has been fairly quiet ever since. The group hosted a drive-by quilt show in May that garnered a great response from guild members and the community, and Knox-Beam said members have also been keeping up with each other within their own personal bubbles.
“Some of our members have their own bubble, and some people don’t have Facebook so they’re sharing their Facebook with other people so they can all watch. It’s a really supportive community and one that’s really good to belong to,” said Knox-Beam.
But it is exciting to be back as a group, she continued, and the guild is hoping to be able to return to in-person meetings as soon as safely possible. The quilt show this April is also still up in the air, with no decisions made yet.
Knox-Beam also shared that the guild had reduced the cost of membership from $50 to $25, and new members are asked to mail their registration to the guild.
Registration forms are available on the guild’s website and can be mailed to P.O. Box 484, S6H 4P1. Once received, new members will be allowed to join the guild’s private Facebook group to take part in the virtual meetings.
The next virtual meeting of the Prairie Hearts Quilters Guild will be on Nov. 5.
