Club Notes - Sept 27, 2017

We welcomed Kandie Stedman back to our group this week.  New member Lynn Kluczynski has also just about settled into her new home and was able to join us again.  B.J. Herter, Jane Stafford, Sue Campbell,  Lu Karatzas, and Van Hathaway are all still missing with various health issues.  We miss you all and hope you will be well enough to join us again soon.

Kandie told us about an opportunity to get a grant for $250 to work on a charity project as a group.  The web site explaining the grant can be found at https://www.thrivent.com/making-a-difference/living-generously/thrivent-action-teams/.  Kandie thought we could submit a project proposal for work on a project such as quilts for veterans.  I'm thinking that the Hospice Veterans quilts might be easy enough for us to do since they only require eight 12"  blocks for each quilt, plus the center block that Hospice provides.  We could pick a simple design that everyone could do.  I will send out a separate email polling for this.

Show and Tell:

Lynn Kluczynski was up first, showing a couple of mondo bags and a row by row pattern tote bag she "corrected" and finished.


(We talked about making mondo bags as a group project.  I will send out a separate email to gage interest in this, since it would involve purchase of the special interfacing.)

Nella Rose began by showing how she put some of the scrap strips together to make a Log Cabin block.  She is planning to make several of these.

Then she showed some squares she put together using the web method I showed last week.  She plans to add to this to make it into a good size charity quilt.




Last week several of us laid out blocks from our fabric stash into a couple of quilt designs.  I brought one set to a woman in the Allamanda quilt chapter to be sewn together.  Nella took the other set and brought this quilt top back today for me to finish.

 Bev Minnerly was busy this week.

First, she turned a piece cut off from some pants into a pair of pants for her granddaughter's doll.

Then she showed the 2 fidgit quilts she finished on the cut pieces of a quilt I gave her.



Then she showed a quilt top she started a while back and finished with borders this week.

Finally, she showed a purse she made this week.

Ellen Hein showed some pants she made for her grandson.

Marty Rhyne made a cute monkey for her new grandson and a couple of reading pillows she made for practice. (We hope she will do a demo on these pillows in the future.)

Alice  Meunier was busy this week making surgical caps for her nurse daughter.  The black one is glow-in-the-dark for Halloween and the other is for Thanksgiving.

I finished a quilt started as a project at my quilting chapter by adding to each end to make it twin size and experimenting with various quilting methods.  This will be one of the quilts going to families impacted by Irma.


I was asked who the Irma quilts will be given to.  I am still trying to make a contact, but I did send an email to the Florida disaster relief coordinator for the Salvation Army.  I have not received a response yet.

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After show and tell I explained how to make a needle wallet to keep track of what needle is in your machine and which ones you have used.   Several ladies started making them during the free sew part of our meeting.

Carol Riggs helped me with 2 quilts that  were ready to be sandwiched by ironing the top and backing and helping me pin one of them.  Some other ladies pitched in to sort fabric that was waiting.  I also put out the pillowcase fabric and 2 pillowcases were given to Carol,

It was a great meeting.  Here is a revised list of our upcoming projects:

04-Oct-17	Coin Purse	Diana Gosselin
11-Oct-17	The Wemyss School of Needlework	Sheila Hubble
18-Oct-17	Charity Projects- Stuffed Toys	Lois Rose
25-Oct-17	Halloween Pot-Luck
01-Nov-17	Adult "Lobster" Bib	Bev Minnerly
08-Nov-17	Bra Purse	Charlotte Cecilio
15-Nov-17	Charity Projects - Fidget Walker Bags	Lois Rose
22-Nov-17	NO Meeting
29-Nov-17	Snowman	Carol Riggs
06-Dec-17	Mesh Bag	Donna Rissman
13-Dec-17	Charity Projects- Pillow Cases	Lois Rose
20-Dec-17	Christmas Pot-Luck
27-Dec-17	NO Meeting

From Jan-Mar 2018 we will be alternating between El Santiago and Mulberry rec centers because our normal room was booked by a snowbird club before our club was formed. I am looking for ideas for  projects for the weeks we will at Mulberry so we don't have to bring too much of our regular equipment (ironing boards, cutting mats, etc.) there every time.  If you have an idea of a project we can do that would require less equipment, please let me know.  Non-sewing projects are welcome for these couple of weeks.  Remember, this is your club and it will always only be as good as you make it.  Our primary goal is to share what we know.  I believe every person has something they have done that they can share and I am always looking for your input.

