Club Notes - May 20, 2020

We had a mini club meeting this afternoon - just 6 of us.  Bev Minnerly, Carolyn Grasso, Charlotte, Cecilio, Diane Placek, Ellen Hein, and me.  The El Santiago rec center manager, Todd, greeted us and covered the 6 tables with plastic tablecloths which he could sanitize afterwards.  They limited it to 6 tables because the tables had to be 8 feet from the walls.  The staff told us we were the first club to come back for any meeting.   The pottery clubs cannot use the kiln so they cannot return yet.  I will wait another week or 2 before calling another meeting to see if they loosen the rules at all.

Pat Pipa and Laura Tomich were waiting for me in their golf carts when I drove into the parking lot.

Pat brought me a dog bed and 20 masks for the Youth Ranch, and picked up some fabric. 

Laura brought me 5 zipper bags and took home fabric to make masks.  I left several boxes of fabric and zippers in my cart, for the taking but most of it was still there when I was ready to drive out.




We spent the first half hour chatting and catching up with each other.  Then we started show and tell.

Carolyn started us off with 2 doggie beds.  I gave her a bag full of supplies for pillowcases, zipper bags and backpacks to take home. She asked for help in laying out the fabric for a doggie coat pattern and Bev agreed to help her at the end of the meeting.





Bev has been working on clearing her UFOs.  She finished a large stack of clothes for Giving Dolls, 


made 6 fidget walker bags using up a bunch of odds and ends,




and a drawstring backpack with an outside pocket.  She also took time to replace her worn neck pillow.







She also showed the mask she made substituting t-shirt fabric for the elastic. Bev said it is more comfortable around the ears, but you have to pick the right stretchy t-shirt fabric.

Ellen made a pink baby quilt and a patriotic one which will go to honor flight.

She showed a small size mask and another sleep sack for her granddaughter. 

 She also showed 2 Samba card holders, she made using 2 colors to separate the type of cards.

 Diane came with 3 cute stuffed fish and 2 drawstring backpacks.

 Charlotte showed a mask she made and a stack of patriotic dryer sheet blocks she put together. She has enough done for almost 2 quilts, just needs to make 4 more. She asked for one of the Cornerstone Hospice Veteran's center blocks, and for advise on how to put it together with the dryer sheet blocks.

Charlotte gave me a completed red, white and blue dryer sheet quilt top 2 weeks ago.  I backed and quilted it and gave it to Ellen to finish the binding.  Here is the finished quilt.

 I started by showing 2 baby quilts that B.J. Herter made.  She made a stuffed dinosaur to go with  each.  We all thought this was a cute idea,  and I had several other dinosaurs at home, so I pinned one to the baby quilt Ellen turned in as well.

Anne Knoff's friend Cindy Cooke left 2 sturdy large fabric bags full of a bunch of smaller bags at the rec center for us.   I counted a total of 48 totes and zipper bags of various sizes that she made with fabric Anne gave her.

I have started making quilts from our donated supplies. Here are some that I made and quilted.  Ellen has been doing the binding for me.

 The dolphin panel quilt was one I made a while back and misplaced.  I found it when going through the fabric boxes.  All four of these quilts will be put in storage for next year's Youth Ranch graduates. I plan to stockpile twin size quilts throughout the year so we won't have to rush them next winter.


I am organizing as many quilt kits as I can over the next days or weeks.  So far I have given 3 to Diana Gosselin to stitch together and have 5 more in bags ready to be stitched by anyone would would like to volunteer.  I am working with 6.5 blocks and so far have a green one, a red one, a yellow one, a pink one and a blue one.  In between I may still do some more cutting since I have several boxes of fabric I haven't gone through yet.  These are simple rows of squares, nothing fancy, just easy ways to use the donated fabric and make quilts to be donated.

Tomorrow Ray and I planned to deliver 25 dog beds to the Humane Society of Lake County. I still had another 24 I was holding for a separate delivery and received 5 more this afternoon, so I'm going  to add 3 more to the pile in my car, bringing tomorrow's deliver to 28.

