Club Notes July 22, 2020

Another week gone by and most of us are still in self-isolation, or something close to that.  I am still only going out among people for groceries and being very careful with that.  I have been going up to Silver Springs on Mondays, but my volunteer job there is in a back room away from any people except 2 of my assistants.  The other 2 ladies who work with me are coming in on alternate days so we can continue to keep social distancing.

Today there were only 3 of us at El Santiago.  We had plenty of room to work without getting too close.

Before the meeting, Ann Knoff met me by my cart and turned over a bunch of bags of fabric. I left the larger pieces in my cart and will look at them later.  There were lots of what looked like dog bed scraps, so I brought those bags inside to work on. 

Show and Tell:

Bev Minnerly brought the doll clothes she completed this past week.




Deb Chapman has been making her own seasonal yard flags and she showed her latest "Spring" flag.

In my last note I mentioned that I am putting together kits to make drawstring Backpacks for the Sheriff's Youth Ranch kids.  One of the suggestions was to put an a pocket on the outside of each backpack, both for quick access and to dress the plain bags up a bit.  I made some outside pockets for these kits, some embroidered with fun sayings.

When I left the meeting I found a bag B.J. Herter left in my cart.  It contained 7 dog beds and 2 baby quilts, complete with matching stuffed dinos.




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After show and tell we went through the fabric scraps, pulling out some larger pieces we can re-purpose and filling 6 small to medium sized dog beds with the rest..  When we finished that, Bev and Deb began looking through the box of 8" squares and making matched pairs. Bev took some home to sew them into half-square triangle blocks and I took the rest.

I took the matched 10" squares home last week and sewed a quilt top together with them.  You will see the result in a few weeks when it is complete.

I also spent time this afternoon ironing a string of black and gray fabric strips in half.  Last week I sewed all the 2" black and gray strips together in one long strip.  Once folded in half and ironed I cut the strip into 2 yd lengths to make straps for the drawstring bags.    I'll fold them again and sew the edge closed to make the straps.  By next week I should have the kits ready to hand out, along with instructions, for anyone wanting to put some of these together.

Stay safe and hope to see you soon.

Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader

Club Notes - July 15, 2020

There were only 4 of us today, but we got a lot accomplished.  Someone left some dog bed scraps for us in the closet and Bev Minnerly went to work on them right away.   I started by cutting a roll of unusual fabric that Ann Knoff gave us last week into13 - 50 inch sections.  They will eventually become drawstring backpacks, but since they are plain silver, we thought we could dress them up a bit with a colorful outside pocket or some embroidery before we sew them together.

Show And Tell:

 Deb Chapman brought a quilt top she has been working on using some blocks found in our donation stash.  It came out great!







She also brought her first attempt at making a drawstring backpack.  The bag was great but she needed a little help on how to thread the drawstrings.  Ellen Hein and Bev showed her how and she was able to hand in a completed backpack.

Bev showed her weekly set of completed doll clothes.

Ellen brought back 4 of the quilts I gave her last week, after adding the binding.

I finished a baby quilt that will be saved for when one of my great nieces or nephews has the next addition to the family.

Pat Pipa stopped in to say hi.  She dropped off 4 stuffed dinos and a bag of 9-patch blocks she made from 3.5" squares she picked up last week.  She left with more 3.5" squares.  

I forgot to mention that Pat dropped off  4 fidget walker bags last week.   The walker bags have been turned over to Helpertunity.


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For the rest of the afternoon we worked on turning a stack of 10" squares into a quilt.  I matched them into pairs, RST.  Deb drew a line corner to corner on the wrong side of the lighter one.  Ellen (who was the only one to bring a machine) stitched a line 1/4" on either side of the line and cut the pair on the line to make two 9.5" blocks from each set.  I pressed them and started to lay them out on a table.  Once we had enough on the table all 4 of us worked together to create an interesting design from these odd fabrics.  Success!   I labeled the result and took them home to stitch together.

I also found time to press 2 quilt backs for the next 2 quilts on my to-do pile.

Last week I took inventory of what we have in storage at the moment.  There are 15 quilts with a coordinated pillowcase, plus 3 more quilts and 50 more pillowcases.

I have 8 quilts waiting to be quilted.  Ellen has 7 quilts to bind. Diana Gosselin has 2 quilts tops and 5 pillowcases to sew, and I have the quilt top we designed today to sew.  I have 5 more pillowcases put aside for Laura Tomich to work on.  There are still plenty of squares cut and plenty of fabric waiting to be cut, so I'm not done designing quilts yet.   😁

I haven't counted the stuffed toys and zipper bags in my spare bedroom that have not been distributed or the completed dog beds piled in my living room.  I will not deliver anything but dog beds until the COVID-19 virus calms down, so everything is going to storage for now.

Next week will be more of the same.   I heard that one of our members has contracted the virus.  Please keep her in your prayers for a quick recovery.  I hope the rest of you are staying safe.

