Club Notes - Jan 18th, 2017

Hi everyone.  I hope you are all enjoying winter in Florida. 

I said at the beginning of this club that we would charge a $10 initial membership fee only, and that I would reassess our financial situation every 6 months to make sure this is sufficient to cover our club supplies.  I am happy to report that this financial model is holding up fine and no additional funds are required yet.  Our 50/50s for party prizes worked fine so I think if we ever need any additional funds beyond membership fees I will use this method. For now, we have enough in our club treasury to take care of any expenses that might come up, and I think we have a reasonable supply of cutting boards, tools, irons, etc. on hand.  If there is anything you think we need to make our projects easier, please feel free to come to me with suggestions.

I have also decided to open the club back up to new members.  During the past 6 months we have never had more than 25 people show up at a time and everyone does not bring a sewing machine, so I think we have room to welcome new members.  I'll keep an eye on this as time goes on.

Updates on our absent members: Nita Hand's hip is healing nicely but she has caught a bad cold.  B.J. Herter is also suffering from a bad cold or allergy she picked up around Christmas.  Chris Leady's foot surgery is healing OK, but she still can't put weight on the foot. Susie Pendry had gall bladder surgery last week, but she is doing OK.  Our thoughts and prayers are with all of them and we hope they will be able to join us again soon.

Project of the Week

Pat Pipa led a great hand embroidery exercise yesterday, showing us how to do some basic hand embroidery stitches.  He also handed out a little project kit for each person to make a little needle case.  15 ladies showed up and all attempted the project, including a few who I know avoid hand sewing at all costs.  

After Pat's demo I set up my sewing machine with the embroidery attachment and showed how that works.  I choose a simple pattern that just quilts the back of a credit card holder to explain how to load the pattern, the stabilizer, hooping, and running the stitches.

We also had a lady from Cornerstone Hospice come to pick up the 4 hospice quilts that have been handed in over the past 2 months.  She asked if she could take a picture of the ladies in our club with the quilts and use it for some publicity.  All the ladies who were still in the room gathered for the photo and she took down all our names.  In addition to internal publicity, she hopes to get it into the Daily Sun and she interviewed me about our club.

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly started us off with a wheelchair lap quilt for the honor flight.   I like the corner shapes made for a wheelchair.

Donna Rissman showed a pillowcase and quilt for her grandson with an astronaut theme. She wasn't sure how to quilt a panel this big, but wound up quilting the astronaut and it came out beautiful.

Mary Nazgiewicz, Pat Pipa and I all showed wreaths we completed after the Jan 4th project demo.

It's nice how each of us picked a different theme. Mary's was Valentines, Pat's was St Patrick's, and mine was to fill in the January gap between holidays.

Pat also finished crocheting a sweater for her dog before the end of the meeting.

Eileen DiSanto showed a blanket she made for the Ocala shelter from fabrics donated to out club.

In keeping with today's embroidery theme, Nella Rose showed a red work wall hanging.

Faux Chenille Quilt

I showed 2 little bags I made on my embroidery machine, my embroidered t-shirt, my January fabric squares wreath, and 3 quilts that were in my UFO pile and are now finished.

Honor Flight Quilt

Charity Quilt

Reminder: NO MEETING JANUARY 25th

Our next meeting is Feb 1st and Kathy Nichols will be leading the fabric on a plate project.  When you get a chance, go to the dollar store and get a plain white plate for this project.  I'll send out more info on this next week.