Member Activity - April 11, 2020

I have heard from a few of you, telling me how you are spending your time at home. Some you you have even sent photos.

Laura Tomich:   finished all the materials I had to make zipper bags, total 5.  I have made about 10 or 12 masks for family and friends who have contracted the virus, shopped for them and now I am going to paint some of my outdoor frogs that need to be refurbished out by my pond and waterfall.

Maybe then I will think about making a pool robe or cover up if we ever get to go back to the pool.

Still being positive and have not had any signs or symptoms of virus for which I thank God.  Hope the same goes for the Sewing & More Group.

Brenda Severa:  staying home but really missing my kids/grandkids.  We didn't get any visitors this year with this virus.  My husband helped me sort through all my fabric.  I don't know how this much fabric got down here but I guess a bin or two over the last 8 years really adds up plus what I bought down here.  He folded everything on 6.5" ruler, I sorted and got two rows of fabric in each bin with folded side up so I can see all the fabric.  Labeled each bin and did take a picture of each open bin.

1) I finished one 2009 Hoop Sister embroidered quilt.  All embroidery was done back then but had to do front and back sashing to put blocks together.  I hand stitched all the backing strips.  Not proud of it but it is done.

2)  Did face masks for us and for kids and families.

3)   Finished a simple serger class bag with zipper and flange but ruined 2 zippers trying to do with serger.  Took it apart and finished on sewing machine minus flange that too much got cut off with serger and no more fabric as was a kit.  It is DONE.

4)  Put binding on 3 fall table runners. Have one more tablerunner that needs to be quilted with edge to edge and binding put on (haven't found the binding yet).  Hope to quilt today.

5)  Cut binding for my first quilt ever from 1999--queen size.  Sent out to long armer but working too many hours and didn't get back to for several years but no binding.  Figured I would come across but never did.  Plain navy binding will have to do.  

6)  Embroidered an Easter pillow wrap.

7) Made 7 book pillows for charity.  Kindergarten classes in Fruitland Park and Wildwood.

I have been sewing couple times a week with 10 year old grand daughter on Kid Chat.  So glad she shares my love of sewing.  She is working on her third quilt (second string quilt).  She is my pride and joy!!  She has my mom's old Kenmore machine that sews beautiful.

 







 

 








 

 




   







 

Lu Karatzas: has been making masks just for me and my husband and a few neighbors.

EIleen DiSanto:  I am helping a neighbor sewing face masks for her mother who is a surgeon at the Villages Hosp.  I've already given 2 away to my friends.

Charlotte Cecilio: I have also been making masks for her family.  Three of them are R.N.s and working around the clock. We pray that everyone stays well and safe.

Lynn Kluczynski:  I have made 96 masks that were mailed to 27 people back in Ohio. I used Jenny Doan's pattern. It has taken me all week.

I gave Ellen Hein and Sue Campbell: 24 of the white pillowcases each.  Sue reported that she has finished putting cuffs on her batch.

I put cuffs on 12 the other day.  Yesterday I switched to sorting through a box of fabric donations, separating out WOF pieces that are wide enough for cuffs and cutting the smaller pieces into squares 3.5", 4", 5", 6.5", 8" or 10". (Those are the sizes of the dies I have for my Go Cutter).  

Today I needed something different, so I made a set of Matryoshka Nesting Bags on my embroidery machine.

 

Tomorrow I'll get back to putting cuffs on some more pillowcases.

Anyone else want to tell us what you've been up to?  We'd all like to hear what is keeping you occupied and that you are doing ok.

Stay Safe.

Lois Rose, Sewing N More Club Leader

Club Notes for April 8, 2020

Another week has gone by.  I hope everyone is well and keeping busy while staying home. 

As I told you a few days ago we delivered all the items we made for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch to Skip last week.  He turned them over to a representative of the Ranch on Friday.  Yesterday, I received a call from a man named Arvid who works for the ranch.  He asked me to convey their thanks to all of you for the generous contribution and for caring so much about these kids. At some point when things get back to normal he would like to come speak to our group.

Now for member updates:

Last year some time Ellen Hein made a quilt for a friend out of her husband's shirts.  She had some shirt fabric left over and made a tote bag for her out of them. 

A few weeks ago I gave Laura Paulk a bag of fabric and yesterday she returned the bag with 12 backpacks and 2 zipper bags.

I'm hearing that a number of you are working making masks for relative, friends, and some for donations.  So far I've heard Anne Knoff, B.J. Herter, Bev Minnerly, Diane Placek, Donna Rissman, Laura Paulk, Nita Hand, and Suzanne Browne.  I have made a few, but mostly for Ray and me and a few neighbors.