Club Notes - Sept 20, 2917

There were no significant announcements this week.  We went right into show and tell.   I was very happy to see the number of Irma victim quilts either returned or being worked.  In addition to the ones our members are working on I was able to distribute some blocks to members of the Allamanda quilt chapter I belong to, so I'm hoping to have a good pile of quilts to send off by the end of October.

Last week it was brought to my attention that one of the fidget walker bag kits did not have the correct pieces.  I brought all the ones I had at El Santiago home and checked them and discovered I had placed the wrong pieces in a couple of them. Too many pockets and no backs. This has now been corrected and the ones we have in our storage bin all have the right pieces.  I intend to check all the kits I've put together to make sure they are all correct before I distribute any more.

Show and Tell:

 Donna Rissman helped me sort some 3.5" squares last week and she accepted my challenge to sew them together.  She showed the resulting cute quilt.

Donna also was able to retrieve her winning row by row quilt from Tomorrow's Treasures before hurricane Irma and she showed this great quilt.

Last week I distributed pieces of a quilt that had a portion cut out of it to several members. Bev Minnerly took one piece of the quilt and turned it into a great fidget quilt.  She also made 22 dryer sheet squares, which she plans to work into a quilt.

Linda Parr and Diana Gosselin each took another section of the same quilt to add binding to make them into baby quilts.

Diane Placek was stuck away from The Villages during Irma, so she used her time to visit quilt shops and make a fidget quilt.  She also brought back a bunch of finger pin cushions and offered them to anyone who wanted some.  These make great additions to fidget quilts or walker bags.

Marty Rhyne showed the racetrack mat she made on her embroidery machine and the tote bag she made for it.  Very cute.  She also shared that her 14 year old niece is learning to sew.  We love to encourage young people to learn the skills.  Marty is sending a box of supplies to get her started and asked if anyone has any extra scissors or other notions they are not using anymore that they are willing to part with, to let her know.  

Susie Pendry showed a "Mummy" doll she made at Fabric Fun and a bag she and her sister Kathy are working on.

Eileen DiSanto showed a baby blanket she made a while back and found in her stash.  She is donating it to the Irma victims.

Nella Rose finished the baby quilt I started last week.  This was a panel that was donated to us which only needed batting & backing.  I got it that far and Nella did the binding.

Ellen Hein made a pile of pillow cases for our charities, bibs, burb cloths, and no-scratch mitts for her grandchild.

Last week 2 of our newer members, Joan Blanding and Joanne Sheahan organized our completed dryer sheet blocks into piles to make 2 quilts.  I completed one over the weekend.

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Nita Hand provided our demo this week.  She showed how you can make a table runner using 2 base patterns - a leaf and a flower.  With these 2 patterns you can make a table runner or centerpieces of your own design.

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Next week Kathy Jones is scheduled to demonstrate how to make lovely ornaments with melted crayons and a clear ball.   Details will be sent in a separate email.

Club Notes - Sept 13, 2017

I was glad to see so many of you come out this afternoon.  It was good to get away from the post-Irma work and have some fun.  I brought some partially completed quilts hoping some of you would be able to finish them and was more than pleasantly surprised that they all were taken. Linda Parr, Diana Gosselin, and Nella Rose each took a baby quilt to finish, and Bev Minnerly took two remaining pieces of the cut quilt to turn into fidget quilts.

Show and Tell:

Linda Parr showed a tea towel engraved with a cardinal, a child's roadway quilt for the Foster kids organization, and a Fall quilt for us to donate to a charity.

Bev Minnerly showed the pineapple back pack she completed from last week and brought the Giving Dolls doll again (see last week's photos) to show the group.

Diana Gosselin showed 2 lovely pillows and a Halloween wall hanging.

Mary Kahlow showed a great pumpkin wall hanging.

Roberta Kelsey came with 4 pillowcases.

Nella Rose made a bag out of one of her old denim skirts and turned some denim that we couldn't use into a couple of great aprons.

Mary Nazgiwicz  made 2 great pillowcases.

Eileen DiSanto showed a snap purse she completed.

I finished 3 quick charity projects - a Hospice Veterans quilt, a child's backpack, and a fidget walker bag. 

 I also showed the machine embroidered lace sewing machine I completed over the past couple of weeks.

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After show and tell I explained what was in the boxes I brought for today's project and what needed to be done with each.  I then watched as everyone dived in to tackle one of the tasks.  Some took bags of blocks and laid them out into quilt rows.  Two ladies actually started sewing a quilt together. Several sorted the random pile of blocks by size for future quilts.  A couple of us matched sets of 4 3.5 inch blocks to be sewn together to make larger blocks.   Near the end of the meeting I got out my GO cutter and process a pile of fabric scraps into 3.5, 4.5, and 5 inch squares.  We still have lots to cut up, but today we made a huge progress in turning other people's scraps into quilts for someone in need.  Thank you all.

