Club Notes - September 21, 2022

You can tell today was the first day of Autumn There were 17 ladies attending this  afternoon’s meeting. I brought 2 boxes of skinny fabric strips and a stack of white 10” foundation squares for today’s demo.

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly made 3 more walker bags.

Pat Pipa made a walker bag 

and embroidered 2 sets of lace earings.

A few weeks ago we received 2 sets of blocks sewn together in a 5 by 6 missing a few blocks.  I added blocks in the empty spots and sewed the 2 panels together.  The result was still too small for a quilt so B.J. Herter took them and added several borders made from 4” squares from our stash.  She turned in the finished quilt top today.

Ceal Pedersen showed a bunch of teddy bears she made.

Louise Stem showed her first completed walker bag.  She also showed a bunch of the fabric strip blocks she is working on, but she flashed them too fast for me to get a picture.

Candy DeGarmo showed a tied quilt 

and a table topper she bought.

Ellen Hein showed the quilts she completed the binding for this week. 

The first 2 are quilts I made 

and the third is one she made. 

Ellen also finished a project carrier bag

Deb Chapman showed a runner she made.

 

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For today’s demo Ellen showed how to make quilt blocks using strips of fabric sewn onto squares of old sheets.  The idea is for each lady to make one or more blocks using one color strips. When they are turned in one of us will trim them to be all the same size and they will be put together to make quilts.  I supplied a stack of 10 inch foundation squares and also brought out the box of dryer sheets as a smaller block option.  I was happy to see most of the fabric strips that were color sorted last week went out today.  I’m always grateful to go home with one less box than I came in with.

Next week will be a bit different.   Mic and I each have boxes of items for the October sale and we will be bringing them all in to be inventoried and priced.  If we split up into small groups this should go quickly. 

We will also have a visitor next week.  Sarah Jackson is a reporter for the Sheriff’s Youth Ranch magazine.  She will be coming in to interview us and take some photos for an article she is doing on the various clubs in The Villages that support the ranches.  I would love to see a good turnout for her visit.

As always, show and tell is still welcome, especially to show our visitor what we do.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - September 14, 2022

There were 13 of us this afternoon. I brought 4 boxes of 4.5” squares, the box of big blocks, quilted pieces, and some odd fabrics. Mic also brought 4 bins of  fabric pieces at least fat eight size or larger.

We got 4 of the safety rotary cutters that Anne Knoff told us about last week.  They work differently than the ones we are used to, so I gave a demo of how to properly use them.  They are safer than the other ones if used properly.  I am asking anyone who has not used them before to ask for a demo before using them.

Show and Tell:

Liz Manzione started us off with a bunch of stuff.  She started with a stuffed doll

 and 2 stuffed dinos.

Then she showed several zipper bags she made. 

 Finally, she added binding to a couple of fleece blankets, which will be greatly appreciated by some military families in the Ocala Forest.

Deb Chapman made a purse using fabric strips.

Bev Minnerly handed in 4 more walker bags.

B.J. Herter showed 2 Christmas fabric boxes she made  She will be showing how to make these in a few weeks.

Ceal Pedersen showed another of her talents.  She used to make multi-layered wooden puzzles and she brought a couple of these to show us.

Candy DeGarmo is getting back into sewing, learning some of our projects and showed 2 microwave bowls she completed.

Ellen Hein showed a quilt she made, I quilted, and she completed the binding.  

She also made a quilt top for Cornerstone Hospice that she turned over to me fo quilt.

Louise Stem has learned to make folded fabric blocks on old sheet foundations.  She is excited about this project and showed several of the blocks she started.  We are looking forward to seeing the completed quilt.

 

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For today’s demo I showed how to make project carrier bag.  The instruction for this is attached to my email.

Next week I will bring back the fabric strips that were sorted last week, along with a stack of 10” squares cut from some of the white fabric we have accumulated.   Since Ellen and Louise are having so much fun with this type of work, we thought we’d share the joy.  I will ask each person to take 1 of the 10” squares and 1 color of the sorted strips.  We will show you how to turn this into  a quilt block   Once we have enough blocks we can tuen them into a quilt.   It will be fun to do a joint project..

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - September 7, 2022

There were only 9 of us this afternoon, but lots of activity.  I guess some are still away for the Labor Day holiday. I brought 2 boxes of random fabric strips, which a couple of ladies decided to sort by color and size. They did such a great job that I came home with one box instead of 2.

Mic also brought 4 bins of larger fabric pieces and I brought a box of fabric to add to these.  I also brought the new box of fiber fill.

Thanks to that sorting that was done last week I was able to cut 80% of that fabric into squares or strips this past week.  We are getting more organized so the fabric we have is more easily selected for use. 

The craft sale date is creeping up on us.  Oct 8^th is only 4 weeks away.  I have submitted a request for a 2^nd table so we will have plenty of room to display our items.  We will be selecting some quilts to sell as well as the other items we have been making.  We also have 3 vintage quilt tops that we will offer for sale.

We could still use some more help at the sale, particularly between noon and 2pm.  This should be an easy time, since it is the end of the scheduled sale time.  If you can spend an hour or 2 to help, I would greatly appreciate it.

I’d like to remind everyone that safe sewing and cutting habits are important.  When you use a rotary cutter, please make sure to close the blade every time you set it down.  If you make a habit of this, it will eventually become second nature and will prevent the next person who picks it up from getting hurt.

Ann Knoff told us about some self-closing rotary cutters, so I am going to purchase some of these to replace the ones we have.

Show and Tell:

Ceal Pedersen showed a quilt top she made from some of our 10” squares.  She said she will do a demo on how to make these easy blocks in the near future.

Deb Chapman has been working on a  row of the month quilt with The Bees and today she showed the finished quilt top.

Ellen Hein brought back a bunch of quilts that she completed the binding on. 

Mary Ellen Boutin made this quilt top.

Carolyn Grasso made this one

B.J. Herter made this one.

I did the next 3.

Ellen also handed in in a fleece blanket with an Army motif,

 another quilt top she made,

 and showed one she is working on for her grandson

Louise Stem finished another set of microwave bowls.

B.J. Herter showed a little stork for an expectant mother 

and a wall hanging for her daughter’s new house.

Bev Minnerly made 2 walker bags.

Carolyn Grasso couldn’t stay for the meeting, but she dropped off 2 dolls she made.

For today’s demo I showed how to make a clutch purse from a fat quarter.  This is a pattern I developed after looking at some other more complex ones.  The instruction I came up with is attached to the email.

As many of you know, I cut the fabric scraps we get into squares and strips.  I have dies to cut fabric into 3.5”, 4.5”, 5”, 6.5”, 8.5” and 10” squares.  In future weeks I will bring in boxes of these, but only one size at a time. I also have dies to cut 1.5”, 2.5”, and 3.5” strips.  I often cut much of the white fabric into 1.5” or 2.5” strips for use as sashing.  If you can use any of thatm, let me know.

Next week I plan to repeat a project we have done before, but which you will find very useful,  It is a project carrier, a way to organize the fabric and pattern for each of your projects.  I have several of these and now find I could use another, smaller one.  I will send out the requirements in a later email.

Hope to see you next week.

 

Lois