The reporter who interviewed Ellen and me last week about the Youth Ranch donations called again and wanted to do an article on our work on the dog beds.  She sent a photographer and a videographer to my house on Tuesday to take pictures of the pile of dog beds in the back of my van.  The video is supposed to be shown on the Villages TV channel 2, but I don't know when.  I guess they are short on news to write about.

I will give an accounting of all the finished items I am holding in a later post.  There should be opportunities to deliver things again soon, but we are being cautious. 

Club Notes - May 16, 2020

It has been 10 weeks since we have been able to meet.  That is a long time.  I hope you all are still doing OK.  Those who I have heard from seem to be keeping busy enough.  Since my last email I have heard from Audrey Phillips. She and her daughter Lynne have been making masks. She also has been making pajama pants for her husband and had a challenge getting the flannel she wanted.

Ellen Hein gave me the last dozen decorated pillowcases for the Sheriff's summer camps this week.  I picked up the 2 dozen Sue Campbell enhanced on Thursday and Friday morning Skip Bryant  picked up the 11 dozen I had on Friday morning.   He told me that the camps will be held, but will be shorter than originally planned, only 7 weeks starting the last week in June.

I asked if they would be needing masks and he conveyed the question to the ranch staff who picked up the donations.  The answer was yes, and I quote his email:

"We asked them about needing face masks, and they said, “definitely…we could use them”.  The CDC guidelines state that their Summer Camp Staff will be required to wear masks, so any cloth masks that the Staff could wash and re-use would be helpful, and one less item they would have to buy.
When asking about quantity, they said they would take as many as you would like to donate.  200 would be the minimum that they need for Staff to use, sanitize and re-use."

So, if anyone would like to make masks for the Youth Ranch, let me know.  I still have fabric that can be used for this. I have been giving Ellen Hein pieces through last week and she has made 665 for Villagers and their families at last count.  Today I went through another box and put aside quite a few large pieces.  I still have more boxes to go through, so I'm sure I will find even more.

I also heard from another club member who has been absent for a while.  Diana Gosselin has been busy taking care of family business, but will be able to rejoin us soon.  I  like to affectionately call her our pillowcase queen, and she lived up to that name this week by asking if I had a bunch she could work on.  I gave her 26 last Sunday and she brought them back completed on Friday, asking for more.  I gave her another 14 today.

Each day I am alternating ironing and cutting the fabric scraps that are too small for masks or pillowcases.  To break up the monotony I put some of the blocks on my design wall and made a couple of quilt tops.  It occurred to me that I could just as easily bag the quilt blocks once I have the design set and hand them out as kits, so that is what I plan to do.  I started with a set of blue 7" blocks that I organized into quilt rows this week.  Diana asked me if I had anything else she could work on, so I gave her this kit to put together.

I have another set that I can also give out to anyone interested.  Fifteen blue and white 9-patch blocks were found in a donation. (photo on the left.)  They are made of 3.5 inch squares.  Fifteen is not quite enough for a quite, so I match up several more sets of blue and white 3.5" squares.  If anyone would like to take these sets of 9 squares and sew them together to make some more 9-patch blocks, let me know, This may eventually become a nice quilt.

This morning I was able to lay out 2 more quilt tops.  These are both with 5" squares and are themed for children.  If anyone wants to sew these together, I have them bagged with instructions.

I am taking a break from cutting and am now sorting the squares I have by color family. So far I've organized the 5" and 3.5" squares. I will tackle the 6.5" and 4" squares next.  Then I plan to start laying out some more quilt top kits, starting with the 6.5" box.  The 8" squares are available as well but the colors may be more random. There is probably enough for 3-4 quilt tops if anyone would like to play with these.

Deb McCuliston has taken the box of 10" squares to make a quilt top.  I think she is trying to work a quilt that uses mostly blue squares.

Carolyn Grasso has requested supplies for pillowcases, zipper bags and drawstring backpacks, which I will giver her on Wednesday.