If any of you took blocks home to be sewn together and need some batting or backing fabric to complete the quilt, email me with the size of the quilt top and tell me what is needed to finish it.  I will see what I have in our donation stash.

Club Notes - Sep 5, 2017

Only 8 of us made it out to El Santiago this week.  I know 2 of you had good excuses - I guess the rest of you were out shopping for supplies to get you through Hurricane Irma or heading out of the state.  As for Ray and I, we have plenty of food and water so we are staying put unless authorities tell us otherwise.

The local quilt shops have all posted their sewing classes for September. Go to their web sites or visit their stores for class listings.

The Quilt Guild of the Villages has published their fliers for Marketplace 2018.  It will be held at Rohan Rec Center January 19-20, 2018.  This is a great opportunity to see sewing tools, machines, fabrics and more from the best vendors around.  It is a must see event to put on your calendars.

Carol Riggs informed me that so fr 758 pillowcases have been turned in to Ryan's Case for Smiles.  Most of these came from either Sewing N More or the Allamanda Chapter of the Villages Quilting Guild.  Last week there were 73 pillowcases turned in - 25 for the Shriners and 48 for Case for Smiles.  Another 7 came in this week for the kids.  This doesn't count the adult pillowcases I have been bringing to the Ocala Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Shelter.  I delivered 15 to them last week and received another 5 today.  

Show and Tell:

Low attendance did not diminish the quality of our show and tell.

Bev Minnerly made a cute pillow case with a challenging bear fabric and showed one of the Giving Dolls dolls that she is always making clothes for.  The doll she brought had a matching carrying bag and  blanket that would be given with the doll.

Carol Riggs used a cute golf panel to embellish some towels and added some embroidery as well.

Ellen Hein made a stack of pillowcases and another stack of burp bibs for her grandchildren.

She showed one unique pillowcase that she pieced from several fabrics.  These photos show both sides.  This is a great example of how you can take fabrics that are too small for the whole project and match them with something else to make a complete project.

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Bev Minnerly gave a great demo on how to make the cute pineapple backback and Donna Rissman finished one during the meeting (with a little community hellp.

Thanks to Eileen DiSanto, Carol Riggs, and Nita Hand for sorting more of the fabric donations we received.

Next week is our monthly charity project week.   This month we will be making an effort to use some of the abundance of fabric we have received to make some quilts to distribute in December.  You don't need to be a quilter to contribute to this effort   There are many tasks that can be done, according to your desire, as follows:

1. Cutting fabric into blocks or sashing strips.

2. Pick a block size from the stash and lay out existing blocks into a quilt

3. Matching up small squares into 4 or 9 block serts which can be combined into one block

4. Sew small blocks into 4 or 9 block squares to be used with larger blocks in a quilt.

5. Sew fabric strips onto dryer sheets to make rectangular blocks

6. Sew a set of blocks into a quilt top.

7..Ironing larger pieces of fabric so they can be cut into squares.

8. Finish a baby quilt that has top, batting and backing already sandwiched.

All supplies will be provided.  We even have lots of thread that has been donated to the club.  

Here is the project schedule through the end of 2017:

Date	Project	Leader
13-Sep-17	Charity Projects-Quilt Blocks	Lois Rose
20-Sep-17	Flower Table Runner	Nita Hand
27-Sep-17	Melted Crayon Ornaments	Kathy Jones
04-Oct-17	Dresden Purse	Diana Gosselin
11-Oct-17	The Wemyss School of Needlework	Sheila Hubble
18-Oct-17	Charity Projects-Backpacks	Lois Rose
25-Oct-17	Halloween Pot-Luck
01-Nov-17	Adult "Lobster" Bib	Bev Minnerly
08-Nov-17	Bra Purse	Charlotte Cecilio
15-Nov-17	Charity Projects- Stuffed Toys	Lois Rose
22-Nov-17	NO Meeting
29-Nov-17	Snowman	Carol Riggs
06-Dec-17	Mesh Bag	Donna Rissman
13-Dec-17	Charity Projects - Fidget Walker Bags	Lois Rose
20-Dec-17	Christmas Pot-Luck
27-Dec-17	NO Meeting

Stay safe as the hurricanes come through this Sunday-Monday.  Hopefully there will be clear skies and everyone safe at home by next Wednesday.