Club Notes - March 18, 2026

There were 12 of us at today’s meeting, including 1 potential new member. The maintenance people still have not gotten whatever it is that they need to finish the cabinet project, so we are still missing some of our tables to work on.

There were no other announcements today. 

Show and Tell:

Louise Stem made 6 more pillowcases for us to choose from for the Ranch graduates.

Janet Murtaugh made a bunch of toys to be stuffed, and showed a simple Easter craft called boo-boo bunny.  It is made starting with a washcloth.  Janet will demo this next week.

Robin Barrack showed 2 sets of pillowcases.

Ceal Pedersen showed 16 more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us.

Ellen Hein showed a twin-size quilt top.

I showed the tote I made from last week’s demo.  This one was made using 38  6.5” squares and some firm Pelon fusible interfacing.  I think I will add another row next time I make one, to make it a little deeper.

I also showed a quilt I made (for myself), using Gnome panels. If you zoom in, you will see that each gnome around the border is holding a little animal (stuffy?).

We are trying to use as many of the squares as possible, so I encouraged everyone to take some of the squares home and make a tote or quilt top.  The squares are also available for any other charity project.

I had planned to show how we can make draw string backpacks using squares, but the week got away from me. I’ll schedule this for a future week.  The Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch will appreciate these for the summer camp kids.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - March 11, 2026

There were 13 of us at today’s meeting, including 1 new member. Today’s challenge was space.  The building maintenance crew are doing something with the cabinets in the room, and the pottery club had to remove everything from the cabinets.  The Maintenance crew discovered they were missing something and had to stop work until those parts arrived. As a result, several tables were full of stuff and unavailable for our use, including 2 near the outlets.  Fortunately, we were able to work around it today, and hopefully it will be back to normal next week.

I talked a little about last Saturday’s Notions Sale.  There was so much for sale in that room that we had lots of competition and did not do well.  It is not worth our pursuing again.  We have always done better in the craft sales where we can sell finished items.  The next ones will be the Quilt Guild Craft Sale and The Villages Craft Sale.  Both sales are in October (dates TBD).   I am no longer able to manage the process of collecting and tracking the items to be sold and getting there to do the setup early in the morning.   If anyone is willing to be the craft sale “chair” for the fall, please let me know.  This can be a team of 2 or 3.   I will be available to give advice and assist.  You can choose to do one or both of the sales and I will pay the table fees out of club funds.  If no one volunteers we will have to pass on these fund raisers.

Show and Tell:

Janet Murtaugh showed 2 quilt tops for children.

Ceal Pedersen showed some more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us,

and 2 quilts she made for next weekend's craft sale.

Bev Minnerly made 2 “cats” 

and some doll clothes.

Donna Rissman showed several quilts from Moyer Quilters, and a dog bed.

Eileen DiSanto cut out and sewed some critters, to be stuffed.

Ellen Hein showed her finished Veteran’s hospice quilt tops. 

She also handed in one more for me to quilt.

This week I explained how to make a tote out of any size squares.  You need 19 squares for the outside of the tote and can either use 19 more squares of the same size or a piece of fabric for the lining.  Batting, fusible fleece, or other stiffener is recommended, but it is ok to make a “loose tote” if desired.  The pattern is attached.

 We are trying to use as many of the squares as possible, so I encouraged everyone to take some of the squares home and try this.  The squares are also available for any other charity project.

Next week I will show how we can make draw string backpacks using squares.   The Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch will appreciate these for the summer camp kids.

 

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - March 4, 2026

There were 12 of us at today’s meeting. We thought we would be back to normal today, but instead we had a temporary scare.  Eric met me with the information that our green bin with all out rotary cutters, scissors, small rulers, table risers, and patterns was missing.  He searched the entire building and could not find it.  Luckily, Janet Murtaugh decided not to give up.  She spotted something that looked like scissors on the floor under a different set of shelves and discovered that our bin was there.  It was hidden behind several other boxes in a section of the closet that does not belong to us.  We all breathed a sigh of relief.

Show and Tell:

Janet Murtaugh showed some stuffed dog toys.  She also brought some cigar boxes to offer for sale to our group before they are sold on Saturday.

Ceal Pedersen showed some more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us. 

She also showed a quilt she made.

Eileen DiSanto cut out and sewed some critters, to be stuffed.

Isabella O’Brien Showed how she is making progress sewing our 4” squares into quilts.

 

Ellen Hein showed her latest Veteran’s hospice quilt top.

This Saturday, March 7^th  is the Quilter’s Closet & Notions Sale at La Hacienda. 8:30am-12:30pm.   Caroline Grasso, Roxann Wales and Isabella O’Brien have volunteered to help. Come out and check out the bargains.

The  All Florida Shop Hop started on March 1^st and will run through the end of April.  I stopped at the Sewing Studio of Lady Lake after the meeting today and they had the special shop hop fabric plus lots of sales.  Purchase the magazine at one of our local shops to get free patterns and the official passport needed to register for prizes. There are prizes given at the shops plus regional and all Florida prizes. This is a fun way to get to know the area shops.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - February 25, 2026

We finally had our winter potluck party today. There were 19 of us enjoying the food, friends, and games.  I gave everyone a sewing multiple choice quiz, and I think everyone learned a little something.

Show and Tell:

Mary Ellen Boutin started us off.  She made some zipper pouches,

 a tote with a matching zipper bag, 

and a small quilt top using one of our orphan blocks.

Ceal Pedersen showed some more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us.

Louise Stem made 4 more pillowcases for the Youth Ranch graduates.

Bev Minnerly showed some of the doll clothes she made.

Nelda Keltner has dived into our efforts and made some stuffed animals.

Lisa Strahs-Lorenc made some doll medical gowns,  and was proud to show the first walker bag she made.

Next we ate some more and played Sewing Bingo

Thanks to everyone for helping the clean-up..

The next events that I am aware of are the following:

March 7^th  - Quilter’s Closet & Notions Sale at La Hacienda. 8:30am-12:30pm.   Caroline Grasso, Roxann Wales and Isabella O’Brien have volunteered to help.  If anyone else can spare an hour or 2 to help, let me know.

March 1-April30 All Florida Shop Hop.  Purchase the magazine at one of our local shops to get free patterns and the official passport needed to register for prizes. There are prizes given at the shops plus regional and all Florida prizes. This is a fun way to get to know the shops.

Last week we gave 39 more toys to the UF Villages Hospital Auxiliary and 11 walker bags to Freedom Point Assisted Living.   

Next week we will get back to our regular sewing fun.   It is the last week before the Quilters Closet sale, so if you have any tools, books or other items you want to get rid of, bring them and we will add them to our sale.  Proceeds go to our charity fund.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois