Club Notes - Jan 31, 2018

There was a lot of activity this afternoon.  Brenda gave a great demo on how to make an easy table runner. I saw many different projects in the works - table runners, midi bags, quilts, and pillowcases to name a few.  Many thanks to the ladies who stepped up to sort some of our many fabric donations.  We got 2 boxes and a bag sorted by color. I left the blue and white fabric boxes on our shelves, along with the pillowcase fabric and threads.  I'll bring the box of red with me next week one I find a larger box to hold it.

NOTE SCHEDULE CHANGE:
Consensus opinion was that those going to Silver Springs would rather do it on a Mulberry day instead of an El Santiago day.  That means we will NOT go next week. 

We have changed next week's activity to be charity projects -pillowcases and quilt blocks. 
The outing to Silver Springs is now tentatively scheduled for Feb 14th.  Those in attendance today didn't have a problem with this being on Valentines Day afternoon.  However, if this is an issue, we can push it off to Feb 28th.  I would like feedback, but will send a separate email asking for votes.  Right now I only have 8 members interested in the outing and no one who wants to go for a sit and sew, so once we are set on a date I will give up the room at Mulberry for that week.  

My husband also reminded me that last year the park concessionaire held a special event for Valentines Day, so I need to check if they are doing that and make sure we don't interfere. 

Show and Tell: 

I was happy to see lots of Midi bags completed this week.  

 Susie Pendry



                   Cathie Shuart

Lu Karatzas 

                  Ginny Piazza  

Ginny Piazza also showed a lovely table topper.

Ellen Hein brought in a stack of pillowcases.

Bev Minnerly made some microwave bowls and doll clothes.

Brenda Severa showed several Valentine projects

Alice Meunier finished 2 quilts, one for our charity and one for herself.

Sue Campbell showed completed pillowcases.

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Next week we will work on pillowcases, drier sheet quilt blocks, and laying out cut blocks into scrappy quilts. We will be at El Santiago again since it is the 1st Wednesday of the week.  Hope to see you all then.

Date	Project	Leader	Room
31-Jan-18	Easy Table Runner	Brenda Severa	El Santiago,Beach Club
07-Feb-18	Charity Projects - Charity Quilts, Fabric Sorting & Cutting	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
14-Feb-18	Outing to Silver Springs State Park	Lois Rose	Car Pools
21-Feb-18	Bra Purse	Charlotte Cecilio	El Santiago,Beach Club
28-Feb-18	Kitchen Hand Towel Hanger	Bev Minnerly	Mulberry, Freedom
07-Mar-18	Adult "Lobster" Bib	Bev Minnerly	El Santiago,Beach Club
14-Mar-18	St Patricks Pot Luck		Mulberry, Freedom
21-Mar-18	Charity Projects- Pillow Cases	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
28-Mar-18	Button Sewing on a machine	Brenda Severa	Mulberry, Freedom
04-Apr-18	Fat Quarter Gypsy Bag	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge
11-Apr-18	Ribbon Craft	Donna Rissman	El Santiago,Hula Lounge
18-Apr-18	Charity Projects- Hospice Quilts	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge
25-Apr-18	Paper Fidget Spinner	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge
02-May-18	Cat Door Hanger cat_atelier.pdf	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge
09-May-18			El Santiago,Hula Lounge
16-May-18	Charity Projects - Quilt Blocks	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge

Club Notes Jan 17, 2018

We had a great turnout today.  A couple of ladies finished their midi bags over the past 2 weeks and the rest showed great progress.  I expect to see most of the bags completed by the next time we meet at El Santiago.

Next week the meeting will be at Mulberry Grove.  I will not be there but Brenda Severa and Lu Karatzas have agreed to run the meeting for me.  Linda Paar has offered to continue the crochet lessons for anyone interested.  There are also plenty of outlets, so anyone who would like to just come with their sewing machine and work on their own project is welcome to do so.  However, you need to bring anything you need for your project (extension cord, small iron, ironing surface, cutting board, scissors, etc). We have no storage there and will not be transporting our stuff from El Santiago. Show and Tell:

Brenda Severa started us off by showing some of the easy table runners she makes.  She will be doing a demo on these in 2 weeks.

Roberta Kelsey made a bunch of pillow cases and showed a quilt top she is working on finishing.  Her quilt guild members in Virginia each made a row and now she needs to sandwich and quilt.

B.J. Herter showed a charity rag quilt she made.

Bev Minnerly showed her latest doll clothes, a completed fidget walker bag, and her finished midi bag.

Audrey Philips embroidered pug dogs on shirts for her grandchildren (who have 2 black and one brown pug). She also made a cute bunny towel.

Nella Rose used some denim fabric to complete her midi bag.

Ellen Hein finished the baby booties she started last week and also finished a charity quilt.

(Note: both charity quilts turned in today were made primarily from fabric donated to our club.)

Ellen also recovered her office chair this week.  She couldn't bring the chair, but she shared a photo of her work.

Linda Paar showed 2 wash clothes she crocheted using a slightly different backwards stitch.  She also brought in a mystery project a friend gave her.  It is a lovely bag that seems to be pleated all over.  If anyone knows how this is done, she would like to know.

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The big event for this week is the Quilter's Marketplace at Rohan Recreation Center on Friday (9-5) and Saturday (9-4).  Admission is $5 each day.   Even if you are not a quilter, this is worth seeing.  There will be almost 30 vendors in 5 rooms showing their latest fabrics and sewing tools.  You would have to do a lot of driving for days and says to visit all these shops, and they will all be coming to us this weekend.   I will be working in the Colony room Friday afternoon, so if you see me, say Hi.