A small group of 5 of us will be meeting at El Santiago this coming Wednesday. I have been told that we are limited to no more than 6, not the 9 they have the room set up for.  Things are moving slowly, but that is OK.  I will wait a bit before I call another meeting to see how things progress.  I thought about setting this meeting up as a Zoom online meeting so everyone could see the show and tell, but after looking at the YouTubes I decided it wouldn't work well.  The free account is limited to 40 minutes and the video view would probably not show the crafted items well enough.  Plus I could not be sure of the exact time to start so everyone would be waiting for a message saying to log in now.  It doesn't seem worth it for our type of club.

If you have made any charity items that you would like to turn in, you can bring them to El Santiago before 12:30. Just put your name on the bag so I know who it is from and I will take a picture of it to be posted in the next blog.  If you can't get there before 12:30, just leave the completed items in my GEM and I will get a photo of them later.

This Wednesday I will be driving my GEM cart.  If anyone wants any fabric for some of our charity projects, let me know and I will place what you want in a bag with your name on it.  You would be able to pick up the bag from my cart at El Santiago between 12;30 and 1:30 without any physical contact. 

Club Update for May 10, 2020

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there. Another week has passed and (knock on wood), I don't believe any of our club members have contracted the COVID-19 virus.  You all seen to be staying safe and following the rules.   Last week we heard about the antigen tests that are now available to see if you have ever been exposed to the virus. Since Ray and I had been on a cruise at the end of February and came home with colds, we asked our doctor to order the tests for us.  The results were back the very next morning and were negative.   I think Florida is doing pretty good over all.  I have been tracking the statistics and, since Florida and several other states started opening up a bit last Monday, only 3,104 new cases (2% of the total number in the US) have been in Florida.  Most of these are still in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.   Of the 40,0001 total cases in Florida, only 590 are in our tri-county area.

I know many of you are keeping busy finishing UFO's and doing house cleaning that may have been put off before.   If you would like a sewing diversion, my offer to drop a bag of supplies at your door is always available.  As I mentioned in my previous email, I brought home all the fabric we had at El Santiago last week.  I went through the pillowcase fabric box and was able to cut and match up 34 pillowcase sets.  So if you like making pillowcases, I can give you some of these to sew.

I am continuing to sort through the numerous boxes of donated fabric that have accumulated over the past year.  I told you that I have been giving pieces of fabric suitable for making masks to several members who requested tham.  Laura Tomich reported that her church group was able to make 165 masks from the fabric we gave them.  Ellen Hein has also been making masks for many people in The Villages.  I don't know how many but it is definitely a lot.

Mic Picard is making a t-shirt quilt for her granddaughter.

Eileen DiSanto has been busy attacking her UFOs.  She has completed 23 chair backs for Busy Hands, a few stuffed toys (minus the stuffing), and has been working on a quilt for her stepson and his wife.  She also has been making masks for her neighbor's daughter who is a surgeon at the Villages Hospital, and for a friend and her associates who work for a physician.

Charlotte Cecilio has continued to work on the red, white and blue drier sheet blocks.  This week she came by my house to drop off a honor flight quilt top and pick up more fabric strips so she can make another one.  I had a few of these blocks that had been turned in by other club members and gave them to he to work into the next quilt.

Carolyn Grasso has two doggie beds completed, but I am asking her (and anyone else who has some) to hold onto them for now.  I have at least 50 of them piled up in my living room and we are not ready to go to the animal shelters to deliver them quite yet.  Carolyn also asked if anyone wants the free sewing machine she picked up a couple of months ago.  She says she can't figure it out.  The machine  says  Taylor Professional and has a little serger attacher.  If anyone would like to play with it, let Carolyn know.  You might be able to find a manual online.

I have 8 dozen of the pillowcases for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch Summer Camps in hand.  Ellen has a dozen more to get to me and then I will pick up the 2 dozen from Sue Campbell and a dozen from Bev Minnerly and deliver them all to Skip.

I am continuing to cut more fabric into squares. I have 2 more boxes to work through here at my house and then I will go see what I have in storage.  To break up the monotony and give myself a chance to sit, I have made a couple of quilt tops.  I finished one quilt last week with a combination of 10" and 5" yellow and gold squares.  With the leftover yellow and gold 5" squares I was able to put another quilt top together.  Then a friend from Allamanda quilt chapter brought be a bag of her leftover fabric and scraps.  In it was a large number of 7" x 9" pieces of fabric in two coordinated prints, so I quickly sewed another quilt top together with them.  Yesterday I sandwiched and pinned them and the quilt from Charlotte, and they are all waiting for me to quilt them this week..

