Club Notes - January 15, 2025

We had a great afternoon today, with 24 ladies in attendance, including 1 guest and 1 new member.  The only way I can describe the activity is “a joyful noise”.  We had fun picking out toy patterns, cutting fabric, sewing and stuffing.   Ceal even brought in her paints to add the finishing touches.

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

Bev Minnerly showed some of the doll clothes she made for Dolls From the Heart.

She also showed some zipper bags she made.

Donna Rissman made a swirling table runner in Christmas colors for a friend.

Ceal Pedersen brought back a bag full of stuffed toys that she added the faces to.  She also showed a quilt top she made for her son..

Kathryn Jeter finished her folding box from last week’s demo 

and made some placemats for the house she is renting.

Eileen DiSanto showed the Oriental doll she finished.

Brenda Severa showed her latest embossed towels 

and a quilt top she made from scraps. (This pattern will be great for a future group project.)

Diane Saculla showed a baby quilt she made.

Mary Ellen Boutin came with a stack of walker bags.

 

After show and tell, everyone got busy working on the current batch of toys.  I think we all had a good time.

 

On February 1^st, we will be participating in the bi-annual Giving Showcase.  This is an event that highlights clubs in The Villages that give back to the community.  We will have a table next to Busy Hands, Happy Hearts so we can help each other as needed.  The event will be at Lake Miona rec center from 10AM-2PM.   If any of you would like to volunteer at the table for an hour or two, please let me know.  This is an easy job.  You only need to talk to people about our club.  No selling is involved.

Next week we will continue our toy production efforts.  I hope to see you then.

January 8, 2025

Happy New Year.  After the long holiday, it was good to see everyone.  There were 19 of us. Including 2 new members, 2 guests, and several returning snowbirds.  I brought the 4.5” squares and fiberfill. Mic brought the bin of smaller fabric pieces.   Carolyn Grasso couldn’t stay for the meeting, but dropped off 2 boxes of fabrics.

 Today’s demo was on how to make a small foldable fabric box.  I also showed a larger fabric box. 

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

Mic Pickard showed a vest she embroidered and talked about getting the special fabric at the Dollar Store.

Lorraine Manz came with 2 quilts, 

and made 2 placemats with the leftover fabrics.  

She also completed 2 toy rabbits from a panel we found in our donations.

Lisa Strahs-Lorenc showed some doll clothes she made for the Giving Dolls.

Deb Chapman showed a sampler quilt top she made.

Pat Pipa showed a pillowcase and a Chinese doll she made in an Allamanda class.

Ellen Hein is traveling so she dropped off the quilts that she finished the binding on for us to enjoy.

 

I think Anne Knoff handed in these baby quilts.

I put this together with the green 9-patch blocks that were handed in.

Last fall I asked everyone to take some of the red and blue 5" squares, along with small white squares and make snowball blocks.  This is the resulting quilt.

MaryEllen Boutin handed in this quilt top.

I added borders to panels to make 2 throw quilts.

I led a class on making dryer sheet blocks at Allamanda and this is the resulting quilt.

After show and tell, I demonstrated how to make the small foldable box. Several ladies attempted the project.  One of the lessons learned was that it is important to use a different fabric for the lining than for the outside of the box.   Otherwise the instructions can be more confusing.  I am going to take another look at the instruction and see if there are any places it can be made clearer.  I will send it out in a separate note.

 

We are due for our winter pot-luck party.  I think Jan29th will be a good date for the party.  Most members should be back from their holiday travels by then and our snowbirds should still be here. We can talk about it next week.  See you then.

Club Notes - December 11, 2024

 

All 12 of us gathered for the meeting yesterday spent the first few minutes catching up on news and sharing the good news that Lois has sent us all on her progress of healing.  I let everyone know that there would not be a designated leader for next week’s meeting, but that the room was available to any member who wished to use the space for a project.

 

Louise brought in a large donation of fabric that we all sorted through to find what we could use.  Lenora and Lorraine helped me stuff scraps that I brought into dog bed sleeves and I left with 5 completely filled and more scraps to bring back home for the next round of dog beds.  Lorraine, Suzette, and Lenora stuffed the animals that had been brought back and they all went home with another round of animals for Ceal to add her wonderful faces. 

 

We skipped doing 50/50 but Show and Tell was filled with fabulous output:

 

Mary Ellen made two tote bags made from 9-patch squares plus another tote. 

She also made time make a Christmas pillow for herself.  

AND, she turned in several 9-patch blocks for our quilting stash.

Lorraine finished a quilt from a pattern she saw made with 10-inch squares cut into triangles. She had consulted with Anne to figure out a way to add dimension and variety to the pattern and the black sashing really made the pattern stand out.

Ceal made two placemats: one for her grandson and one for her granddaughter that she is going to be visiting for the Holidays.

Ellen brought back her usual tremendous output of finished quilts – both fleece and one’s others had quilted and she put on the binding. 

She also finished two more quilt tops, a shawl and some mini-tree skirts for her daughter-in-law.

Everyone is looking forward to our first meeting in 2025 and we all shared best wishes for Happy Holidays.

Mic

Club Notes - December 4, 2024

It was great to be back after not meeting for 2 weeks.  There were 16 of us and lots of activity. We welcomed one new member.  A lady from The Villages Media came to visit us during the meeting.  She interviewed me and took video of several of the ladies as they worked this afternoon. 

I brought the latest fabric donation so there was lots to look through.  After everyone had a chance to check it out, I sorted what was left into dog bed sleeve fabric, possible quilt backs, and smaller but usable pieces.  What was left will go to Goodwill.  I also put some knit fabric aside in case Ellen wants to use it for baby hats.

 

Show and Tell:

Deb Chapman showed a couple of small table runners she made.

Eileen DiSanto showed a quilt she put together and I quilted for her.

Donna Rissman showed a table runner she finished, and a pillowcase.

Ceal Pedersen made some “hot fingers” pot holders.

Audrey Phillips came a little late and showed me a walker bag she made..

 

Next week Mic will be running the meeting.  I am having a knee replaced tomorrow and will be taking a week off to recuperate.   If there are any supplies you need, let me know and I will get them to Mic to bring next week.