Sewing N More Club Notes - Jan 10, 2018

We had our first meeting at Mulberry Grove today and I was pleasantly surprised at how many ladies came.  It is a nice, large room and I would love to have a room like this for our permanent home.  The only problem is the lack of storage.  Although there are 2 large closets, they are totally in use by the potters.

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly showed some doll clothes she made for  her granddaughter.

Ellen Hein is working on booties for her fast-growing granddaughter and showed the first one of the pair she is working on.

Although they couldn't make this meeting, sisters Susie Pendry and Kathy Franklin brought me a car load full of completed doggie beds, a bag of towels, and a bag of tennis balls. I plan to deliver these, along with a  bunch I already have in my house, to the Lake County Humane Society, tomorrow afternoon.

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It was great to see several of our friends out today who haven't made a meeting in a while.  Our other sisters Sue Campbell and Jane Swafford joined us for the first time in months.  It was great to see them again.  Van Hathaway, Charlotte Cecillio , Sharon Gehrke and B.J. Herter have all been missing for several months for various health reasons and I was glad to welcome them back today.

Today was our learn to crochet day.  It was nice to have enough experienced crocheters so that there was at least one at each table.  I gave some general instructions to get everyone started and walked around trying to help where I could.  This is a craft that takes a bit of practice to get comfortable with. The way you hold the needle and the yarn is key to getting good results, but this is not easy to learn.  I know some of the ladies got a bit frustrated today, but if you keep trying, the skill will come.

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Next week we will continue working on the mdid bags. I will also have pillow case fabric and dryer sheets available for anyone who would like to work on these instead.

I made a mistake on our project schedule for this month.   The week I will not be available is Jan 24th.  I am listing this as a free sewing week unless any of you have an idea of what you'd like to do.  Since this is one of the week's we are scheduled to be at Mulberry Grove, you can bring your sewing machine but you will need to bring any other items you might need (iron, ironing mat, cutting board, etc.).

We also have an outing to Silver Springs State Park scheduled for Feb 7th. I will be sending out a separate email to find out how many of you are actually interested in this.
See you at El Santiago next Wednesday.

Date	Project	Leader	Room
17-Jan-18	Midi Bags -Part 2	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
24-Jan-18	Free Sewing (BYO)	Lu will run meeting (Lois Away)	Mulberry, Freedom
31-Jan-18	Easy Table Runner	Brenda Severa	El Santiago,Beach Club
07-Feb-18	Outing to Silver Springs State Park	Lois Rose	Car Pools
14-Feb-18	Bra Purse	Charlotte Cecilio	El Santiago,Beach Club
21-Feb-18	Charity Projects- Pillow Cases and Fabric Sorting	Lois Rose	Mulberry, Freedom
28-Feb-18	Kitchen Hand Towel Hanger	Bev Minnerly	El Santiago,Beach Club
07-Mar-18	Adult "Lobster" Bib	Bev Minnerly	El Santiago,Beach Club
14-Mar-18	St Patricks Pot Luck		Mulberry, Freedom
21-Mar-18	Charity Projects - Quilt Blocks	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
28-Mar-18	Button Sewing on a machine	Brenda Severa	Mulberry, Freedom
04-Apr-18	Fat Quarter Gypsy Bag	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
11-Apr-18	Ribbon Craft	Donna Rissman	Mulberry, Freedom
18-Apr-18	Charity Projects- Hospice Quilts	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Beach Club
25-Apr-18	Paper Fidget Spinner	Lois Rose	Mulberry, Freedom
02-May-18	Cat Door Hanger cat_atelier.pdf	Lois Rose	El Santiago,Hula Lounge

Club Notes - Jan 3, 2018

It was a small new year's group today. Mostly those who were interested in trying the midi bag, and a couple angels who took on the task of sorting a large bin of fabric yardage we received.  For anyone who is willing to make a charity quilt, we have a number of large pieces for backing. We also have plenty for pillowcases.

We were a little short on show and tell this week.  Only Marti and I brought stuff to show.  

I bought a mesh bag kit almost 2 years ago during the Florida Lighthouse shop hop, and finally put it together. 

I also finished an Honor Flight quilt and completed a wool quilt top that was donated by a man who wished to remain anonymous.  His wife had made the top and I just added the backing, batting, and binding, and used yarn ties to quilt it.

Marti Rhyne came a little late but she brought a beautiful tuffet she made at a class at the Sewing Studio of Lady Lake last Saturday.

I did a brief demo on how to get started making a midi bag and walked around trying to help where I could.  One thing I forgot to mention in the demo, (much to the chagrin of several ladies) was how to tell which side of the interfacing to place the fabric on.  For future reference, fusible interfacing is bumpy on the fusible side and smooth on the non-fusible side. It looked like everyone was successful in getting their fabric design laid out and getting at least some of them fused.  We will continue this project  when we are back at El Santiago on Jan 17th.

Next week we will meet for the first time at Mulberry Grove recreation center.  This is located to the right of the last circle on Buena Vista before Rt 42.  If you are coming from one of the villages on the south end of The Villages, you may find it easiest to drive north on Rt 301, turn right onto Rt 42, then turn right at the first light onto Buena Vista. Go 3/4 around the first circle and you will find Mulberry on your left.

Our project next week will be learning to crochet.  If you already know how, bring your current project or help show some of our other members how it is done.  This is a great skill to learn, to make quick gifts such as baby blankets, hats, toys.  The beginner project will be a simple dish cloth, which is a great way to learn the basic stitch and how to get a consistent gage.

I hope you will all try to venture out and join me at this new temporary winter location.