Club Notes - May 12, 2021

 

Another fun afternoon at El Santiago.  There were 12 of us meeting today.  Other groups have begun coming to the rec center, so there are more cars in the parking lot lately.  It's harder to get a spot in the shade.

Over the past week I delivered the following donations:

To Ocala Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Center:

  5 quilts, 4 pillowcases, 5 stuffed dinos, 2 zipper bags, and 19 tote bags

To Case for Smiles: 

   9 children's pillowcases

To Compassionate Care Hospice:

   7 Patriotic quilts

I also noted an article in the Daily Sun about the Boggy Creek Bear and Afghan Ladies.  It said they are in need of fabric.  Since we have more than we will be able to use in our lifetimes and it keeps coming, I called the club leader and offered her some.  I started by giving her 2 boxes to look through.  She took what amounted to a box full and returned the rest to me.  I then gave her another box to look through.  They need mostly children's fabrics and bright colors, so I plan to continue to give them first pick of any other large donations that come in.

Show and Tell:

Pat Pipa made a couple of zipper bags and handed in a tote she made a while back for a quilt guild challenge using 1.5" squares.

 

Donna Rissman finished her Sunrise place mat.  She learned a new way of doing binding and will be demonstrating this to our club on June 9th.

 

She also showed a chick in it's own fabric egg that she made for Easter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deb Chapman took some 3.5" squares from our stash and made a tote bag.

 

  She also showed this month's block of the month for her quilt chapter's challenge.

 

 

Ceal Pedersen continues to have fun making toys.  She made a cat and 2 dinos this week.

 

 

Charlotte Cecillio took some of our sample fabric squares and made a tote bag.

Ellen Hein took home a bunch of pillowcase sets that Anne Knoff had cut and paired, and came back with a box full of finished pillowcases.  

 

 

A few weeks ago we received about 8 hand-pieced quilt tops from a woman's estate.   I have begun matching them with backings, quilting them, and handing them over to Ellen for binding.  Ellen showed the first of these completed.

 

 

Eileen DiSanto worked on a pillowcase during the afternoon and showed it to me completed at the end of the afternoon.

 

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Since we are getting back to normal I have reinstated the project demo schedule.  I have committed to one demo a month and have invited other members of the club to give the group demos on the open weeks.   I will send out the schedule in a separate email.

Next week Ellen will show us how to make a zip-loc bag tote.

Hope to see you next week.

Club Notes - May 5, 2021

 

Eleven of our club members came out this afternoon.  We were happy to welcome Donna Rissman back out.  I will continue to stress that everyone who has come out to club meetings so far has received their COVID vaccinations, so we are able to meet without masks.  I encourage those of you who have not gotten vaccinated to please do so as soon as possible (with your doctor's OK).  

Although I cannot require this for meeting attendance per Villages rules, I want to stress that the sooner everyone is vaccinated, the sooner we can get back to normal activities. Over 106 million people or 32% of the total U.S. population have been vaccinated and the only serious side effects have been found with the Johnson and Johnson one-shot vaccine, and that has been very rare.  If you have a chance to get the Moderna or Phizier vaccines, those seem to be very safe.  Please don't just rely on the hype, do your own fact checking to find the truth.

Enough COVID talk.

Show and Tell:

Ceal Pedersen showed a blue 9-patch quilt she made for her granddaughter.

Eileen DiSanto showed a tote bags she has been working on using our sample fabric stash.

Deb Chapman  showed a tote she made with the Quilting Bees.

Audrey Phillips showed a tote bag using our sample fabric stash. another in progress, and a patriotic one she made a while back.

 

 

 

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I did a demo this afternoon on paper piecing for a sunrise place mat.  We will continue this project next week as well.   Based on some questions  from this afternoon, I will send out a few notes in a separate email for this project, but in person demos seem to help best.

Hope to see you next week.

Lois

Club Notes - April 28, 2021

 We had a great time this afternoon, with 15 members attending.  I was thrilled to welcome back several members who have been absent for a while.  Nita Hand arrived early to help me set up.  I think it's been at least 2 years since she has been able to come to a meeting.  Then Annette Reddy came in.  She has been a part time resident of The Villages for years and now has finally retired and moved here for good.  Marty Rhyne was the next one to surprise us.  She has been self-isolating but is now ready to return to our club.

Last week we put together the gifts for 9 graduates of the Florida Sheriffs' Youth Ranches.  I delivered them to Skip Brian, then checked to see if there were any last minute additions.  We found out there are 2 more girls who fulfilled the requirements and will be graduating in May.  I reached out to Ellen and Mic and they scrambled to get 2 more duffel bags and name tags to me.  I added quilts, pillowcases and zipper bags to the duffels, so they are ready to be delivered to Skip next week.

Show and Tell:

Mic Pickard and Ceal Pedersen have been working together on patriotic dryer sheet blocks and they showed their progress.

B.J. Herter showed the outer fabric of the tote bag she is making using the pattern I showed last week. She is making hers from flannel.

Ellen Hein showed two quilts she finished the binding on.  The blue one is one that was designed at a club meeting.   

