Club Notes - Oct 6, 2021

We welcomed 14 members (including one new member) and 1 guest this afternoon. We were happy to see one of our snowbirds, Brenda Severa, back with us. Our sales total from the craft sale increased with a few more sales between Saturday and today. Although I am pleased that we did so well, I think we may have done better than some of the other tables. This evening I responded to a survey from the craft festival organizers and told them how disappointed we were with the advertising efforts. They reported only 475 people came through the event. I think this is a pitiful turnout when there are over 100,000 residents in The Villages. Hopefully, this feedback will affect this planning for the 2022 craft sale. 

 

 Show and Tell:

 Bev Minnerly brought a drawstring backpack 

 

 and 2 walker bags. 

 

Brenda Severa showed a pumpkin hanging decoration 

 

 

 

 

 

and 3 quilt tops she made from 3-yard quilt top patterns. 

She also brought the 3-yard pattern books for everyone to look through.

 

 Ellen Hein showed the charity quilts she finished the binding on this week. 

 

I made the tops for 2 of them from our orphan 7.5 inch squares,

 

Deb Chapman made the top for the next, 

 

 

 

and Ceal Pedersen made the tops for the last 2. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New member Evelyn Bowman showed a tree skirt 

 

 

 

 

and a t-shirt quilt she made. Although she claims to be a self-taught beginner, she did a beautiful job on both.

B.J. Herter showed a lovely quilt she made for her daughter. 

 

Deb Chapman started by showing the project from 2 years ago.

 

 

She also took a bunch of Christmas fabric from our stash and is still working on a quilt, but showed a table runner she made from some of the extras.

 I showed 2 drawstring backpacks I embroidered. These were UOFs that I finished during the afternoon. 

 

 

 

***************************** 

 The demo for this afternoon was for a travel tray to keep your jewelry, change, etc. from getting lost when you stay in a hotel overnight. You can make this any size you want. I made one 9.5" square this afternoon. You can also use snaps or magnets instead of the velcro in the pattern. I recommend that you attach your fasteners to the inside fabric BEFORE you sew the 3 pieces together so they don't show through the outside fabric, but that is just my preference. In addition to being a handy travel accessory, this can be a nice stocking stuffier gift for anyone who travels. I brought 2 boxes of fabric that was donated recently for everyone to look through, plus the large squares in our donation stash. (7.5, 8.5, and 10 inch squares) Since we had a little space in the closet, I left these on our shelf in the closet for next week. That means I can bring some different size squares next week. If you have a preference (6.5", 5", 4.5" or 3.5"), let me know before next week.

  I will send another reminder later, but I strongly encourage you to attend Gary Kudow's talk at the Allamanda rec center next Tuesday at 1PM. He will be talking about one of the charities we support - Project Support our Soldiers. If you want to understand where the items you create go and what is needed, this is a must. Rather than have 2 separate talks, we have invited members of Allamanda Quilters and Sewing 'N More to attend this talk. For anyone concerned about COVID, this is a large room and seating has been arranged to leave space between seats so we are not crowded together. I hope some of you will attend. 

Next week there is no demo. It will be a free sewing day to work on whatever you desire. I received another 5 bags of fabric this afternoon that I have transferred into boxes for easier transport. There are a lot of large pieces in these boxes. I will bring them next week with the hope that you will help me sort the fabric. I will send an email later explaining how the fabric needs to be sorted to make it most usable for our efforts. Hope to see you next Tuesday and Wednesday. Lois

Results of Oct 2nd Craft Sale

 

Thanks to everyone who came out to help with the craft sale today.  A special thanks to Ceal Pedersen for bringing her craft show shelves.  They attached perfectly to the back of the table and allowed us to show so much more of our items than we could have if we just had the table.

At the end of the day, we made $331.   Our Charity fund now totals $532. That is enough to buy another bolt of batting when we need it and possibly some fabric for children's pillowcases for Case for Smiles. 

We seem to get enough other scrappy donations for walker bags, drawstring backpacks and items such as tote bags, zipper bags, and scrappy quilts, So I am not concerned about our ability to make those smaller items.

For future reference, here is a list of the items that sold:

Aprons

Bags, Christmas Gift

Bags, Large Tote

Centerpieces

Coasters-Round Tuit

Fabric Boxes

Gift Tags

Giraffe

Hot Pads, Hexi

Microwave Bowl Sets of 3 sizes

Mug Rugs

Oven Mitts, Long

Pink Quilt (child's)

Potholders (Pumpkin)

Potholders (Square)

Pouch, Cosmetic

Pumpkin, stuffed

purse

Reading Pillow

Sweater

Wall Hangings

Zipper bags

In the future, I hope we can concentrate on a smaller variety of items, especially items that are unique. 

