Club Notes - August 28, 2019

Today we continued working on the Autumn placemats for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch.  For those who haven't heard or read about them before, this is a place for good kids removed from bad situations.  They are kids recommended for the ranches by police officers, usually because they have been abused or their parents are in jail.  They attempt to give the kids a stable environment and instill Christian behavioral principles.  Although they are a Christian based organization, they respect the religious beliefs that the kids come in with. There are several of these ranches around Florida.  

Live Oaks is the ranch we predominantly support.  If we give them more than that ranch needs, they give the overflow to one of the other ranches.  Live Oaks has 5 cabins, one for girls and 4 for boys.  The girls' cabin was set up so siblings can be located at the same camp.  Each cabin has 10 kids and 2 adult "parents".   Most of these kids come in with nothing and are amazed to get their own toothbrush, pillowcase, towels, etc.  Simple things like placemats, pillowcases and bright quilts of their own bring a bit of normalcy and happiness to a child who feels alone.

Show and Tell:

Charlotte Cecilio finished her placemat without a pattern.  She looked at the picture of option 3 and made it from that.  Great work.

Van Hathaway was back with us today. She made some belly bands for the dogs 

and showed a bunch of table runners made for herself and for friends.

Mic Pickard and Lynne Degado teamed up over the week to make a coordinated set of placemats, following the option 2 French Braid design I showed last week.  

As an aside, Lynne talked about another method of duplicating patterns.  Audrey had some "Sulkys Iron-On Transfer" pens that they had never tried to use.  They used these pens to create a reverse pattern on paper, then laid the paper onto a piece of batting and ironed it, thus transferring the pattern to the batting.  Lynne said she was able to transfer the pattern 5 times without degradation.  (Such a great idea, I went home and ordered a set of pens from Amazon.)

Mic also put faces on 3 stuffed toys I gave her last week.

Lynne also made some pillowcases.

Audrey Phillips finished a placemat using the option 3 pre-printed batting, some pillowcases.

and her border fabric table runner, 

She backed the table runner with red, white and blue butterflies.

Carol Thurston showed a panel she made that she would like to turn into a quilt and asked for advice.  (We told her to just keep adding borders.)

Ellen Hein finished her pre-printed fabric placemat and another lovely fleece blanket.









I showed a French Braid table runner I finished,



 a set of 4 placemats made from the pre-printed batting,



a bunch of zipper bags made from a long strip of donated home decor fabric I found, 

  

 and 2 quilts I finished.  I believe the first quilt was one of the ones Roberta Kelssey gave me to finish. I just added borders and quilted it.


 The other was a "cheater quilt", meaning the fabric was printed to look like fabric pieces sewn together.  I just had to add borders to make it wider and quilt it.

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Next week we will continue the placemats if needed and take a count to see how many more we need.  We will also switch gears and I will demo how to make an organizer that can be used as a bedside caddy or a sewing machine tool caddy.  The pattern is the same.  I will send out info separately over the weekend, but the main thing you need besides fabric is a piece of non-slip rubber matting, I'm guessing a piece 5" x 20" should do.  You should be able to get this at the Dollar Tree, Target, or Walmart.

See you next Wednesday.

Club Notes - August 21, 2019

We had a very busy, active group this afternoon, with 2 projects going at once. A couple of ladies continued making the belly bands for the rescued dogs.  I don't have the final count yet, but I'm pretty sure Pat Pipa will deliver over 30 of them this week, plus some more crate pads.

Eileen DiSanto gave me a thank you note for those who contributed to purchase a memorial brick for her husband and I read it to the group.
Show & Tell:

Mic Pickard started us off with a pile of 10 stuffed animals, 



 a baby quilt, 

and 5 dog beds.

Charlotte Cecilio made another matched set of 4 red, white & blue drier sheet blocks.

Ellen Hein finished a stack of pillowcases, 

a stack of doggy belly bands, 

her border fabric table runner, 

and some more fleece blankets. 

Audrey Phillips showed a sewing machine tool caddy she made.

B.J. Herter made a stack of doggy belly bands, a tissue box cover, 

a bunny collage, 
(B.J. will demo how to do a collage at a future meeting.)



and a border fabric table runner.  

Donna Rissman showed a Candy Corn table mat, which she will demo in a few weeks.

I showed a tissue box cover, 


2 stuffed toys,  


6 pillowcases,  

and a charity quilt.