 

 

The green one is made of nine-patch blocks.  Pat Pipa made the first half and I made the rest.

 

Charlotte Cecillio came with 2 more stuffed dinos.

Pat Pipa made several tote bags and a zipper bag.

 

Marty Rhyne showed 2 quilts, just waiting for the binding, one for herself

and one for her granddaughter.

I showed 3 drawstring backpacks and 4 tote bags.  One tote was made with last week's pattern and the other 3 used some dryer sheet blocks that were in our stash waiting for the appropriate project.

Carol Riggs showed a place mat she made for a friend.

Deb Chapman forgot to show the purse she made during show and tell because she was actually using it.  She let me take a photo later in the meeting.

Diane Placek brought 2 lovely green pillowcases that she didn't want to show.  They went right into one of the duffels for a graduate, along with the green 9-patch quilt.

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For the rest of the afternoon most ladies worked on various projects.  Deb Chapman, Diane Placek and I sorted the 3.5" squares by color.  Deb put some black and white 9-patches together for Ann Knoff to sew together.  Diane selected some squares to use in a bow-tie quilt she is working on. 

In an attempt to get things back to normal, I re-established 2 of our activities.  First, we restarted our 50/50s to support our parties and any charity supplies we need to buy.   Second, I have restarted our activity/demo calendar.  I have committed to lead one project each month to make something for ourselves. As we did before COVID, anyone who would like to show the group how to do a project can sign up on the schedule.  I'd like to see us getting back to teaching each other.

Next week we'll be making the "You Are My SUnshine" place mat.  The project requires 2 copies of a paper-piecing template for each placemat, so I will be printing these out on Carol Doan Paper for those who signed up.  I will send out a separate email reminding everyone of who signed up for this project.  If you did not sign up yet and want to make these, please respond to the message on this that I will send out separately.

Hope to see you next week.

Club Notes - April 21, 2021

 What a great afternoon.  We had 14 members in attendance (all vaccinated BTW).  I was happy to welcome back Carol Riggs and B.J.Herter.   Audrey Phillips has also been coming for the past few weeks and it is great to see her out and about.

Our regular reporter, Michael Fortuna came as promised, and brought a photographer as well.  They apologized for the fact that the Daily Sun doesn't want to use group photos, but they did take a bunch of photos of the quilts.  They also interviewed me and I directed them to interview Ellen Hein as well, since she makes all the duffel bags.  Michael stayed for the beginning of our meeting as well to see what we do.

In addition to the quilts, pillowcases and zipper bags I brought back in, we received a donation of completed totes and zipper bags from Anne Knoff's friend Cindy Jin.

Show and Tell:

 

Pat Pipa shows a couple of tote bags she made from fabric squares 

and some zipper bags.

 

 

Deb Chapman showed a quilt top she made, starting with some of our orphan blocks.

Ceal Pedersen showed a red and green quilt she made for a family member.

Diane Placek made a drawstring back, with an old owl puppet as the front pocket.

Mary Ellen Boutin made her first walker bag.

Ellen Hein showed the latest completed quilts.

 

Mary Ellen created this quilt top.

 

Deb Chapman made this quilt top, I added the border and quilted it, and Ellen added the binding.

One of our new snowbird members, Pam Thompson made this quilt top, which I quilted and Ellen added the binding for.

Carol Riggs showed 2 completed place mats from a set she is working on.

 

I showed a tote bag I made from 6" squares and shared the pattern for this easy project.  I have attached the Pinterest pattern that I got the idea from to my email.

 

 

 

Note:  there are 2 differences between the Pinterest pattern and my version.

1.  I used fewer blocks (14 instead of the 19 in the pattern) since the shelter we make them for wants narrower tote bags.  The pattern looks like this, with each X representing a 5 or 6 inch square:

XXX

XXX

  XX

  XXX

  XXX

2. The other difference is that I don't use piping or binding.  I put the outer fabric inside the lining, right sides together, pin the handles in between the layers, and sew the lining to the outside along the top edge, leaving an opening for turning.  Once turned right side out, the lining tucks inside and it just needs a top stitch around the top to close the opening and finish the bag.  This bag is easy and can be finished in under an hour.

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After show and tell we got to work sorting the quilts and pillowcases into piles for boys vs. girls.  The group then put a quilt, a pillowcase, and 2 zipper bags into each duffle bag.  The nine bags then went into my car for delivery to Skip Bryan.

The rest of the afternoon was spent working on various projects.  Several ladies collected squares to make the tote bags I demonstrated.  A few took other size squares for future quilts.

 

Next week we will get back to making dryer sheet blocks and designing quilts.

I sent out the list of past projects in an email a few days ago, asking if anyone wants any of the projects repeated, but I haven't heard from anyone.  Even if you are a snowbird and would like to see one of these projects, let me know which one and when you think you will be back and I will try to schedule it for a week you will be here.  Starting in May, I am hoping to have at least one non-charity project each month. If there is something you'd like it will take priority in the schedule.  Otherwise, you will be at my mercy as to what projects I will subject you to. 

Hope to see you next week.