Club Notes - June 24, 2020

We had a nice, small social gathering this afternoon.  Ellen Hein brought her serger and made a bunch of dog bed sleeves from some of the sturdy fabric I had put aside for that.  Bev Minnerly and I sorted though a box of scraps, pulling out what needed to be ironed.  Marty Rhyne and Alice Meunier did the ironing and Deb Chapman cut the unusable pieces for dog bed scraps.  Carol Thurston brought a couple of quilts she needed to sandwich and pin and was able to get that done by putting a couple of tables together.

Show and Tell:

Carol Thurston made some Christmas place mats

Bev Minnerly came with her usual lovely doll clothes and a pile of masks for the Youth Ranch.

Ellen Hein showed her completed strip quilt. (Since I got to add the backing and quilting, I gave it a multi-color cat themed backing and an edge-to-edge cat quilt design.)

Marty Rhyne Made a lovely flat-bottomed backpack for herself and showed a quilt top she completed.

Alice Meunier Showed an embroidered tile wall hanging she made - Starry Night Santa.

She also showed head coverings she made for her dentist son and scarfs for him to cover exposed skin around his neck, as required, for when he is working.

I showed the lasted quilts that I quilted and Ellen put the binding on.  The first 2 quilt tops were sewn together by Diana Gosselin.





The pink and green one was put together by Diane Placek.










 A large Hospice quilt top was turned in by Charlotte Cecilio, and the standard size Hospice quilt top was made by Tonya Carrell.



****************

Last week I delivered items for the Youth Ranch to Skip Bryan and sat down with him to find out the status of the Youth Ranches.  In 2018, President Trump signed into law The Family First Prevention Services Act.  The link above will take you to the actual act, if you want to read for yourself.  This link gives a shorter summary from a group supporting it - The Children's Defense Organization.

Basically, this is a well meaning bi-partisan law that seeks to keep children in their own homes and prevent them from entering the foster care system, or if they need to be in foster homes, it prioritizes  family homes and not group homes.  The emphasis is now on rehabilitating the family.  However, it's not always safe for kids to return to their parents and foster families are rarely willing to take in more than one child from a family, forcing siblings to be separated,    This is where the Sheriff's Youth Ranch and similar facilities have helped.  The Live Oaks Ranch has separate cabins for girls and for very young children, so that siblings could live at the same camp and still see each other.  Live Oaks currently has several sets of siblings.  Passage of this law meant that the Sheriff's Youth Ranches will loose $3.09 million in federal funding next year because this money is being diverted away from group homes and into other services.

A similar program run by the Baptists has closed due to this change in funding allocation.  The  Sheriff's Youth ranch program is closing one of the sites that had mostly foster kids.  They are renovating two cabins at Live Oaks and would like to build 2 more so that kids displaced from the closed facility might go there, but there is a budget shortfall without the federal funds.  Of course, they are looking for donations to offset the shortfall, but the 2021 status is in question.

Several of you have asked how many kids are at each location.  Currently :
Live Oak has 62 boys and girls in 6 cottages.  Two more cabins are under renovation.
Safety Harbor has the capacity for 30 youth in 3 cottages
Bradenton has 2 cottages so they can house 20 boys and girls.
Bartow has 5 cottages that can house 48 boys and girls.
The summer camps are held in Barberville and Caruth Camp in Ingles/Yankeetown.

I will keep you all updated on the Youth Ranch status.  For now, they are still operating.  The items we make that they most need right now are:
zipper bags
pillowcases
drawstring backpacks
throw/lap quilts (approximately 50" x 65")

************************
I will not hold a meeting next week because I have a medical appointment I couldn't schedule on any other date.  Our next meeting will be July 8th.  Hope to see you then.

Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader

Club Notes - June 17, 2020

This afternoon we held the first non-restricted meeting in 3 months.  Only six ladies joined me for our afternoon activities.  I was expecting a few more, but I totally understand the hesitancy.  Despite the loosening of restrictions, COVID-19 is still out there.  Those who are coming out to meetings have assured me that they have not mingled with large groups of people and have consistently worn masks and practiced social distancing.

I received a call from a representative of the recreation groups, asking if our club was meeting yet. They are contacting all the club leaders to see how many are willing to start back up in July.  Although it is up to each group, it sounds like they are encouraging as many clubs as possible to start up again.

The tables in our room are now set the same way they always have been.  The only difference is that there are only 2 chairs at each table, set diagonally across from each other.  7 of the tables are near the walls outlets so up to 14 of us could bring sewing machines.  No one brought a machine today, so we concentrated on other activities.  I brought a box of fabric scraps and several potential quilt backs.  The fabric scraps needed to be sorted through for larger pieces and much of it, along with the backings, needed to be ironed.  I also cut some fabric for borders on some of the quilt tops that have been turned in.  As I said in a prior note, I have been laying out fabric squares to design quilts and handing them to Diana Gosselin to sew together. She brings me back the quilt tops and I add borders, put them together with batting and backing and quilt them. I have a stack of quilt tops to work on now, and was able to find border fabric for several of them.

Yesterday a friend from Allamanda brought me a bag full of large fabric pieces that will probably be good for more backings.  I handed 4 twin quilts and 2 hospice quilts to Ellen for binding today and she gave me one more quilt top.  It looks like I have enough to keep me busy for the week.