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Today I showed the group how to make a French Braid place mat or table runner.  There are many variations of this and I showed 3 of them.   For all 3 variations, this works just like the drier sheet blocks, the only difference is that we iron the backing behind the batting before we start.  Then all sewing is done through all 3 layers so you are quilting as you go. I've attached a tutorial for a french braid quilt to my email.  The process is the same for the basic runner, but I've added steps 1-2 to make it quilt as you go. -

1. Iron backing fabric behind batting.
2. Lay the backing & batting on the work table.
3. If you are doing a straight French Braid (Option 1) or one with medallions (Option 2), mark a line down the center of the batting, the long length.
4. Place a 2.5" square (or a half square triangle) with the point on the center line .  This is piece #1.
3. Place all your fabric pieces on the batting in the positions you want the to wind up in.
4. Take the pieces off, starting with the last one which will be sewn and place them in a stack so the first piece is on top.
5. laying the first piece down,
6. placing the 2nd piece on the first, right sides together,
7. stitch 1/4" seam down along one side,
4. flip the 2nd piece right side up and finger press down.
5. repeat steps 2-4 until all the pieces have been stitched down.
6. Trim the edges to the size of the placemat or runner. 
(The outer edge will not be stitched.)
7. If your backing is larger than the placemat you can just double fold the backing over the front edges and stitch down to self-bind the finished piece.  If you prefer, you can add traditional binding.

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I also showed a pre-printed batting that June Taylor sells as Venice placemats.  This can be purchased at Joanns or Walmart and comes in a package that makes 6 placemats.   I purchased 2 sets so we can make enough for 1 one the Sheriff's Youth Ranch cottage. (each cottage has 10 kids plus 2 cottage parents.)  Several ladies took these to make using autumn fabrics that I brought from our supplies.

As a bonus, I also talked about some water soluble paper I bought.  A pattern can be traced onto this paper, placed on top of batting, and fabric pieces sewed onto to batting with the paper in place.  Once the item is finished it can be washed and the paper will dissolve.   I purchased a supply of large sheets of this and will sell it to club members for 50 cents a sheet.

If you missed this demo or would like to finish your placemats or table runners with the group, we will continue this project next week. 

See you next Wednesday.

Club Notes - Aug 14, 2019

It was great to see those of you who braved the rain drops today.  Carol Riggs brought some of the items she had left from her sale to offer to our group.  Pat Pipa came and showed us all that she had the stitches out on Sunday and looked fine.  

Pat delivered the 28 crate pads that she and I made for Poodles and Pouches and had a long conversation with the woman she delivered them to. She told us that, although the owner of the puppy mill had over 200 dogs, he was only told to reduce the number by 30, not go out of business.  The rescue operation managed to get 73 of them and it is doubtful any more can be rescued.  They will do their best to care for the ones they have.

Since these dogs have never been trained where to do their business, the group has requested that we make belly bands for the male dogs.  These are used to hold a pad, like a diaper.  Pat brought 3 samples and I took them home to create instructions on how to make them.  We changed our future project schedule to make a bunch of these next week.  I will send out the instructions separately.

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Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly finished 2 barrel duffle bags started in a project last year.

Donna Rissman finished a casserole carrier 

 and showed several table runners she made with border fabric, using a different pattern.  (This is an easy, free pattern from Jinny Beyer and I've attached it to my email for anyone interested.)

Lastly, she showed a cutting mat bag that has an ironing surface on the back.

Carol Thurston made another great fidget walker bag. (I found 2 in my bag when I went home, so she may have snuck another one in during the meeting. )

At the beginning of the summer I gave Ellen Hein all the fleece we had.  She came back to us with 11 lovely fleece blankets.

Mic Pickard came with another bag full of frogs and bunnies.

I showed a quilt Pat Pipa sewed together from blocks and I finished backing, quilting & binding.

I also showed the table runner I finished from last week's demo, plus another smaller one I made from a different pattern.  

I also showed 4 placemats I made from the leftover fabric.  (I played with the fabric to create different designs.)

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We spent the afternoon making pillowcases from the fabrics in our stash.  At the end of the day we had 7 pillowcases done and several ladies took some home to work on over the week.

We also sent Bev home with a carload of stuff for the Sheriff's Youth Range.  Between the stack I brought from home and what came in today, we sent them 9 quilts, 11 fleece blankets, 7 pillow cases, 2 duffle bags, 11 zip bags, 1 table runner, and a shower curtain.
I also held  4 pillowcases from today aside for the Ocala shelter.  I'll report on that when I make that delivery.

Hope to see you all next week.