The items that did not generate a lot of interest were:

Bags, small Tote

Book, Soft

Candy Corn

Cards, Note

Coasters

Coasters, Denim

Coasters, Wine

Eyeglass Case

Fabric Boxes - Large

Hot Pads - singles or sets under 4

Jar Ornaments

Lanyards, for masks or glasses

Knit caps

Microwave bowls - singles

Mug Rugs set of 2 or less

Ornaments, Large

Placemats

Stocking, Christmas

Table Cloths, Round

I will send another email with next week's agenda.  Hope to see you then.

Club Notes - September 29, 2021

We had a busy, slightly chaotic, but very productive meeting this afternoon.  I retrieved everything I had in storage in boxes marked "Sale items".  We sorted them, counted how many of each item, and priced everything.  As items were marked, we packed them back in boxes to go back to my house until Saturday. 

Show and Tell:

 

 

Pat Pipa made a stack of gift card holders 

 

and a tote bog for our sale.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 She also finished a table runner that matches a wall hanging she completed last week.

Bev Minnerly finished a reversible basket and 2 walker bags.

 

 

Ceal Pedersen made 3 tote bags.

Audrey Phillips was very busy.  

 

 

She turned in 2 soft books,

one of which has a matching angel doll,

 a walker bag 

 

 

and several loom hats.  

 

 

 

She also finished a strip quilt top.

 

 

Ellen finished the binding on a quilt Ceal Pedersen turned in a few weeks ago.  

 

 

 

 

She  made a bunch of Christmas reusable gift bags for our sale for our sale.

 

 

 

 

 

She also made some Halloween hangings and a hanging scarecrow for her son's family. 
 

***********************************

Several ladies volunteered to help with our sale table on Saturday and I am grateful for the help.  I will send another email update after the dust settles.

I hope some of you who have not been able to get to meetings will take some time to come out to the craft sale on Saturday.  It will be at Savannah on Saturday,  8:30 AM - 2:30 PM.  Please tell your friends as well.  All proceeds from our table will be earmarked for the kinds of charity supplies we don't get donated, like quilt batting and, if there are funds left over, fabric for children's pillowcases.

Club Notes - September 22, 2021

 We had a fun, active meeting this afternoon, with 15 ladies attending, including one more potential new member.  Next week will be the last opportunity to turn in items for sale at the Oct 2nd craft sale.  Next week I will bring in all the items we have collected for sale so we can organize the items and  price everything. We won't have any demo so it will also be a free sew week.

Show and Tell:

 

Pat Pipa made some of the reversible fabric boxes, 

 

 

 

a wall hanging (from a panel found in our donation stash),

 and a bunch of reusable Christmas gift tags.

 

 

 

 

Diane Placek made a tote bag for the Women's shelter from our 4.5" square stash.

She recently purchased a new quilting and embroidery sewing machine and showed her first attempts at using it.  She did a test piece and embellished a hex hot pad.

 

 

 

Ceal Petersen made 2 quilt tops to hand in.

 

 

 

Bev Minerly made 4 reversible fabric boxes, 

 

a couple of microwave bowl cozies, 

 

 

 some walker bags, and some backpacks.

Carole Lamb made a Halloween gift bag.

 

Donna Rissman showed an idea she had for our sale, making ornaments from some upside down glass jars she found at the dollar store.  She will be making more of these for our sale.

She also showed an ornament decoration made from ribbons.

 

 

B.J. Herter made some Halloween Place mats with fun skeletons on the back.

Mic Pickard made some of the reversible fabric boxes 

 

and a microwave bowl caddy set.

Ellen Hein made some pillowcases and a sweatshirt jacket for her granddaughter.

 

 

 

 

She made some gift bags for our sale

 

 

 

 and three quilt tops she finished using panels from our donation stash.

 

  She also showed the charity quilts she finished the binding on this week.  

 

 

This week all the finished quilts were tops she made, I quilted, and she bound.

 

 

Liz Manzione finished her first walker bag.

 

 

 

I showed 2 reversible fabric boxes.

 

 

 

Laura Tomich is still not allowed to mingle with groups due to her fragile health, but she dropped off some zipper bags and small totes.

************************************************************

Today I described how to make a simple pumpkin potholder and several ladies tried this project.  I brought several boxes of other fabrics that the attendees looked through for ideas.  We also got several large bags of scraps, batting and finished dog beds.  I filled 4 dog beds and separated out some high-loft batting for future use.

As we packed the carts and started for the door, the heavens opened and we wound up packing Mic, Ellen and my cars in the pouring rain. With help from Liz and Lois (rec center staff), we got everything loaded.  I was soaked through by the time I was done and I'm sure Mic, Ellen and Liz were as well.  A half hour after I got home the sun came out and I was able to unload under the Florida sun.  Typical Florida weather.  Usually I can get home before the afternoon rains, but today either we left late or the rains came early.  Hope that doesn't happen too often.

Hope to see you next week.