In other news, I delivered 35 regular and 3 extra large dog beds to the Marion County Animal Services yesterday. I was originally planning to give half to the South Lake Animal League, but when I tried to contact them I found out that they are temporarily closed.

So far 61 masks have been handed in for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch Summer camps.  I am going to try to deliver these to Skip tomorrow afternoon.  If anyone has any more to add, I need to have them by noon tomorrow.

Show and Tell:

 Carol Thurston showed a rug and a quilt that she made.

Diane Placek has started on an ambitious project - a bargello quilt.  She showed her progress so far and the pattern (which her husband asked her to make) she is working towards.

Carolyn Grasso came with a stack of pillowcases, some drawstring backpacks with matching zipper bags, and a stuffed frog.

I showed a baby quilt I made for my great-nephew and his wife's first baby, due in July.

Laura Tomich left a bunch of zipper bags in my cart and Mic Pickard left 6 dog beds.

Lu Karatzas stopped in to say hi and to bring some flowers to acknowledge the 4th anniversary of our club.  I brought oatmeal raisin cookies to celebrate the anniversary as well.  This week marks a new start for our club.  We are back to meeting every Wednesday afternoon now.  I hope to see a few more of you next week.


Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader

Club Notes - June 3, 2020

We conducted another experimental meeting this afternoon.  I obtained permission to use both the Hula Lounge and Beach Club rooms, with only 6 people in each room.  When I sent out the invitation for members to sign up to attend, 7 ladies responded, so I decided to split the group into 2 meetings, with 4 in the Hula room and 3 in the Beach Club room, and me going from one to the other. I asked the first group to come 12:30-2PM and the 2nd to come 1:30-3PM.  As it turns out, an hour would have been enough for this small a group.

We started show and tell with the first group at 12:45PM.

Pat Pipa came with a bag full of completed projects.
A crocheted shawl and a tote were supposed to be items for Busy Hands' sale.

 She also made a bunch of back of chair book bags that Busy Hands promised to one of the local elementary schools.


One of Pat's daughters is an ObGyn in Colorado.  Pat is crocheting a bunch of baby hats for her to give to her patients.







 She also gave me a bag of masks for the Youth Ranch summer camp councilors and a bunch of zipper bags.

 Eileen DiSanto also came out with a bag full.  She made a big stack of the chair book bags for Busy Hands,  a bunch of masks,

a Cornerstone Hospice Veteran's quilt, and some pillowcases.

Ellen Hein showed her most recent outfit for her 3 year old granddaughter. This little girl likes cars, so Ellen appliqued a VW on a shirt for her.

 One of our newer members, Tonya Carrell came out this afternoon too.  She is heading north for the summer, so this was the last opportunity for her to join us.  She showed a pillowcase she made , her masks,  





and a great Cornerstone Hospice quilt. 

We wish her safe travels and hope to see her around October.

Although Mic Pickard was scheduled for group 2, she joined us in group 1 too, (and we had room).  She came with a nice size doggie bed.






 In between meetings, Ann Knoff came to give me a bag of masks and to fill my Gem car with lots of fabric scraps.   I kept 3 big bags full and Mic took the rest home to fill some more dog beds.

Bev Minnerly also came a little early to say hi to the group 1 ladies.  Since there were still only 5 of us in the room, this stayed within the rules.

Before 1:30 I left group 1 to chat on their own while Bev, Mic and I went to the Beach Club room.  Charlotte Cecilio was the 3rd to join us for that part of the meeting.

 

Charlotte came with a Hospice Veteran's quilt made with beautifully coordinated drier sheet blocks.




 Bev has been busy trying to use up all the little pieces it takes to make Giving Doll clothes.

 I showed 5 quilts to both groups.  The first 4 are charity quilts. 

 I found 8 hand-appliqued blocks in our big-block stash and put them together with some of my fabric for sashing.


For the next 3 I put together the design and handed them off to Diana Gosselin to sew together.  She returned the quilt tops to me to finish.

 This one has animals squares separated by as many solid greens as I could find and a border of bikes and cars going around the edge.

This one has race cars separated by wavy green blocks.  I added an extra border to make it a little bigger when Diana returned it.

This one is made up of 7"x9" blocks that seemed already coordinated, with an outside border of miscellaneous 6.5" blocks from our stash,


For each of these, once I quilted them I gave them to Ellen Hein to finish the binding.


These are all collaborative efforts. 

There are more to come.  I have 4 or 5 tops waiting to be sandwiched and I gave Diana 5 more quilt kits that she is working on. I am continuing to design and bag more kits, if anyone would like to put some together..  We have SOOOOO many squares cut.  So far I have only been working with 6.5" and some 5" squares.  When I exhaust ideas for these I will move to the smaller squares.

I also finished one of my own UFO's, a Harry Potter quilt.  I used a flying owl panel and a parliament  of owls fabric for the backing, and quilted it with an edge-to-edge pattern of keys.





When I got home tonight I heard that Governor DeSantis announced that Florida will be moving to phase 2 of reopening on Friday.  From what I read, among other things, this increases allowed social gatherings to increase from 10 to 50.  Social distancing is still required, so I don't know what this means for our meetings, but I will let you know as soon as I know.  I am not going to schedule  another meeting until I receive more  information about what we can and can't do.  Our tri-county area has been fortunate in that we have not had a large number of COVID-19 cases, so I am hopeful.

In the meantime, please stay safe.