After finishing the Youth Ranch quilts, I started working on some of my UFO's  So far I have finished 2 of my own quilts and have started 2 more.  One of these is for a nephew and the other is a charity quilt.   I will not post photos of these since they are not going anywhere, you'll have to wait until the next time we get together for show and tell.

The rest of you, please email me and let me know what you have been working on or how you are passing the time at home.  Besides sharing it lets us know you are safe and well. You can choose to respond or email me directly and I will consolidate the messages into one so we don't overload everyone's email. 

As I mentioned in a previous message, I picked up a box of the white pillowcases for the Youth Ranch summer camps last week.  I found out later that Bev Minnerly already had another 48, so that means we have 168 to decorate.  Ellen Hein and Sue Campbell each took 2 dozen and I am working on some as well.  This task is easy.  All you need to do is sew a strip of fabric on the cuff to brighten up the plain white pillowcase.   They are institutional pillowcases and at Bev's suggestion, I washed them all to soften them up.  If you would like to work on some, let me know.  Even if you just want to try 1, that is fine.  Every little bit helps.  We don't have to return any until the end of May, and can continue to drop off more later as these 1 week camps run all summer.  I will drop the pillowcases you request in a bag by your door so there is no actual contact per the rules in place.

If you want to learn about the summer camps, go to https://www.youthranches.org/our-services/summer-camps.

By the way, I promised to send you some craft ideas while we are stuck at home.  One of the things I was going to talk about at a future meeting is how to make things like trivets or a message board out of wine corks.  You can get lots of design ideas on Pinterest, but the trick is in how to prepare the corks for cutting.   The trick is to cook them!

Bring a pot of water to a boil.

1. Place corks in a steamer pan or metal colander and let them steam for about 15 minutes.
2. Remove the cork with care- it will be hot- and place on a cutting board.
3. Use a serrated knife or, preferably, a hacksaw to cut the cork in half, slices, or designs.

You must work with the corks soon after taking them out of the pot because once they dry out again they will be back to their original crumbly state.  Lay out your design, then glue the corks together.  For a message board, you can arrange them inside a picture frame.   I challenge some of you to have fun and try this.  Just PLEASE be careful with the knife.

Stay safe and hope to see you all in May.

Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader

Donations to the Sheriff's Youth Ranch - April 2020

Ellen and I spent Thursday afternoon filling the duffel bags for the graduates.  We forgot to take pictures, so I did it when I was unloading my van and handing everything over to Skip.  Here are the pictures I took:

In addition to to gifts for the graduates, we gave a bunch of stuff for the younger kids, as you can see by how full my van was:

Thank you all for making this a reality.

Club Notes - April 1, 2020

I hope you all are staying safe.   As of Thursday night the official order from Gov. DeSantis to stay indoors goes into effect.  It will be at least another month before this situation gets any better,but I will continue to communicate with you and let you know what is going on.

I've heard from several more of our members regarding the projects that are keeping them busy. 

Lynn Kluczynski has been very busy.  She made 100 lined drawstring bags for Beads of Courage, and 6 Veteran's Hospice quilts.

In addition to the duffel bags and quilts she has been working on, Ellen Hein dropped off 20 masks at Joanne's.  I've seen on Facebook that Suzanne Browne has also been busy making lots of masks.

B.J. Herter made 3 dinosaurs.
Laura Tomich made a bunch of zipper bags for the Youth Ranch kids.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Charlotte Cecilio made an Honor Flight quilt top.  Here's the photo:

On Wednesday I stopped by Anne Knoff's house and picked up 6 completed quilts (made by members of Khaki Quilters), a bag full of zipper bags (made by her friend Cindy), a couple of dinosaurs(the ones BJ made), and a bunch of dog bed scraps.

Mic Pickard has finished the embroidered name tags for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch graduates.  We were short 2 pillowcases for the grads, so I made the last two.  We now have everything to give each graduated a duffel bag, a quilt, 2 pillowcases, and 2 zipper bags.  The extra zipper bags and smaller quilts we've accumulated will also be given to the Youth Ranch.  Ellen and I will get together within the next couple of days to fill the duffel bags and get them to Skip Bryan for delivery to the Ranch. Ellen and I have been in contact as we worked to finish the quilts over the past month.  By limiting the effort to just the 2 of us I hope to keep the social-distancing effort. 

I will update the previous blog post with photos of the quilts I just received and the 32 pillowcases going to the graduates.  Please continue to write to me and tell me what you have been doing while we have to stay home and stay away from each other.