Club Notes - Aug. 4, 2021

We had a small group today, only  8 members,   I received a large amount of fabric yesterday, mostly fat quarters, and made this available to anyone who could find a use for it.  I also printed out several patterns for quilts using fat quarters and challenged anyone to select fabric from the stash.  Carol Thurston took me up on the challenge.  

 Last week I delivered 8 of our lap quilts to 2 DaVita Dialysis sites here in The Villages. 

I was asked how many walker bags we have delivered.  So far this year we have given Helpertunity 41 walker bags, 37 of which were given between June 19^th and July 31^st.  I have another 8 that came in yesterday and today, which will bring our today to-date to 49.  I have more kits, but since I will be away for a few weeks, I will bring them in September.

I also dropped off 4 quilts (without batting),  3 fleece blankets, 8 drawstring backpacks, 4 zipper bags, 4 stuffed dinos, and miscellaneous toiletries to the Support our Troops organization.

Show and Tell:

Pat Pipa made several zipper bags for our sale.

Mic Pickard made several matched microwave bowl sets 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a set of “round-to-it” coasters for our sale.

 

  

 

Carole Lamb made zipper bags from some pre-quilted fabric from our donation stash,

 

 

 

 

 a pillowcase, 

 

 

 

and some walker bags.
 

 

New member Liz Manzione made a pillowcase

 and showed curtains she is working on.

 

 

Donna Rissman made 2 walker bags.

She also talked to us about the situation with the Fire Departments and ambulance services in The Villages. There is a plan to eliminate the current Villages Fire Departments and fold them all into the  Sumter County Fire System.  The current firemen, EMS, and other staff would have to reapply for jobs in the new Sumter county system, where they intend to have fewer employees, but would be spread out over all of Sumter County, rural areas as well as the more densely populated area of The Villages.  We would lose many of the personalized services that The Villages Fire Department has provided in the past.  This also involves the EMS and ambulance services that The Villages fire department has provided in the past.  If you have read about this, you will know that the company that Sumter county has contracted for ambulance services has had terrible response times, sometimes up to an hour, to get someone to the hospital.  We are an elderly community and many of us moved here with the promise of quality health care, but we can’t get that if we can’t get qualified EMS to our home and quick transport to a hospital when we need it.   I encourage you all to research this issue and write to your homeowners association and county representatives.

I got a little worked up about Donna’s news (as you can tell) and forgot that I had some things to show.  I noticed them later in the meeting.

Last week we found some fabric in the FQ box that had lots of little pieces fussy-cut out of flowers.  I remembered Donna’s show and tell from a few weeks ago and fussy cut all the full flowers from these fabric.  I then glued them onto note cards to sell.

 

I also showed 2 quilts.  I’m not sure who made the tops.  I quilted them and Donna completed the binding.  They will go into storage for the next donation opportunity.

 Lastly, I showed my fractured art pieces.  

 

These are different since I experimented with fabric that had the same design but different colors.

 

After show and tell, some of us went through the latest donations.  We filled 4 dog beds with scraps.  Several ladies looked through the “fat quarters” and discovered some had pieces cut out.  Mic took most of it home to sort so I can make appropriate cuts in the future.  I sorted another bag into potential backings, possible pillowcase bodies, smaller pieces, and home décor fabrics for walker bags or dog beds.

I also selected some squares from our 7.5” box and laid out a quilt-top design.

 

 

Next week Donna will demonstrate a table runner using border fabric.  More info will be provided in a separate email.  I will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks, but Pat Pipa and Mic Pickard will be running the meetings.  Mic took lots of supplies, so there will be plenty for you to work with.

 

Have a great week.