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.