Club Notes - July 26, 2023

 There were 11 members today, plus 2 guests – Lynn DelGado’s granddaughters (and Audrey Phillips’ great granddaughters).   We had a speaker at the beginning of the meeting to talk to us about some UF Health test cases they are conducting.  The current one is a 3 year study on Alzheimer’s, which starts with a sample of each participant’s skin.  Those who participate in the study get free MRI, CT’s, Xrays, etc. during the study.  Several of us hearing the presentation signed up to get notices of focus groups to get more information.  I am including a copy of the flyer for the study  as an attachment to my email.

Show and Tell: (https://sewingn-more.blogspot.com/)

Pat Pipa made a tote bag.

Carolyn Grasso made a giraffe,

 a tote bag 

and a row she stitched.

She also  offered several row-by-row kits and other fabric that she doesn’t plan to finish herself.

Ceal Petersen discovered rock painting, courtesy of her son and showed several examples, as well as the tools used for this art.  

Acrylic Paint and 2 coats of varnish are used for each rock.

The special tools have balls on the end instead of brushes.

Deb Chapman made several mug rugs and potholders for her children, who she is on the way to visit.

Diane Placek made some fall placemats

B.J. Herter made some Halloweem potholders.

Anne Knoff made a baby boy quilt top.

Audrey Phillips finished a crocheted shawl for Carolyn Grasso.

Audrey’s great-grandchildren Aubrey and Reagan showed the crafts they made during Camp Villages.

Aubrey's beaded alligator.

Aubrey's bracelet

Abrey's ring and braclet

Reagan and Aubrey made tie-die totes, using magic markers and alchohol to spread the ink.

Reagan

and Aubrey 

made beaded icicle ornaments

Aubrey and Regan showed the tool the use for weaving elastics.

I showed the 4 Seasons embroidery I have been working on all year.  I made it as 4 separate wall hanging that can be displayed together or separately, instead of the single wall hanging in the pattern.

 

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Today I showed a simple demo on how to make a microwave potato zapper.   I will send out the instruction in a separate email.  This is really easy, but does require all cotton fabric, thread, and batting, just like the microwave bowls. It might be good to made some of these with matching microwave bowl sets.

 

We had a very large fabric donation come in this week and I want to thank everyone who helped sort and measure all the pieces.  There were quite a few pieces 1 yard or larger.  The pieces larger than 2 yds I plan to put in our backing stash.  The rest I will try to bring again next week for you to look through, including some that might be good for pillowcases

 I also received a large bag of denim scraps.  If anyone is interested in this, let me know, otherwise it will go to Goodwill.

Next week I thought we could look ahead and make some fabric pumpkins. If you have any yellow, orange or light brown fabric and would like to make a pumpkin for your fall décor, please bring it. Some embroidery floss or yarn is also required.  More details in a separate email.

 Hope to see you next week.

Club Notes - July 19, 2023

There were 10 of us enjoying the food and games of our summer pot luck. Today’s trivia and bingo theme was animals.  The food was great.

 Show and Tell: 

Pat Pipa made a kid’s tote bag.

Carolyn Grasso made 2 giraffes waiting for stuffing 

and 20 tissue holders.

Deb Chapman showed a large quilt she made for her daughter.

Bev Minnerly came with a dog bed, 2 cats, 

2 pillow covers, 

a trivit 

and 4 pillowcases.

Louise Stem made 2 pillowcases

Mic Pickard made 2 totes 

and the tissue cases she fixed from last week.

I showed an Advent Calendar I made from a panel in our donations 

and a Thanksgiving quilt.

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Next week we will have a guest speaker from the UFHealth Precision Health Research Center. She will give a short talk about the research opportunities they currently have with The Villages community.  After show and tell we will revisit a previous project – Microwave baked potato sleeves.  I saw one of these for sale for  $15 each, so I think if we make some of these they can sell for $10.  They use the same all cotton materials as the microwave bowls.  I will replenish our supply of wrap N zap for these.

 

Hope to see you all next week.

Club Notes - July 12, 2023

 Today’s meeting was low-key.  There were 14 of us and  I brought all our 6.5” squares again.  We also had a bag of scraps delivered and some batting and thread donations.  We didn’t have a demo today, just continued the tissue case project. We also enjoyed a delicious cake Anne brought.

 Show and Tell:

Mic Pickard showed several Christmas tissue holders and a tote she made..

Eileen DiSanto made a cover for her Kindle..

Pat Pipa made tissue cases and a zipper bag.

Diane Placek made some tissue cases and a placemat.

Carol Riggs showed the tissue cases she made.

I showed 2 purses, 

3 tooth fairy book and pillow sets,

 and one Jonah and the Whale soft book.

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As you can see, the  tissue case project was very popular. I hope to see quite a few more come in for our October sale.

Next week we will take a break from sewing for some food and fun. If you can, please bring a dish to share at our summer pot-luck. Don’t worry if you can’t bring something, come anyway.  There is always plenty of food.

Club Notes - July 5, 2023

 This week I brought all our 6.5” squares for today’s project. There were 17 of us having fun after 2 weeks off.

 

Show and Tell: 

Mic Pickard showed a walker bag 

and a tote she made..

Bev Minnerly made several hex trivets.

Pat Pipa showed a “lazy girl” purse, 

a “potato chip” purse, 

and some placemats.

Charlotte Cecillio made some some dinos 

and Christmas Stocking coasters.

B.J. Herter made four dinos 

and 4 pot holders.

Louise Stem made some trivets,

 a set of microwave bowls,

 and 2 pillowcases.

 

She also showed a valance she made for her bedroom window.

Ceal Pedersen showed her latest quilt.

Audrey showed 2 lazy girl purses, one she made 

and one her daughter Lynn made, 

and a baby quilt. 

 

She also turned in a fidget quilt in response to the request we got. 

Finally, she showed fidget sleeve her daughter made for her husband 

and a badge she made for herself for Bunco and several she is selling to her Bunco team members.

I showed my latest completed UFO, an Owl quilt.

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After show and tell I demonstrated how to make a travel tissue holder. These use a method similar to the hex trivets. Each one requires 5 pieces of fabric 4.5” by 6.5”   The instructions are attached.

Last year I showed how I pin quilt sandwiches using pool noodles on PVC pipes. At the time we discussed getting a set for our club so I don’t have to bring my set in on request.  I finally got around to buying 3 pool noodles and 3 two yard long PVC pipes to go through them to make them stay stiff.  I brought a small quilt to today’s meeting so I could show how this works again.  This set will be stored behind the ironing boards and will be available every week for anyone who wants to use them.

Today’s tissue case project was very popular, so I had a request to repeat it next week.  I left the 6.5” squares in my car so I can bring them again next week. 

It is also time for our quarterly break from sewing for a party.  Our July 19^th meeting will be our summer pot-luck. 

On July 26^th we will have a guest speaker for the first 10 minutes of our meeting. Sara, from the UFHealth Precision Health Research Center is going to talk to us about the research opportunities they currently have with The Villages community.  After that we will have our normal meeting with a project TBD.

 

I am a little behind schedule tonight so the photos will be posted on the blog tomorrow.

See you next week.