Club Notes - July 8, 2020

We had a small but productive meeting this afternoon.
Ann Knoff came by before the meeting to load my GEM trunk with lots of dog bed scraps.  I had 8 quilts quilted and ready for binding and Ellen Hein took those.  Pat Pipa and Eileen DiSanto stopped in for a few minutes in between errands and took some of the 3.5" squares to make 9-patch blocks.

Charlotte Cecilio came for the beginning of the meeting to drop off a bunch of masks and see the show and tell.



SHOW AND TELL.

Ellen Hein finished her large project bag and several place mats.

 Bev Minnerly bought some mop pads for a $1 from the Dollar store and added straps to fit her duster.

She also showed a bunch of doll clothes and some flower trims she is experimenting with making.

Deb Chapman turned in a quilt top and showed some bags she made.





I showed the next set of quilts, designed by me, sewn together by Diana Gosselin, quilted by me, and bound by Ellen Hein.

 

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We kept busy the rest of the afternoon while chatting.
Deb ironed a bunch of white fabric.
Bev sorted through some donations we received this week.
Ellen finished some dog bed sleeves and some 9-patch squares
I sorted and matched up a bunch of purple 9-patch squares and Deb took them home to sew together.

I don't know what the agenda for next week is yet, but it will be something to process fabric for charity projects.  Until the track of COVID-19 gets to a manageable level we will only be doing show and tell and projects that keep us separated and safe.

Club Notes - June 24, 2020

We had a nice, small social gathering this afternoon.  Ellen Hein brought her serger and made a bunch of dog bed sleeves from some of the sturdy fabric I had put aside for that.  Bev Minnerly and I sorted though a box of scraps, pulling out what needed to be ironed.  Marty Rhyne and Alice Meunier did the ironing and Deb Chapman cut the unusable pieces for dog bed scraps.  Carol Thurston brought a couple of quilts she needed to sandwich and pin and was able to get that done by putting a couple of tables together.

Show and Tell:

Carol Thurston made some Christmas place mats

Bev Minnerly came with her usual lovely doll clothes and a pile of masks for the Youth Ranch.

Ellen Hein showed her completed strip quilt. (Since I got to add the backing and quilting, I gave it a multi-color cat themed backing and an edge-to-edge cat quilt design.)

Marty Rhyne Made a lovely flat-bottomed backpack for herself and showed a quilt top she completed.

Alice Meunier Showed an embroidered tile wall hanging she made - Starry Night Santa.

She also showed head coverings she made for her dentist son and scarfs for him to cover exposed skin around his neck, as required, for when he is working.

I showed the lasted quilts that I quilted and Ellen put the binding on.  The first 2 quilt tops were sewn together by Diana Gosselin.





The pink and green one was put together by Diane Placek.










 A large Hospice quilt top was turned in by Charlotte Cecilio, and the standard size Hospice quilt top was made by Tonya Carrell.



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Last week I delivered items for the Youth Ranch to Skip Bryan and sat down with him to find out the status of the Youth Ranches.  In 2018, President Trump signed into law The Family First Prevention Services Act.  The link above will take you to the actual act, if you want to read for yourself.  This link gives a shorter summary from a group supporting it - The Children's Defense Organization.

Basically, this is a well meaning bi-partisan law that seeks to keep children in their own homes and prevent them from entering the foster care system, or if they need to be in foster homes, it prioritizes  family homes and not group homes.  The emphasis is now on rehabilitating the family.  However, it's not always safe for kids to return to their parents and foster families are rarely willing to take in more than one child from a family, forcing siblings to be separated,    This is where the Sheriff's Youth Ranch and similar facilities have helped.  The Live Oaks Ranch has separate cabins for girls and for very young children, so that siblings could live at the same camp and still see each other.  Live Oaks currently has several sets of siblings.  Passage of this law meant that the Sheriff's Youth Ranches will loose $3.09 million in federal funding next year because this money is being diverted away from group homes and into other services.

A similar program run by the Baptists has closed due to this change in funding allocation.  The  Sheriff's Youth ranch program is closing one of the sites that had mostly foster kids.  They are renovating two cabins at Live Oaks and would like to build 2 more so that kids displaced from the closed facility might go there, but there is a budget shortfall without the federal funds.  Of course, they are looking for donations to offset the shortfall, but the 2021 status is in question.

Several of you have asked how many kids are at each location.  Currently :
Live Oak has 62 boys and girls in 6 cottages.  Two more cabins are under renovation.
Safety Harbor has the capacity for 30 youth in 3 cottages
Bradenton has 2 cottages so they can house 20 boys and girls.
Bartow has 5 cottages that can house 48 boys and girls.
The summer camps are held in Barberville and Caruth Camp in Ingles/Yankeetown.

I will keep you all updated on the Youth Ranch status.  For now, they are still operating.  The items we make that they most need right now are:
zipper bags
pillowcases
drawstring backpacks
throw/lap quilts (approximately 50" x 65")

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I will not hold a meeting next week because I have a medical appointment I couldn't schedule on any other date.  Our next meeting will be July 8th.  Hope to see you then.

Lois Rose, Sewing 'N More Club Leader