Club Notes - January 28, 2026

There were 16 of us at today’s meeting, It was a low-key afternoon.  I put out the 5” squares, the fabric pieces, and the big orphan blocks. 

Today’s announcements were a recap of  upcoming events, as follows:

Jan 28- Feb 1 Fabric giveaway, 1pm-3pm each afternoon – at Mic’s house, Village of Tall Trees, 2490 Five Forks Trail

Feb 7^th Giving Showcase 10am-2pm at Lake Miona.  Lisa, Brenda and Carolyn have volunteered to help.  Stop by to check out all the wonderful organizations in The Villages.

March 7th  - Quilter’s Closet & Notions Sale at La Hacienda. 8:30am-12:30pmRoxann Walas has offered to help 9:30-10:30. . I am looking for a few volunteers to help in the other time slots.

March 1-April 30 – All Florida Shop Hop.  Purchase the magazine at one of our local shops to get free patterns and the official passport needed to register for prizes. There are prizes given at the shops plus regional and all Florida prizes. This is a fun way to get to know the shops.

Show and Tell:

Melanie Konopka showed 2 table runners that she made.

Louise Stem made a couple more pillowcases for the Ranch graduates, 

a prayer quilt for a friend who lost her mother.

Linda Greenbaum made some clothing protectors,

Bev Minnerly made a walker bag 

and 2 cats.

Carolyn Grasso made a quilt for her uncle.

Ceal Pedersen showed some more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us. She also shared her toy patterns.

Eileen St. Clair and Ellen Hein have been busy sewing binding on the quilts we have been working on.

Ellen also made pajamas for her grandchildren.

 

During the meeting Ellen worked on this quilt top for Cornerstone Hospice, and handed it in at the end.

For the rest of the afternoon, we all selected fabric, chatted, and worked on various projects.

The 5” squares continue to live in my car, so they will be back again next week.  I will also get the fabric pieces for toys out. The big, orphan blocks, 3.5” 4.5”, 8.5”, and 10.5” squares are stored in the closet and are available for anyone who want to make something with them.   I encourage anyone who wants an easy project to make some 9-patch blocks. Once we have enough, they will be turned into a quilt top.     We can also always use more toys, walker bags, drawstring backpacks, and zipper bags, Hope to see you next week.

Club Notes - January 21, 2026

There were 18 of us at today’s meeting, including one new member.  Thanks to the efforts of everyone sorting the 5 inch squares, , we now have almost 2 bins of 20 square packs.    I brought out the boxes of 3.5” squares for today’s project.

Today’s announcements were on upcoming events, as follows:

Jan 23-24 - Marketplace 2026 at Rohan Rec center, 9am-5pm Fri and 9am-4pm Sat.  More than 30 vendors, for all things sewing.  Scissors Sharpening, Basketmania, Door Prizes and more.  Admission $10 covers both days.

Jan 24^th – Memorial for Ernestine Vawter at Dignity Memorial Life Celebration Center, 7134 Powell Rd., Wildwood.  11-12 gathering, noon-1pm service, fellowship 1pm-3pm

Feb 7^th Giving Showcase 10am-2pm at Lake Miona.  Lisa, Brenda and Carolyn have volunteered to help.  Stop by to check out all the wonderful organizations in The Villages.

March 7^th  - Quilter’s Closet & Notions Sale at La Hacienda. 8:30am-12:30pm. I will be looking for a few volunteers to help for an hour or two.

March 1-April 30 – All Florida Shop Hop.  Purchase the magazine at one of our local shops to get free patterns and the official passport needed to register for prizes. There are prizes given at the shops plus regional and all Florida prizes. This is a fun way to get to know the shops.

Show and Tell: 

Lisa Strahs-Lorenc showed some Chemo hats she is making in the Abundance of Love Club.

Lorraine Manz made a stack of walker bags 

and a pile of drawstring backpacks.

Ceal Pedersen showed some more stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us.

(Mic told us that the lady at the volunteer desk at the hospital was excited to get the toys.  We gave them 36 in August and they were all out of them now.  We only gave them 24 this time because we gave a bunch to another charity.  Hopefully we can drop some off every 2 months.)

