Club Notes - July 25, 2018

Today Lynn Kluczynski helped some of us finish the quilted hug shawls. I spent the afternoon ironing quilt backings for 4 of the donated quilt tops.  Several others worked on our stash of pillowcase fabric.

Announcements:

- Sharky;s is now accepting coupons from other quilt and craft stores, such as Joann's and Hobby Lobby.  If you belong to the quilt guild, they will also give you a 20% discount.

-  Carol Riggs brought us a new, small service project.  The Patriot Guard Riders are holding an event at the end of the year for the children of fallen military.  They would like to give each child a patch.  These patches have been embroidered but have rough edges.  They are looking for volunteers to hem these so the edges are smooth. I have placed this project on our schedule for Aug 29th.  It would be great if anyone who can bring a sewing machine that day would sew some of these.  Many hands make quick work.

- Election days are coming up soon.  The League of Women Voters sends questionnaires to all the candidates and publishes the responses on VOTE411.org.  To find out how the candidates for your ballot responded to the questions, go to  this web site and type in your address.  Please find out about your candidates and vote for the ones who you agree with. There is too much at stake to ignore this civic duty.

- Last week I delivered
     5 fidget walker bags to Helpertunity
     3 quilts, 3 pillowcases, 11 small drawstring bags, and a BIG bag of toiletries to the Ocala Domestic Violence Center
     5 twin fidget quilts and 8 enhanced fidget walker bags to the Clermont Rehab facility

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Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly made a dog bed and 2 fidget walker bags.

Lynn showed two quilted hug shawls she finished.

Eileen DiSanto made a pillowcase from our donated stash.

Pat Pipa made a stack of small drawstring bags and two quilt tops from large blocks found in our stash.

Laura Tomich made 2 small drawstring bags and one larger drawstring duffel bag. (We were glad to see Laura out with us today.  She has been suffering from severe rheumatoid arthritis, and has not been able to do much.  Please keep her in your prayers.)

I finished quilting a Native American and lion themed quilt that Diana Gosselin made, using a cactus edge-to-edge pattern.  Complements to Diana on the way she perfectly matched the lions on the back.  If you don't look real close, you would never know this is pieced!  Her seem line down the middle also gave me a perfect reference for lining up the embroidery quilting patterns.

I also showed a tissue box cover I made on my embroidery machine and my effort on a quilted hug.  This last project needs some rework, since I misread the instruction and wound up sewing the pockets on upside-down and sideways!



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Next week I will be showing how to make an easy skewed block table runner.  I showed this on June 29th, so you can see a picture of it in that week's blog.  I'll send the supply list out over the weekend.

Here's our project schedule through the end of September:

01-Aug-18	Colorful Table runner (Using Fat Quarters)	Lois Rose
08-Aug-18	Project Carrier	Donna Rissman
15-Aug-18	Charity Projects	Lois Rose
22-Aug-18	Easy Focus Mug Rugs	Lois Rose
29-Aug-18	Patch hem for Patriot Guard Ride	Pat Pipa
05-Sep-18	Border Fabric Placemats	Lois Rose
12-Sep-18	Stuffed Toys	Lois Rose
19-Sep-18	Charity Projects	Lois Rose
26-Sep-18	Towel Beach cover	Lynn Kluczynski

Have a great week.

Club Notes - July18, 2018

Today was a typical summer meeting day. There were only 12 of us there, but lots of fun activity.

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly made 2 fidget walker bags and 2 draw-string duffel bags. 

(As a reminder, the shelter is always looking for 2 sizes drawstring bags - small ones (12" x 14") with squared off bottoms to hold a water bottle and some info pamphlets and larger ones that can hold a person's belongings when they need to leave home.)

Eileen DiSanto made 3 charity pillowcases.

I finished a charity quilt with some blocks I organized a few weeks ago.

Lynn brought info on the Sumter County Vial of Life program.  For info, click on the link.  

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For today's project, Lynn demonstrated how to make the Quilted hug shawl.  Several ladies brought their prepared fabrics and began the process.  We will finish these next week.

