Club Notes - March 5, 2025

There were 14 of us at the rec center today.  We were lucky in that the downpour of rain finished before 12:30 and the rest of the afternoon had clear skies.  After our last meeting Mic delivered 58 stuffed toys to the Villages Hospital and another 30 to VITAS.  Both organizations were very appreciative.

Show and Tell:

Ceal Pedersen brought the latest stuffed toys that were handed to her for face painting.

Bev Minnerly showed a pillowcase she made and 2 “flat” cats needing stuffing.

Ernestine Vawter showed some pillowcases she made for children in her family.

The 2nd one has football on one side and baseball on the other.

Ellen Hein showed a bunch of quilts that she finished the binding on and several Veteran’s Hospice quilts

The following 3 quilt tops were made by Lorraine Manz

 

I made the following 4 from panels:

Anne handed these 2 in:

Ellen made these 2 large quilts.

Ellen also turned in 1 finished Hospice Veteran's quilt 

and 4 that need to be quilted.

After show and tell Mic and Anne got to work putting together kits for making  walker bags.  I gave a demonstration of how to make a walker bag, using the Helpertunity pattern.

Last Saturday, Allamanda had several tables at the Quilter’s Closet sale.  I saw a couple of you shopping there.  Any fabric that didn’t sell was given to me at the end.   This afternoon I brought all of that to  our meeting for you to choose from for any charity project.  I was happy to see that the 4 bins and 1 box were reduced down to 3 bins at the end of the afternoon.

Since Freedom Point Rehab requested 20 walker bags, I am hoping to see a lot of these finished for next week.  We will bring the kits again and other fabric in case we don’t get enough.

 

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - February 18, 2025

We were a smaller group today, only 12 in attendance.  The main news was about Suzzette.  When Diane and Ernestine tried to visit her last week, they discovered she was no longer in The Club.  After a little research, I was able to find a telephone number for her son and left a message.  He called me back during the meeting.  She was getting worse so The Club sent her back to The Villages Hospital.  From there she was sent to Shands in Gainesville.   She has had a couple of surgeries, and is now in good hands.  Her son has arranged for home nurse care for her when she is released from the hospital.  He will let me know when she is home.

 Show and Tell:

Ceal Pedersen some of the stuffed toys she painted the faces on.

Carolyn Grasso showed some toys she made.

Diane Saculla found some pretty pink fabric in our donations that didn’t seem appropriate for our other projects, so she made 2 pillows, one for Ceal and the other for Ernestine.

Louise finished some blocks for our Puzzle quilt project, and made some pillow cases.

Lenora Holze showed her first dinosaur.

Ellen Hein handed in 5 baby quilt tops. 

I showed the quilt I made for Allamanda’s 2025 challenge, to make a quilt representing my birth month flower.  My flowers are Larkspurs (front) and water lilies (backing).

Since I decided to keep this quilt, I had to hand in a substitute for donation.  I am including a photo of the substitute quilt.

 

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Today Mic and I brought some pieces of fabric to choose from in making more toys.  I also brought the fiber fill.  

 I also brought the kits for the green and white puzzle quilt, the pre-printed doll fabric, and the center blocks for hospice quilts. 

Next week we will have a week off, since the building will be closed for quarterly cleaning.  I hope to see you back on March 5^th.

Lois

Club Notes - February 12, 2025

There were 21 of us at El Santiago this afternoon.     Mic brought several boxes of preprinted fabric given to us by the Abundance of Love club.   Most of these will make large stuffed toys, but there are also some with other patterns such as aprons.  Rita worked to sort these, putting like fabrics in the same pile.  A few ladies took one to cut and sew.  I was also given a couple that ladies cut and bagged for someone else to sew, if you are interested.

 Last week I said the Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch is looking for pillowcases, with their logo embroidered on the cuff.  It turns out, that is optional.  I am trying to get a digitized copy of the logo, just in case, but have not been successful yet.

Show and Tell: 

Mic Pickard showed some zipper bags and snap bags she made as gifts.

Eileen DiSanto showed a receiving blanket she made.

Ceal Pedersen made a Veterans Hospice quilt top 

and showed some of the stuffed toys she painted the faces on.

Deb Chapman showed 2 baby changing pads she made for her granddaughter who is scheduled to arrive in July.

Lisa Strahs-Lorenc showed some hearts for Abundance of Love, Some doll clothing, and a “scaredy cat”.

Donna Rissman showed a scrappy quilt top and a failed microwave bowl class result.

Carolyn Grasso made some critters needing stuffing.

Diane Saculla showed the quilt for Suzzette, quilted and bound by Mic.  She passed a card around and is brining this to Suzzette after today’s meeting.

Diane Placek made a potholder 

and a tea bag caddy as gifts.

Bev Minnerly showed some doll clothes 

and 3 pillowcases.

Audrey Philips showed 2 Valentine pillows.

Ellen Hein made some pillowcases and zipper bags.  

She also showed 6 quilts that she added the binding to for us.  

Two were ‘cheater” quilts that I made.  (For those unfamiliar with the term, a “cheater quilt” is a fabric that is already printed to look like it is made of quilt blocks, when it is actually one solid piece of fabric.  It only needs batting, backing, and to be quilted as is.) This was a long piece of fabric that I was able to cut into 3 quilts.  Ellen finished the first 2 this week and I gave her the 3rd to work on today.

  The rest were baby quilts that Anne turned in. 

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Last week Linda Greenbaum showed a folded fabric Christmas Star she made.  This week she showed us how it is made, by simply folding fabric strips. No sewing is required.  Here is a link to a YouTube if you want to try it:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjx16Gf3TsE

I brought a fresh box of fiber fill so several ladies were busy stuffing some more toys.

Mary Ellen turned in a couple of completed blocks for our latest group quilt and I handed out a few more kits. I will have these kits available each week, for anyone who wants to sew a few.   Once we have enough, I will sew them into a quilt top, like we have done with other group projects.

Next week we will have some of our fabric donations available for anyone wanting to make more toys.   On Feb 26^th, we will have a week off, since the building will be closed for quarterly cleaning.  I will remind you of this after our next meeting.

Lois