Club Notes - November 11, 2027

We had a very busy afternoon. There were 14 of us in attendance.  In addition to some scraps that we didn’t get to last week, another donation of fabric pieces came in this afternoon.  We got busy sorting through it all and filling a load of dog begs.  These will be going to the Leesburg Humane Society this week.  The larger pieces were sorted into big pieces, squares, and medium size scraps that will either be made into toys or cut into squares.  Thanks to everyone who helped.

Show and Tel:

Lorraine Manz sewed  some of our squares together to make a quilt top/

Louise Stem finished her menstrual pad projects and showed us how all the components get packed together in one small casing, to be included with other items for Project Christmas Child.

Carolyn Grasso showed the critters she made, to be stuffed.

Eileen DiSanto made 2 dogs to be stuffed.

Pat Pipa handed in a walker bag.

Ellen Hein made 3 Christmas receiving blanket and burp pad sets and 12 burp clothes. 

She also showed a panel she added borders to 

and a quilt top that she did the binding on.

I made this one from a panel.

I made 6 toy owls 

and 4 Christmas place mats from my UFO pile.

Everyone was busy as usual for the rest of the afternoon. In addition to the sorting and dog bed filling, a group also stuffed all the flat toys that came in.

We talked a bit about the situation with the reduction in parking spaces.  A construction crew, possibly involved with the golf course renovation,  has taken up more than half of the parking spaces.  Most of us wound up parking close to the pool instead of anywhere near the rec center. When we vented to the rec center staff, they recommended that we email the facility manager with our concerns.  I will be sending an email tonight and I encourage anyone else who wishes to voice their concerns to email him as well.  I am attaching a copy of his business card to my email so you will have his email address.

Hopefully, next week will be a calmer meeting.

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - November 4, 2026

There were 13 of us in attendance today. Another of our snowbirds, Lorraine Manz, is back with us. Deb Chapman also returned from her summer travels.

Ken Severa came by to drop off some fabric scraps from Brenda’s stash.  We started going through some of it and will continue this effort next week. There were lots of other scraps that came in today and several ladies stepped up to cut and fill dog beds.

Show and Tell: 

Diane Placek made a stuffed toy from a fabric panel.

Ellen Hein made 26 receiving blanket and burp pad sets, and an extra 24 burp pads.  

She found a quilt top in a donation and turned it in with backing and batting. 

During the meeting she finished the binding on 2 more quilts.

Isabella O’Brian and Eileen St Clair showed a quilt they worked together on. 

Eileen completed the binding on a quilt I made.

Eileen also showed the microwave basket she made.

Everyone was busy as usual for the rest of the afternoon.  I put 2 tables together to pin my double-sided t-shirt quilt.  I started this 2 years ago and hope to finally get it done.

Ken Severa is selling Brenda’s 5 sewing machines.  I sent out info on 2 of them, The other 3 are, a BabyLock Evolve Serger, a 1955 Singer Featherweight, and a Brother Stellaire.  I will send out pictures in case anyone is interested.   He also has lots of fabric for sale.   He is busy measuring all the pieces, and will be selling most for $3 a yard.  There is some NFL fabric that he will be asking $5 a yard for.  No date for the sale yet as he is still struggling to measure it all.  He could use some help if anyone has some time.

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - October 28, 2026

 Today we had our Halloween potluck.  The date proved a conflict for several of our regular members, so there were only 9 of us to enjoy the food and games.  We did welcome a possible new member. She was looking for Happy Stitchers, who meet in Lake Miona at the same time, but came to El Santiago instead. We invited her to stay for food and games and she said she might come back next week.

Show and Tell: 

Carolyn Grasso showed the quilt she finished for her step great granddaughter.  It incorporated the child’s baby clothes.

Louise Stem showed more of the menstrual pad kits she completed. She has completed 96 of these for Operation Christmas Child.

Ceal Pedersen painted the face on a toy dog that Eileen DiSanto handed in last week 

and made 2 more dogs herself.

Our guest, Kening Mason, is a member of the Oriental Dance group in The Villages and she showed the opera costume that she made (by hand).

I showed the 2 placemats I made with fabric leftover from the Halloween quilt I showed last week.

  I also made 3 little owl toys and painted the faces on these myself,

After show and tell we began out games.  Instead of a regular trivia game, I gave out a list of phobia names to match with what they are a fear of.  It was a challenging list.  Out of 25 phobias, the winner (Ceal) guessed 8 correctly.  As usual, we also played several games of Halloween Bingo.

Next week we will be back to our normal activities.  I received several bags of scraps from Allamanda on Tuesday, so I will bring them, as well as some of other fabrics I have for you to select.

I have received a few requests for an accounting of how many items we have donated this year.  The following lists our main donations and does not include one-offs.  I will update this to show all our donations at the end of the year,

Donations 2026

142 Dog beds

 52 Drawstring backpacks

159 Holiday Stockings

 13 Hospice quilts

 10 Kennel quilts

167 Pillowcases

161 Quilts

    90 for Christian Care Center

    54 Advent Waterman's Hospital

29  Receiving blankets

49  burp pads

 

See you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - October 21, 2026

There were 14 of us in attendance today. The first of our snowbirds, Rita Massa, is back with us. She came with a bag of squares and several pillowcases.  I brought a bin of panels for everyone to look through, and most of the ladies took at least one to work on.

A gentleman who plays cards in the next room purchased 4 baby quilts from us, adding to our charity supply fund.  We also started the 50/50 again since there were enough in attendance to make it worthwhile.

We reminded everyone that there will be another fabric open house at Mic’s house this weekend.  All fabric is free for use in charity projects.  The event is on October 24^th, 2pm-4pm, and October 25^th, 10am-2pm.  The address is 2490 Five Forks Trail, in the villages of Tall Trees.

 

Show and Tell:

Louise Stem showed some of the menstrual pad kits she completed.

Ceal Pedersen showed this week’s stuffed animals.

Eileen DiSanto made a toy dog.

Ellen Hein made 25 receiving blanket and burp pad sets, 

plus another 6 burp pads.  

There was a fabric donation from one of the nurses at Advent Waterman’s Hospital, where we send these, and Ellen put it to good use.

She also showed an autumn table runner she made.

Pat Pipa showed 2 children’s sweaters that she knitted for the Busy Hands craft sale.

I showed a Halloween owl quilt I made.

Eileen St Clair showed one finished quilt 

and 2 quilt tops.

Everyone was busy as usual for the rest of the afternoon.

Next week is our Halloween party/potluck.  Put it on your calendar. Bring a dish to share, if you can. If not, come anyway.  There is always plenty to go around.   As always, costumes are optional but encouraged.   Also, bring 25 pennies, buttons, or anything else you have to mark your bingo cards, and a pen or pencil for the current quiz.

See you next week.

Lois