Sewing N More 1st Annual Holiday Party

What a great turnout, and all the delicious food!! We had a wonderful variety of food to nibble on, including Marie Bray's "tipsy cake".  So sorry Marie couldn't stay, but she wasn't feeling her best and didn't want to give what she had to the rest of us.   Mary Naziewicz also made a beautiful coffee cake dessert in the shape of a Christmas tree.  I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of it, it was so beautifully done.

I want to thank all of you wonderful ladies for the generous gift cards.  I haven't decided what to use them for yet, but it will be something special.  As I said to the group yesterday, I could not have wished for a better group of ladies to join the club I started last June.  I was a little apprehensive about starting a new craft club last Spring, but you all have been so helpful and supportive, you make my job much easier and the club so much fun.  I look forward to being with you all each week.

After our first round of eating lunch, we had a great turnout for show and tell

Susie Pendry showed an embroidered applique she made and sewed onto a tote bag.  The applique is of Santa in a blue mini cooper, with Merry Christmas around it.  Beautiful job.

Linda Lynch showed off her Christmas present, a travel vest from the company SCOTTeVEST, with loads of pockets for all her travel needs.

Lu Karatzas showed a card holder she made that has room for cards and even some cash.

Jane Motrinec showed a beautiful bargello Christmas table runner.

Pat Pipa showed 2 tissue holders and 2 mini-purses she completed.

Bev Minnerly made a bunch of small zipper bags for her grandchildren.

Linda Parr has been having lots of fun embroidering fun sayings on toilet paper to give as gifts.


She also showed a Christmas table runner.  This is a work in progress which she said would be finished by the end of the day.

Donna Rissman showed off her embroidered Christmas shirt and her FINISHED casserole carrier. 😊

Mary Nazgiewicz made a large blanket for her daughter's large dog.


















Audrey Philips made a bunch of gingerbread man pencil toppers for her grandchild's class in Germany, where they are stationed at an Air Force base.

She also showed a Dollar Store Christmas stocking that she embroidered by opening the seam (which she will later reclose).

She also shared a Christmas purse that she made in the Embroidery hoop last Christmas.

Marti Rhyne shared her fun embroidered Christmas t-shirt.

 
I had fun last week embroidering the front and back of t-shirts for Christmas and New Year's Eve.

I also showed a bag I finished after embroidering the 27 blocks over the past few months and finally putting it together with the lining.

After Show and Tell we played 2 trivia games, one about Christmas trees and the other about Christmas songs.  Although most of the ladies got the answers easily, only two ladies got all the answers right for each quiz, and it wasn't the same two!  

I gave out one special prize to Eileen DiSanto for being the person (besides myself) who has attended the most club meetings since we began.

Then we played 4 rounds of Christmas themed Bingo, with prizes to the winners of each round.  Of course, we continued to nibble on the great food and desserts throughout.  

I think everyone had a good time, I know I did.

There will be no meeting next week as everyone enjoys the holiday week celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah (or both), and New Year's Eve.   Our next meeting will be on January 4th in our temporary location in the Beach Club room at El Santiago.  I will send out a separate email reminder on that.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Blessed Christmas or Hanukkah and a very happy New Year.

Club Notes - Dec 14, 2016

As expected for December, we had light attendance today, but lots of fun.  We welcomed new member and old friend, Marie Bray.  She is back in the Villages for her annual retreat from the English winter.

Lu Karatzas led today's demo of little bags to hold your phone, id, gate pass, keys, and a lttle cash or credit card when youo don't want to carry a full purse.  This was a great, easy, quick project and I saw a bunch of them completed this afternoon.


Show and Tell

Pat Pipa showed her completed horse ornament.





































Eileen DiSanto made two fleece blankets as gifts for two little girls in her family.



Lu Karatzas showed her completed horse ornament and a bunch of the little tissue cases she made as gifts.

























Donna Rissman took a plain shirt and appliques a fabric panel on the front and some bling around the collar.   She also showed a microwave bowl holder she made in the little time before our meeting started today.

 Last Friday and Saturday Sharky's Vac N Sew sponsored a Floriani Workshop just south of the Villages and I attended along with a number of ladies we know.   There were 3-4 people at each sewing machine and 6 projects over the 2 days, so each person got to take home 2 of the completed projects.  I showeda personalized phone charger holder for traveling, and a banner that says "Love of Sewing" (which my husband wants to hang in my sewing room.)

After 2 days of embroidery, I spent Sunday finishing a couple of my UFOs.

The first was a snowman tissue box cover.

The other was 2 sided autumn quilt that i stated in September and had hoped to finish by Halloween.  As usual, life and other projects got in the way, but at least it's ready for next year.

A suggestion was made that we might be able to use this blog to share items we want to sell, trade, or are looking for.  Members present thought this was a good idea, so I will accept these kinds of notices and post them on the blog.   They will be in separate posts, with a heading saying they are "Personal Ads" and wil indicate who to contact.

Don't forget, next week is our holiday party.  There will be no project, but show and tell items are always welcome.  There will be plenty of food and fun games.  Bring 25 pennies or buttonsor other tokens to use for marking Bingo cards.

Club Notes - December 7, 2016

We had a small turnout today, but still lots of fun.  I know many of you are traveling this month and we miss you, but hope you are enjoying your holiday travels and visits.

I hope everyone saw the article in Monday's Daily Sun, written by reporter Ciara Varone.  She did a beautiful job documenting the joint efforts of the MEQ, Busy Hands Happy Hearts, and our club to provide gifts for the foster children managed by Life Stream. I estimated that our club alone provided over 250 items.

