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

 

Club Notes - June 24, 2026

There were 10 of us at today’s meeting.  I think the heat may have kept some away.

We didn’t have any announcements today.  I picked up a bunch of specialty rulers from the give-away table at Alamanda yesterday and offered them to anyone who wanted them.  I was happy to see all but one gone at the end of the meeting.

Amazon had 5-lb boxes of fiber fill on sale last week, so I got 4 boxes.  I brought some of that in today and put out the toy patterns and fabric scraps.   We can always use more toys.

Show and Tell: 

Melanie Konopka showed 3 quilts she made with fabric from her mother's stash.

 The first one used fabric with hogs (pigs) and cats on Hogs (motorcycles).

The 2^nd had lots of cats, front and back.  

(back)

The 3^rd is a geometric design.

Ceal Pedersen made a large batch of stuffed dinosaurs

Carolyn Grasso showed a quilt top she made for her uncle

Eileen St. Clair showed 2 quilt tops she made.

Louise Stem made 2 pillowcases to go with the quilts for next year’s graduates.

Diane Placek showed a stained glass quilt she made for her church group.

(back)

Eileen DiSanto showed a quilt she made from the dryer sheet and strips method we have worked on in the past, 

and a patriotic quilt top.

Pat Pipa made 3 pillowcases.

I showed a small quilt I made with 4 paper-pieced log cabin blocks at the center.

We spent the rest of the afternoon as usual, chatting and working on various projects.  I love seeing the finished results.

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes June 17, 2026

There were 14 of us celebrating our club’s 10^th anniversary today.  We had lots of good food and fun.

I started with a couple of announcements while everyone was eating.

B.J. Herter is Going to miss the next 8 meetings, since she has pulmonary rehab appointments scheduled.

Laura Tomich is currently in Freedom Point rehab. When she is released from there she will move into Watercrest Independent Living on Rt 466. I asked her to send me her new address so we can keep in touch.

Sew Together quilt shop has finally announced their move.  They are moving online and will not have a physical store.  The web address is Sewtogetherfabrics.com.

Happy birthday Eileen DiSanto.  Her birthday was yesterday, 6/16.

I asked Wayne Witczak for a preliminary estimate of how many kids are scheduled to graduate from the Sheriffs Youth Ranch next year.  The current estimate is 7 graduated in 2027.

Show and Tell: 

Bev Minnerly showed the latest doll clothes she made..

Ceal Pedersen showed her latest batch of stuffed toys.

Ellen Hein made 10 sets of receiving blankets and burp pads, plus 1 extra burp pad. She also showed her completed denim quilt.

Mic Pickard added ruffles to the collar and bottom of a t-shirt.  She said she hadn’t used a ruffler foot for a long time and had to relearn how to attach it and use it.  It came out great.

 

After show and tell, I talked about the club’s beginnings.  The following ladies attended the very first meeting on June 15, 2016.  (Note: names with * indicate they are still members, d indicates deceased.)

Eileen DiSanto*, Pat Pipa*, Mary Kahlow*, Diane Placek*, Kathy Jones, Jane Motrinec, Kathy Nichols, Susie Pendry, Carol Riggs, Chris Leedy, Nita Hand(d), Linda Lynch(d), Jane Swafford (d}, and me.

Six more came the 2^nd week:

Sue Campbell*, Donna Rissman*, Kathy Franklin, Susan Morris, Marty Rhyne, and Sheddy Reese

B.J. Herter* and Bev Minnerly* came to the third meeting.

Audrey Phillips* and her daughter Lynn DelGado*, Ellen Hein* and Lu Karatzas* joined by the end of summer.

We had a lot of other ladies come and go, but the 12 stared above have stuck with me for all 10 years. I made a little gift for each of them to thank them for staying with the club.  Mic Pickard joined us when she moved to The Villages in 2017 and has been an invaluable helper, so I gave her a thank you gift too.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of sewing and U.S. history trivia, and several games of BINGO.

Next week we will be back to sewing fun.  We are out of stuffing again, so I will bring another box next week.  We will put out the fabric for toys.  There is a constant need for the toys we make, receiving blankets, burp pads, children’s quilts, Hospice quilts(40x40), Honor Flight quilts(40x60), kennel quilts(12x18), walker bags, zipper bags, and drawstring backpacks.  I will never tell you what to make, but if you can make any of the above items, they will be greatly appreciated by our charities.  If you need patterns, just ask.  I have most of our patterns on my computer and can quickly email any that you request.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois