Club Notes - August 26, 2026

Twelve of us were back this afternoon.  I came with the remnants of Mary Kahlow’s sewing supplies. There were fabric, notions, and stabilizers.  I was glad to see that most of it went home with someone. After everyone had a chance to look through, I separated out anything I thought useable and designated the rest for Good Will.   Ellen will drop those items off.

We learned that Carolyn Grasso is putting her house up for sale.  As soon as it sells, she will be moving back to Pennsylvania.  She will stay on our email list and send flat animals down when she can.  I will be selfish and hope it takes a while for her house to sell.  We will miss her.

Show and Tell: 

Louise Stem made 5 pillowcases from fabric she got at Mic’s house in the last giveaway

Ceal Pedersen showed the cats and dinos she finished this week.

Pat Pipa finished several pillowcases, using fabric Laura Tomich gave us before she moved.

Donna Rissman handed in several animals to be stuffed.

Diane Placek made a backpack and pencil case for her church’s back to school drive.

Ellen Hein showed the quilts she finished the binding on this week and several quilt tops she made (including backing).

 This one came from Anne Knoff.

Ellen made this one.

Ellen handed this one, and the next 2, with backing, for me to quilt.

There was lots of toy stuffing and quilt making during the rest of the afternoon.  Everyone got a chance to look though the donations again. I also brought the cotton batting for anyone who wanted to make kennel quilts.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - August 12, 2026

This week we only had 7 of us at our meeting.   Several of our members are dealing with health issues and August is a big travel month.  Smaller groups make it easier for me to join in the conversations, so it’s all good.

I had a few announcements about club members. 

Mic’s knee replacement has been rescheduled for 8/18, so it will be into September before she can join us.

Laura Tomich’s health challenges have continued.  She was in the hospital again.  Her family has convinced her to move to Houston, TX, where all her family can visit her.  She called me and asked me to pick up some pillowcase sets from her bedroom at Watercrest.  These are available for anyone who would like to finish them.  Her son was there packing her belongings for the move when I arrived last Friday.  In addition to picking up the pillowcase fabric, I left the pincushion gift that I made for her.  She was also one of the original Sewing N More members.

A celebration of Life will be held for Mary Kalow on September 26.  It will begin at 1:00pm at the New Covenant United Methodist Church.  A reception will follow at Laurel Manor.

I encourage you to continue making Kennel quilts, if you can.  This is a good way to use up leftover fabric.  Whenever there is an emergency situation somewhere in the U.S., local animal shelters can post their address on www.kennelquilts.com under Current Needs, so anyone can find out where to send the quilts.  I have a note to myself to bring cotton batting for these quilts next week, as well as another box of fiber fill.

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly showed a bunch of doll clothes she made this week.

Pat Pipa made 2 fidget mats

Donna Rissman showed 2 pillows she made.

Ceal Pedersen showed the cats she made this week.

Ellen Hein showed the quilts she finished the binding on this week. 

There were 3 turned in for quilting by Anne Knoff

 and 1 denim quilt that Ellen made.

I showed a chenille quilt I finished

 and some baseball themed pillowcases I made for my niece,

who is coming to visit next week. (I made 4 with the ball and bat fabric for the body and 6 with the orange body.  The cuffs are baseball game tickets.)

The main activities today were stuffing dog beds and stuffing some toys that B.J. sent.  I put out some 5”, 6.5; and 10” squares, plus some fabric that was donated last week.  Since no one brought a sewing machine today, I brought all the dog beds home to sew closed. 

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - August 5, 2026

 There were 10 of us this afternoon.  Last week I sent 36 kennel quilts to an animal shelter in Appleton, WI. In case you didn’t hear about it, severe storms and tornadoes in that area last week caused widespread damage. Whenever there is an emergency situation somewhere in the U.S., local animal shelters can post their address on www.kennelquilts.com under Current Needs, so anyone can find out where to send the quilts.  I checked this afternoon again, and in addition to Wisconsin, there is now a need posted for Washington state, due to the fires there.   Please keep making these little quilts and I will continue to send them wherever they are needed.

I shared an idea I had for organizing fabric for future projects.  The wine bags you get when you buy wine from a grocery store have 4 sections.  Each of these can easily hold 1-2 yards of fabric, so they are great for organizing fabric for 3- and 4-yard quilts. In one bag I was able to place 3 1-yard fabrics plus fabric for a potential backing.  I tend to collect fabric for future projects and don’t have enough project bags for all of them.  I am saving my project bags for projects I have started cutting, and am using wine bags for the ones that are just ideas in my head.

 

Show and Tell:

Louise Stem showed a pillowcase she made this week.

Ceal Pedersen showed the cats she made this week.

Ellen Hein showed the quilts she finished the binding on this week. 

There was one made by Donna Rissman 

and one by Carolyn Grasso.  

She also showed 2 quilt tops that she handed in, including backing,

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects.  A lot of fabric scraps made their way to us this week. Several ladies worked on filling dog bed sleeves but there is more than what could be filled this afternoon. I put some of it in the closet and took the rest home. I will try to make some more dog bed sleeves before our next meeting.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - July 29, 2026

Once again there were 12 regulars this afternoon, but we also welcomed a new member, Lynn Wright.  She is an experienced sewer and will fit right in with our group.

There were no announcements so went straight to show and tell.

Show and Tell: 

Bev Minnerly, Pat Pipa, Donna Rissman, and Diane Placek all made kennel quilts.   I will hand them in on Tuesday. (I checked and the current need is in Wisconsin)

Bev

Donna

Pat

Diane

Ceal Pedersen handed in this week’s menagerie.

Elephant made by Diane

Fish and Small Bears

Cats

Dino & Cat

Louise Stem made some pillowcases and an apron. 

She also updated us on her progress making the reusable menstrual pads.  She is making 12 kits, with 8 pads in each.

Ellen Hein showed the quilts she finished the binding on this week.

 

Donna Rissman made this one.

Eileen DiSanto made the center of this one.  I added the gold and blue borders to make the the right size for Honor Flight.

I think this one came from Allamanda.

I'm not sure who made this one.

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects. Mic and Ellen continued their efforts to organize our storage.  They consolidated some fabric and got rid of things we really don’t need.  Our shelves keep looking better.

Have fun sewing this week.  I’m looking forward to seeing your creations next week, as always

Lois