Club Notes - February 21, 2018

We had a relatively small group at El Santiago this afternoon, but lots of activity.  

Show and Tell

Pat Pipa showed the Valentine mug rugs she made after last week's project demo.

Lu Karatzas showed the Valentine mug rugs she made for her brother and a memory pillow she made for B.J.

Ginny Piazza showed a bunch of stuff she made as door prizes for the Alhambra ladies luncheon. 

Ellen Hein made a banner for the Chicago CLub for the St Patrick's Day parade

Bev Minnerly showed her completed mug rugs. Bev and B.J. showed the bunny treat bags, which were today's project demo.

Nella Rose made a big stack of pillowcases.

I showed my finally finished Bitty Bag and 2 charity quilts completed with all donated fabric.

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Bev Minnerly and B.J. Herter led the Easter Bunny treat bag demo.  Several people brought fabric, felt, ribbon and eyes to share, so everyone who wanted to make these could.

I put out the pillowcase fabric and Diana Gosselin went to work trimming the box of potential cuff fabrics to the right sizes.

Ellen Hein helped me sort another large bag of donated fabric, separating usable from scrap and fidget potential. That's another load sorted into like colors as well.  The resulting scrap pile allowed me to fill and close up 2 more doggie beds.  We are slowly chipping away at the mountain of fabric.  

Remember, there will be no meeting next week.  I will send out a separate email for those wanting to go on the ouring to Silver Springs next week.

Club Notes - Feb 14, 2018

Hope you all had a very nice Valentine's Day.  Thank you for the Valentine appreciation gift.  I will use it for a nice dinner out with Ray.

We were delighted to welcome Pat Pipa back to The Villages.  It appears her stay in Colorado was beneficial, as the doctors there found the issues and treated them better than the doctor she saw here.

I had 2 announcements today.  First, there will be a Quilters' Closet and Notions Sale at La Hacienda Rec Center on March 3rd.  This is a great opportunity to find some great sewing stuff that other Villagers are selling.  Admission is free,  The flyer is attached to my email.

The 2nd item was a letter I received from a lady who recently moved to the Villages.  She is looking for a mentor to help her complete sewing some wardrobe items.  She took some lessons near her prior home, and is now looking for additional help, either at her home or the mentor's. She is willing to pay for these private lessons.  If anyone is interested, please let me know before our next meeting.  Otherwise, I will send her a note saying we don't have anyone who can take this on.

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Show and Tell

Sue Campbell and Ellen Hein each came with a beautiful stack of pillowcases.

Bev Minnerly showed some Bunny Jelly Bean treat bags she is making.    The ones shown in the photo are not completed - they still need bunny faces added to the bags.  (Bev and B.J. Herter will be showing how to make these next week.)

Alice Meunier came with a big load of stuff she has completed over the past few weeks.  


Placemats, Reading Pillows, 

a surgery cap for her daughter,  a table runner, 

Microwave bowls, and a beautiful quilt!

Instead of a show and tell item, Lu Karatzas brought a "What is it?" item.  A friend gave it to her because she sews, so OBVIOUSLY she would know what to do with it.  I have posted a picture of IT here.  A couple of us attending today knew what it was for, but I'm wondering how many of you can also identify it.  (We also had fun suggesting alternate uses for this tool.)

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I gave a demo this afternoon on how to make a Valentine Mug Rug using the reverse applique technique.  This was a quick project and I saw at least 6 completed before 2:30PM and several more that ladies wanted to take home to finish on their sewing machines.

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We've had a change in projects again.  Charlotte can't do the bra purse next week so we've rescheduled that for a later date.  Next week Bev and B.J. will be showing how to make the cute Easter candy bags.  Bev said that Joanne's currently has the Jelly Bean fabric (see the picture in the blog).  and a 1/4 yard is enough to make at least 2.  I will send out specific fabric requirements as soon as I get them, but you will need felt for the bunny ears and feet, and something for the bunny eyes. 

See you next week.

Club Noted Feb 7, 2018

We had a great turnout today for our charity quilt  workshop.  I brought red, white and blue strips for dryer sheet blocks and 6 different sizes of pre-cut blocks to be organized into potential scrappy quilts.  Everyone dived in to work getting our fabric stash reduced and used for a good cause.  I am hoping to see some quilt tops come out of this.   Last week I purchased some clearance fabric at Sharky's (from our 50/50 fund) that we can use as backing plus I have put several large pieces of donated fabric aside for this purpose. We also have batting available for charity quilts, so we should be able to complete some quilts for donation next fall.

Speaking of donations, Ray and I delivered 32 doggie beds, a bag of towels, and a bag of tennis balls to the South Lake Animal League last Friday.  24 of these were made by Susie Pendry and Kathy Franklin.  The rest came from the Allamanda Quilt chapter and our club's scraps.  The shelter's always greatly appreciate these.  

Susie has decided she can't make all these dog beds anymore, so the people who have been giving the fabric scraps to her may be bringing them to me.  If I get them, I will be bringing them to meetings to be stuffed into dag beds sleeves.  (We have plenty of those.) So anyone who would just like to stuff dog beds will have some to work on.  I'll let everyone know if this happens.

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Show and Tell:

Brenda Severa showed her Valentine Mug Rugs. (We will be making our own versions of Valentine Mug Rugs next week.)

Lu Karatzas finished her table runner from last week's project and a memory pillow for a friend.

Audrey Philips happily showed her completed midi bag.  She started this a number of years ago when I demoed it at Fabric Fun Arts and Crafts, but was never able to finish.  With our midi bag project a few weeks ago, several of us were able to help and she was able to complete the project.  Audrey also showed Binny towels she made.  The ears and feet are embroidered and removable when the towel needs washing.  So cute!!

Bev Minnerly made 2 fidget walker bags, a pillowcase, a microwave bowl potholder, and a bunch of doll clothes for Giving Dolls.  Busy Lady!

Diane Placek showed a baby quilt top she is working on for a niece's baby.  She cut up  a  Noah's Ark border fabric and used the fussy=cut images as focus fabric for the quilt.  Since she has to mail it this week, we will not see the finished quilt, but the top is beautiful.

Jane Swafford made a couple of lovely pillowcases for our charities.

Eileen Di Santo made a Christmas pillowcase for our charities.

Ginny Piazza made a bunny table runner from last week's demo. She also showed 2 table runners she made using the one-hour table runner pattern.

Van Hathaway didn't sign up for show and tell, but I got her photo at the end.  She finished a Hospice Veterans quilt.

I have been working on my 2017 Row by Rows a little at a time and showed the beach-themed quilt I finished a few weeks ago.

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Since we switched our Silver Springs outing to Feb 28th, I had to find a project for next week. I found a cute, easy pattern for Valentine mug rugs.  We have lots of red fabric for hearts that you are welcome to choose from and I've got lots of batting scraps that will work, so you'll only need the background and backing fabric.  I will send out details in a separate email  later.

For those going on the Silver Springs outing, I confirmed the costs.  It costs $2 to enter the park and if you want to go on the glass bottom boat ride it will cost $10.70 for anyone over 55. (That's all of us, right?).  The only other cost will be whatever you want for lunch.  (You are welcome to bring your own if you have any special diet needs)  So far there are 8 of us going.  If anyone else wants to join, you have 3 weeks to decide.

Next week we will be meeting at Mulberry Grove rec center.  Hope to see you all there.