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

 

Club Notes - July 22, 2026

The same faithful dozen ladies came out this afternoon.  The smaller meetings are nice in the summer; we get to know each other better.  I still look forward to our snowbirds and snowflakes returning with the cooler weather in the fall.

Melanie came with a bag of precuts to share.  I am told the fabric open house went well last Sunday, with only one bin of fabric left.  Melanie said she and Mic opened another 12 bags yesterday, with another 10 to go.  Plus, Melanie’s sister is bringing several more bins soon.  Since Mic will be recovering from her knee replacement in August, the next fabric open house will have to wait until September.

Donna brought the scarves, shawls and 2 toys to the Leesburg Hospital Chaplin on Monday.  The latest feedback is that she does not want scarves after all.  She would like triangle shawls, fabric, knitted or crocheted.  She loved the toys, small quilts and fidget quilts, so we can continue making these.

My only other announcement was not sewing related.   Although I try to keep politics out of our club, I do encourage everyone to vote.  If you need to learn more about the candidates, the League of Women Voters sends questions to each candidate and posts the answers on VOTE411.org.  I encourage you to learn about the candidates here and in other ways and vote your choices.

 

Show and Tell:

Pat Pipa made a scarf.

Eileen DiSanto made 2 sets of pillowcases.

Ceal Pedersen made stuffed cats, dinosaurs and 1 bear.

Eileen St Clair finished the binding on a quilt I made 

and showed a quilt top that she is giving me to quilt.

Ellen Hein made a stack of Shawls and scarves

and a Jeans quilt top.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects.  I brought a bag full of batting scraps and several ladies matched pieces to make 12” x 18” battings for the kennel quilts.  Any that come in next week will be given to the coordinator to mail to a shelter currently rescuing pets.

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

Lois

Club Notes - July 15, 2026

There were 10 of us at today’s meeting.  Donna Rissman brought a cheesecake to celebrate my birthday (7/14) and her birthday (7/16).  We also learned that Ellen’s birthday was 7/11. 

Sadly, I let everyone know that Mary Kahlow passed away yesterday.  She was an original member of the Sewing N More club and a current co-president of Allamanda Quilters. She had been fighting cancer over the past year, and finally succumbed, dying peacefully in her sleep.

On a brighter note, last winter we gave 50+ stuffed toys to the Lake Panasoffkee United Methodist Church ministries, so I reached out to see if they would like some more. I got an enthusiastic yes.  We have over 50 dinos and only a few other toys. I’m putting aside half of the dinos for the Villages Hospital. It would be nice to see some cats and bears to send to the church for their Christmas gift collection. My contact from Lake Panasoffkee said she could come pick them up on 7/28, so if you can make any by next week it would be great.

There will be another fabric give-away at Mic’s house next Sunday.  I will send out a separate email with the details so you can forward it to anyone else who might be interested.  There is A LOT of fabric, mostly in 3 yard cuts.

Show and Tell:

Donna Rissman showed some scarves she made.

Bev Minnerly surged some scarves that I cut out. a

She is also working on a shawl, just deciding what type of closure to add.

She also shows a doll dress she made. 

Louise Stem made a pillowcase 

and showed her progress on this Christmas’ supply of reusable menstrual pads for girls. 

Ceal Pedersen made some more stuffed dinosaurs

Pat Pipa made a shawl and a scarf.

Diane Placek made a toy fish 

and an elephant.

I showed a scrappy quilt, 

4 embroidered scarves, 

and a bargello/bicycle row by row I finished. 

Ellen Hein made 10 sets of receiving blankets and burps pads, plus 9 extra burp pads, and 2 shawls.

Ellen and Eileen St Clair showed the quilts they finished the binding on.

Ellen made this one.

I made the next 3

This one was donated. It was already sandwiched and basted, with some embroidery.  I just finished the quilting  before handing it over to Ellen and Eileen for binding.

I'm not sure, but I think this one came from Allamanda.

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects.  I hope the heat lets up soon and more of our members venture out.  Hope to see you next week.

Lois