On Monday my husband and I also delivered 43 walker bags and 21 fidget quilts to the Ocala Oaks rehab center, and 2 twin quilts, 3 baby quilts, 5 fleece blankets, and a large bag of soaps and shampoos to the Ocala Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Shelter.

Show and Tell:


Lu Karatzas' husband was under the weather this week, and as a result, she spent a lot of time in her sewing room.

First, she showed us 8 tissue cases she made for grandchildren.  Along with the tissues, she plans to insert gift cards for Christmas.


Next she showed a table runner she made using chalkboard fabric.  When giving a buffet, she can write the name or info about each dish on the chalkboard and place the dish next to it.  What a great, creative idea!


Then, because last week we talked about teaching how to crochet at a uture meeting, she brought in all the items she crocheted for family members for Christmas, including a scarf fora granddaughter and a matching scarf and sweater for her teddy bear.  (One of our charity teddy bears volunteered to model it for us

Brenda Severa embroidered several towels with Christmas sayings, two as gifts, and one for herself.




Eileen DiSanto finished three more cute teddy bears.

Nella Rose, always bashful about showing her work, was finally convinced to show the blouse and sweater she was wearing.  She did a beautiful job appliqueing Christmas designs on them.  She also made a cute pin cushion for Eileen DiSanto.


Pat Pipa showed 2 wine glass coasters she made.  These are great ideas, since the bottom of the wine glass slips inside the coaster and not only protects your furniture, but also identifies which glass is yours.

Jane Swafford  made 2 baby blankets and a cute Little girl's pillowcase.








She also brought 3 teddy bears that her sister Sue Campbell made, since Sue couldn't be with us this week.

 I was a little busy this week, but did manage to make a sample of today's project, the little wine cork horse ornament.


Five of the ladies took on the challenge and made their horses during the meeting, and a few others said they will be making them at home.  I home to see a herd of horses come in for show and tell next week.

Several ladies also helped me sort through some fabric donations we have received and to cut up some of the heavier fabrics into dog bed sizes.  These were divided up and four ladies each took some to sew up.  We'll have plenty of recepticals for all the scraps we continue to get.

Next week Lu will be leading a demo for little wallets (for when you only want to bring your id and a little money and keys).  I will send out your supply list in afew days, once I get itg from Lu.

Have a great week all.

Blog Notes - November 30, 2016

We delayed the start of our meeting on Wednesday so Ciara Varone (Daily Sun Reporter) could interview a few of our members and take some photos of all the gifts.

You guys are all terrific.  Between things we made and items we bought, over 250 gifts for the Life Stream foster kids were turned in yesterday.  This morning Mary Nazgiewicz and I delivered them and Ciara Varone (Daily Sun Reporter) met us there to complete her article.  The staff was very appreciative.  They had a little 2 yr old girl in their care today, so they asked if we could take one of the stuffed animals and give it to her.  They picked out the little donkey that Jane Motrinec made and handed it to me to give to the little girl.  She looked shy, a little scared, and very unsure of her surroundings, but gave us a smile after a minute. It's heartbreaking to see a cute little girl like that with no one to care for her, but the staff ladies were giving her all the love and comfort they could.

I asked them to let me know if they needed anything more for any specific age groups once they have gone through all the donations.  They said that one thing that they can always use to give to the kids are pillows.  Not pillow cases, but a small pillow of their own that they can take with them. Somehow, this provides a little bit of comfort as they get shuffled from place to place.  This does not have to be a Christmas gift, but they can use these all year long as kids come into the system.   So maybe this is a project we can take on next year.  

Show and Tell:

Ellen Hein made a bunch of t-shirts for the foster kids. She does such a great job on these, you would think they were purchased in a clothing store.

Eileen Navikas took the backpack pattern and added her flare by using purple straps and casing, and painting purple on the fabric with fabric paint.

She also made a stuffed horse for the kids and a lovely pink baby quilt and a second solid pink quilt with her leftover fabric.

Finally, she showed a drier sheet quilt she completed.












Roberta Kelsey showed a great scrappy quilt she finished, with a beautiful rose backing.


















She also brought in some cute placemats she made and a stuffed teddy bear.











Mary Nazgiewicz showed a 4-way placemat she got from a neighbor. She'll be doing a demo of how to do this next Spring.












Lu Karatzas made two zip loc totes, and brought more cosmetic bags, a crocheted scarf and hat for the kids.










Kathy Jones and Jane Motrinec each came in with a whole menagerie of stuffed animals.

Eileen DiSanto cut out a bunch of stuffed animal pieces and asked for help from the group to embroider faces and stuff them once she sewed them.   She wants to convey her thanks to all the ladies who chipped in to this effort.  Every one of the stuffed animals were completed and will go to the foster kids.

Brenda Severa made several blankets, one with matching pillowcase, and a scrappy quilt using telephone book pages as the base.  

To get the angled block look, she cut her base pages square, then started each block the same way we have been doing the dryer sheet blocks, only always starting with a white strip down the center.  She cut all her strips the same width to get this lovely pattern.


She completed the quilting with stitch in the ditch, followed by some machine embroidered patterns.

Diane Placek showed a potholder she made in a class.













Donna Rissman showed mini folded fabric Christmas trees, small and large microwave bowls, and coasters made in the shape of mittens, 

I finished 6 more backpacks for the kids and made 2 Christmas pot holders to give as gifts.

Linda Parr led this week's demo, showing us how to make a tissue pack holder. This is a great, easy project that can be finished in 15 minutes, so it is a great gift idea.  (I even managed to make 2 of them during the meeting.)

Next week we will make little horse ornaments.   I will send out the pattern and supply list in a later email.  I have most of the materials we'll need, but you will probably want to bring your own tools. (hot glue gun, knife that will cut through cork).   

Hope to see you all next week.