In addition to the project, several ladies helped me sort donated fabric and batting scraps into usable versus dog bed filling.  Another lady cut the fabric that was donated as pillowcase bodies into 27" pieces. It yielded 31 body pieces - 14 blue and 17 yellow.  I will look for coordinating cuff fabric over the next few weeks.  

We filled 4 dog beds with the scraps.

The quilt tops continue to come in and I thank you for your efforts.  Last week Diana Gosselin brought in 2 and Lynn brought 4.  This week Carol Thurston brought in 2 vintage tops that were found in a deceased friend's stash.  When I got home tonight I cut batting and went through our box of large fabrics to find backing for these. Some will be easier to complete than others, but I hope to start working on them soon, in between my other projects..

Next Thursday is our next shop hop day and there is still room in my van if anyone is interested.  
Hope to see you all next Wednesday.

Club Notes - July 11, 2018

What a fun afternoon.  We welcomed 3 new club members and Sue Campbell was able to join us again.  Sue's sister Jane Swafford has found a new home at Buffalo Ridge Assisted Living and would love to have visitors there.

In other member news, I talked to Van Hathaway on Tuesday.  She very much appreciated receiving our get well card this week as she was feeling pretty low.  The doctors now think all her back pains are related to a cyst behind her knee, and she has been given some hope for treatment.  Lets keep the prayers coming for her recovery.

There are quite a few others on our member list who we haven't seen in a while.  If you are having tough times, please drop me a note and let me know what's going on so we can add you to our prayer list.  

Show and Tell:

Diana Gosselin brought in 2 beautiful quilt tops for our charity efforts.  The first one used a Christmas panel and Christmas fabric found in our donation piles.  The second used a lovely Native American theme.

Eileen DiSanto finished her fold-able fabric box, 2 hanging kitchen towels, and a cover for her toaster.

Lynn Kluczynski took over a box of 7 inch squares from Carol Coyne and wowed us by turning them into 4 quilt tops.

Nita Hand turned a set of dryer sheet blocks into a twin quilt with fidget elements.

Pat Pipa showed her finished foladable Fabric box, several of the draw-string bags (requested by the Ocala shelter), and 3 fidget walker bags.

Nella Rose completed her twin fidget quilt in a lovely cheery pink.  We now have all 5 of the twin size quilts that were requested by the nursing home representative who contacted me.  I called her when I got home and she is going to pick them up tomorrow evening.

New club member Mic Pickard has been working hard making Christmas stockings for family members, extended family members and neighbors.  She is busily using up all her Christmas fabric stash and loving it.

 I have been trying out some bag patterns on my embroidery machine.  I made a small rectangle bag to hold my camera (with 2 pockets for a spare battery and a small tripod), a larger rectangle bag, and a frog bag (just to see how they would stitch out). I learned a few lessons on what not to do in the process,I also showed the Row-by_row quilt I made for this year's "Sew Musical" theme, and explained what the annual row-by-row shop hop and contest is all about.



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During project time we had lots of stuff to have fun with.  Some ladies made pillowcases, some searched through the boxes of pre-cut blocks to make charity quilts or to made a piece for next week's quilted-hug shawl project.  I spent the afternoon cutting up more of our fabric stash.

A lady came in at the beginning of our meeting with a ginormous bag of batting scraps.  I have started going through it and much of it will go right into dog beds, but there is a lot  that is wide enough to find a use.  For those of you who have embroidery machines, much of this is perfect for embroidered blocks.  Although I would like it to go to charity projects, I know that we'd never realistically be able to use it all if I limited it to that.  So, if you have a project that needs some small batting pieces, let me know.  I have rolls between 3-10 inches wide that I will give you. If you want to make a charity quilt, all the better.

I will be away next week, pursuing my row-by-row obsession.  Pat Pipa will be running the meeting in my place and Lynn Kluczynski will be doing the Quilted-Hug Shaw demo.  The box of pillowcase fabric and all the pre-cut blocks are stored at the rec center and available for anyone who wants to work on something else.  Plus, you can come and work on your own project, as always.  No rules on what you can create, just come and have fun.  I'll see you in 2 weeks.