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

Florida Sheriffs' Youth Ranch Graduates 2026

 For the last 4 years we have been making gifts for the young men and women who graduate high school at the Sheriffs' Youth Ranch. We give each graduate a duffle bag, a quilt, 2 pillowcases, and a couple of small zipper bags.  This year we received photos of the graduates and thank you cards.  Rather than trying to send them in an email, I am sharing these with you here.

Akacia

Braydon

Harper

Jahniya

Jed

Jude

Kingston

Maddy

Shaylyn

Shirley

Tanika

Club Notes - July 8, 2026

There were 12 of us at today’s meeting.  There were no announcements, so we dived right into show and tell.

Show and Tell: 

Ceal Pedersen was first with one bear and another dozen stuffed dinosaurs.

Pat Pipa made a fidget quilt and two scarves.

Eileen DiSanto also made a scarf.

Louise Stem has started on this Christmas’ supply of reusable menstrual pads for girls.  She has already cut fabric for 120.

Donna Rissman showed a quilt she finished.

Ellen Hein made 5 sets of receiving blankets and burps pads, plus 7 extra burp pads.

I made 6 scarves with embroidery on the ends and 1 fidget quilt.

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects. 

Eileen DiSanto received a request from her neighbor to make a tablecloth and Ceal helped her throughout the afternoon.  I continued cutting fabric for an ambitious paper pieced quilt I am planning.  It’s a big project, so I don’t expect to finish it until 2027.

Candy Dodge came with her daughter and granddaughter about midway through the afternoon.  Her granddaughter is participating in a children’s craft sale at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, and she has made a pile of pillowcases to sell.  The last step was to iron them, and they made use of our 2 ironing boards to get it done. 

I am still encouraging you to make items for our charities, especially if you can use some of the fabric that has been donated to us.  Last week I took the box of 8.5” squares home and sorted them by color family.  I was able to put together sets of 40 squares which can be used to easily put together a small quilt (40’ x 48”).  If you combine one of these sets with 40 neutral squares, you can make a 64” x 80” quilt.  I have a lot of white and off-white fabric.  If anyone wants to tackle one of these and would like me to cut some of these into squares, just say the word.

Other items you can make for our charities are:

kennel quilts, receiving blankets, burp pads, fidget quilts, walker bags, fidget walker bags, scarves, shawls, children’s and twin quilts, veteran’s hospice quilts, honor flight quilts, pillowcases, toys, draw-string backpacks, and dog beds.

Take your pick.  It’s all good.

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - July 1, 2026

There were 7 of us at today’s meeting.  Another hot day, plus many ladies are away for the holiday.  I announced that we have donated over $25,000 worth of items so far this year.

We received thank you notes from some of the Sheriffs Youth Ranch Graduates, and I read them to the group. I hope to scan these and send them out in a separate email.

We received a request from the Chaplin of Leesburg Hospital for scarves, fidget quilts, and shawls for seriously ill and terminal patients.  To clarify, the fidget quilts are the mat style, not walker bags.  Donna Rissman gave me some fleece for the scarves.  I cut this into 7” by 50” strips and asked Bev to serge the edges to give them a more finished look.  I also cut several cotton fabrics into about 16” by 42” strips.  These can be sewn RST to make 8” wide scarves. I plan to sew a few of these before next week.  If you have any suitable fabric, please make some scarves or fidget quilts.

Show and Tell: 

Pat Pipa made 2 fidget quilts and some dinos to be stuffed.

Eileen DiSanto showed a patriotic quilt she made.

Ceal Pedersen made a large batch of stuffed dinosaurs

Bev Minnerly showed the doll clothes she made this week.

Mic Pickard decorated a shirt with her ruffler

 and made a boxy bag for her daughter.

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects. 

Mic is going to have knee surgery at the beginning of August, so she will be unable to come to meetings or make any deliveries for that month.  If you have dog bed scraps, please make the dog beds at home or hold the scraps at least until September.

See you next week.

Lois