Yesterday I received a note from the people who print the Florida Register.  Due to the virus, the are not able to print the May/June issue, but you can read it online at www.TheRegisterWeb.com.  When you get to their web page, look at the menu on the left and click on Read The Paper Online.  It will send you to a page where you can select the Florida Register or any of the other 7 area newspapers. 

So far I have heard from 4 club members who are planning to come out to our limited meeting on May 20th and several others who don't feel comfortable going out yet.  That is fine.  If anyone else wants to join us, please let me know.  It will be show and tell only.  As I said in my prior message, there are 9 tables with one chair per table set up to maintain the 6 ft distancing and masks are required.   

Stay safe and keep emailing me to let everyone know how you are doing.  Stay safe.

Club Update - May 3, 2020

Another week of social distancing and isolation has gone by.  I really miss seeing you all.

The governor has loosened some of the restrictions but we cannot meet yet.  If you read last week's recreation news you may have seen the diagram of how rooms may be set up for clubs in the near future.  The diagram showed chairs for only one person for each 6 foot table.  Since our room is usually set up for 12 tables, with only 8 along the walls close to outlets, this poses a challenge for us.  I am thinking about ways we can adapt but will not make any decisions until we are actually allowed to meet and I can talk to the rec center staff.

Several clubs have set up virtual meetings online using Zoom.  We could do a show and tell meeting this way if there is any interest.   Let me know what you think..

In the mean time, our fun can still continue.  Ellen Hein, Sue Cambell, Bev Minnerly and I have been working on enhancing pillowcases for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch summer camps.  I don't know whether these camps will be held this summer, but if not, the pillowcases will be used next year.   We have been using a variety of methods to decorate these, some with colorful cuffs, others with appliques, and some with both. I have 8 dozen completed in hand and 4 dozen more that are complete or nearly complete that I need to collect.

 

Lynn K. has sent photos of some very cute American doll furniture that she made for a friend's granddaughter.

 

Pat Pipa delivered 11 zipper bags to Skip Bryant for the new kids coming in to  the Sheriff's Youth Ranch in the fall.

Ellen Hein continues to make masks on request and I have been giving her fabric for her efforts.

I have also continued to give bags of fabric to Laura Tomich for her church group.  They are making masks for several assisted living facilities.

Lu Karatzas is also making masks for friends and family.

 

Deb Chapman has a charity quilt in progress.

 

I gave the latest box of 10" squares to Deb McCuiston and she is putting a quilt together with these.

Van Hathaway dropped me a note.  She is still dealing with the same health issues that have prevented her from joining out meetings over the past year, but let me know she is still following our emails. 

Mary Kahlow dropped a bag at my door containing some dog bed scraps and a bunch of fabric already cut into 5" squares, saving me that effort.  Thank you Mary.

I continue to spend most of my time sorting through the backlog of donated fabric.  The boxes of cut squares continues to grow, as do the boxes containing sturdier fabric for zipper bags, draw-string backpacks, and dog beds.  To break up the routine, I have lain out 2 charity quilts so far.   The first one is together and currently on my machine for quilting.  The 2nd is on my design wall, waiting for me to sew it together.

This week I have also quilted an honor flight quilt Ellen made and sewn together 29 pair of patriotic dryer sheet blocks.  Maybe next weekend I can lay these out and see if a quilt emerges.  In the mean time there are still several boxes of fabric to be sorted and cut.

 

Please continue to email me to let us know how you are doing and what you are working on. As always, if you need something to keep you busy during this time of isolation, let me know and I will drop a bag at your door.  Zipper bags, draw string backpacks, stuffed toys, quilts or anything else you think we can donate to our charities.  If you don't want to make something big, how about taking some 3.5" squares and making 9 patch blocks which can be put together in a quilt later.  Just choose a color family and I will deliver.