Carolyn Grasso showed another block in her current project.

Bev Minnerly turned in a pink dog bed.

Mic Pickard showed a casserole carrier for a friend in assisted living.  She made it with cotton fabric and wrap n zap batting so it can go in the microwave.  She also made several zipper bags.

Eileen DiSanto made a bunch of animals needing stuffing.

Linda Greenbaum showed an angel ornament made by a friend of her mother-in-law.

 

After show and tell, I demonstrated how to do paper piecing. I handed out templates for 2 strips of 6 “flying Geese”. For those who need some additional help, here is a youtube that might help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7Kx4Q7JSwQ

A few ladies tried the paper piecing exercise during the afternoon, and some others took the templates home to try on their sewing machine. Others matched up more sets of 5” squares or stuffed toys.  It was the usual busy and fun afternoon.

The 5” squares continue to live in my car, so they will be back again next week.  I will also get the fabric pieces for toys out.  Hope to see you next week.

Club Notes - January 14, 2026

 

There were 18 of us at today’s meeting, including one new member. Our snowbirds continue to trickle in.  Thanks to the efforts of everyone last week, we went from 4 bins of 5 inch squares to be sorted down to 3 bins.  I also brought out the 2 bins of small fabric pieces for toy making or other projects.

Ellen Hein, Kitchen Cook, Kris Ricardson, Diane Placek

Last Thursday the Wildwood Soup Kitchen invited us to visit and Ellen Hein and Diane Placek accepted the invite on our behalf. They began our meeting today by talking about how impressed they were with the operation.  People were lined up outside the door to get lunch, many as takeout. The staff serves hundreds of people 3 times a week.  When they are able to move into their new building they hope to expand to 6 days a week. For more info check out their web site https://wildwoodsoupkitchen.org/.  I will have some more photos at the end of this week’s blog

The Friends of The Sheriffs Youth Ranch monthly meeting is usually on Wednesday, but this week it was on Tuesday, so I was able to attend.  Wayne Witxzak, who is the Director of Development, acknowledged Sewing N More for the duffle bags we give the graduates each year. There were several other presenters, including one of the boys who is graduating this year, Shaylin.  He is currently learning IT by working in the ranch office and plans on studying cyber security.  He is also active with the church and is going to Romania this summer on a Mission with the chaplain.  You can learn more about them at https://www.youthranches.org/.  If you click on “THE RANCHER” at the top of the page you can read their magazine online.

Show and Tell: 

Lisa Strahs-Lorenc showed some hearts she makes for children in the hospital, 

and an adult clothing protector.

Carolyn Grasso made a cat 

and 2 wall hangings for a neighbor.

B.J. Herter showed some toys made by a friend in another sewing club.

Brenda Severa embroidered a small banner to encourage her to get back to sewing.

Eileen DiSanto made a bunch of animals needing stuffing.

Ceal Pedersen showed a bag full of stuffed toys that she painted the faces on to finish them for us.

Sue Campbell turned in a stack of pillowcases.

Audrey Phillips came a little late and showed a lap robe she is crocheting.

Diane Placek turned in a zipper bag.

I showed 2 quilt tops that I made.

 Ellen Hein showed the latest batch of quilts that she added the binding to. I don't remember who did most of these quilt tops.  If you recognize one as your work, let me know and I will add your name.

This one is from Khaki Quilters

Eileen St. Claire made this top.

I enjoyed using this parrot backing for it.

After show and tell, everyone got busy selecting fabric, sorting squares into sets of 20 for our sale and otherwise having fun.

Next week, we will continue sorting squares, but I also am hoping to bring a paper piecing project to use some of our small squares.  I hope you can join in the fun.

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P.S.  Kris Richardson, who is co-president of Allamanda Quilters, went to the Wildwood Soup Kitchen with Ellen and Diane.  She sent me the photo at the top of this blog and the following photos.

Our donation was submitted through Allamanda Quilters

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Nothing goes to waste. Any leftover food from the plates goes into the white bucket next to the trash can, and is given to a local farmer as animal feed.