Show & Tell - August 23, 2014

Your editor missed this week's meeting due to visiting family, so I can only attach names to the photos I received, no extras this week.

It looks like we had 3 more ladies finish their midi bags.  Nice work girls!

Susan M.

Marty Ryme

Winnie DePastino

(Sorry Susan, I don't have your last name.  You can tell me on Saturday and I'll update this.)

Other crafts completed last week:

Pat Pipa made some pillow cases

and a doggie bed

Jane Swafford finished a pillow case

Audrey Philips embroidered a bag

and a shirt

Show & Tell - August 16, 2014

Micki is on her way north for grandma duty and Donna had to work today, so Lois Rose stepped in to run the meeting.  She started by asking visitor Fawn Nguyen to introduce herself.  Fawn has only been in the Villages for 10 days, but she was able to find us.  We hoe she comes back.

Audrey Phillips also brought her 2 daughters, who obviously inherited their mother's crafty gene.

Lois started of show & tell with a rag quilt she made using some blocks Micki embroidered with each of the  12 months.  She also brought in a doggie bed made out of an old towel.  Lois' sewing machine balked at closing it, so Mary Kahlow volunteered to sew it closed.  Thank you Mary.

 One of our artistic members, Joan Galantha, was back with us again this week.  She showed a beautiful wall hanging of a tree.  As usual, she photographed a tree that caught her interest and translated that into a fabric work of art.




                                                                                                                     

Our group's luau lunch & learn a few weeks ago inspired Audrey Phillips to learn to hula dance.  Her show and tell this week was a hula skirt she made for her new hobby.  Although these skirts are supposed to be large because they rest on the hips, not on the waist, her first attempt was a little large for Audrey.  She has sold this one to another dancer.  She was advised to use 5 yards of fabric to get the proper skirt movement, but on the next one she makes for herself, she plans to reduce this to 4 yards.  We're looking forward to seeing the next one.

Eileen DiSanto showed a quilt she has completed as a gift for her sister.  Lovely black and white fabric with a small rose motif in the corner.  Beautiful work Eileen.

 Carol Riggs talked about the young girl, Bexley, she is raising money to assist.  There was an article in the paper about her about a week ago, explaining that Bexley sufferes from about a dozen different diseases.  Carol has asked anyone who would like to help to make a pillowcase for Bexley to take to the hospital for other patients or to donate towards her airfare to get her to the special hospital she needs.  Since Bexley cannot attend school due to her compromised immune system, she spends her time baking cookies for Hospice.  Carol showed a chef's hat she made for Bexley.

 After Show & Tell, Linda Lynch demonstrated how she made a chenille circle in the middle of a baby quilt she made for the Infant & Toddler's Pantry.  There was lots of interest in this process.










After Linda's demo, those who had not finished their midi bags continued their work with Lois' help. We are confident that these will appear completed next week.   Those who were able to finish their bags are shown below.  Great work everyone.

Debbie Hutchins

Sue Campbell

Mary Kahlow

Pat Pipa

Eileen DiSanto

Linda Parr

Lois Rose (with completed demo mondo & midi bags)

Show & Tell - August 9, 2014

Although she is busy getting ready for her trip north, Micki stopped in to say hi and drop off a couple of doggie beds and some quilted wall hangings.  The wall hangings are examples of other things you can do with the method we are learning to make the midi bags.  They were al made by placing small fabric squares on gridded interfacing and sewing the seams the same way we are sewing the midi bags. 

 Lois Rose started Show & tell off today with a crazy quilt table runner she made as this month's Machine Embroidery Club project. 

 Suzanne Brown showed her Christmas quilt, made with the latest Kaufman fabrics.

 Susan Morris made 3 pillowcases this week for ConCare.

 Carol Riggs displayed a hanging jewelry organizer she is making and selling. She also mentioned she has a few discontinued handbags at reduced prices.
 Eileen Navikas








 Linda Parr showed a rag quilt she completed and a baby sweater and hat she crocheted.  She told us that this was the first crochet project she ever attempted that was not flat.   Way to go Linda!












Linda Lynch showed us how she uses Paper towel tubes to store her patterns.

 Eileen Navikas has missed our meetings for quite a while because she has been taking a class on Saturdays.  However, she showed us that she has not been idle during those weeks away.  This busy lady showed up with 5 fidget quilts and 4 baby/toddler quilts!

Show & Tell - August 2, 2014

Edie Cave started our show & tell with 3 fidget quilts she created.  Thank you for using patriotic and masculine themes.  We never have enough of these when the requests come in.











Lois Rose brought a little hand embroidery along to work on during down-time on her cruise.  She completed this cross-stitched Humpty Dumpty baby bib, which will be donated to one of our charities.

She also brought in 3 completed doggy beds.

Jane Swafford finished a cheerful pillow case for the Con-Care kids.

 Linda Lynch showed her craft organization solution.   She hangs this organizer in her closet, and uses a shelf for each of her UFO projects.  That keeps everything together and makes it all easy to find when she's ready for the next step.

 Carol Riggs began by showing a couple of the purses she makes for sale.  The ones she brought are her discontinued patterns that she is offering at reduced prices.


She then showed that she has been very busy making baby bibs for the grandchild she is expecting.

After show and tell, Lois led the group in the first steps of creating midi bags.  These are purse-size bags made with pre-printed interfacing from QuiltSmart.com.  The club purchased the interfacing for members so all each lady had to supply was the fabric.  Everyone who participated in this project made great progress on their bags.  Those who did not finish all the steps to get to the half-way point will complete a few steps at home so they will be ready to complete the bags next week.

For those who were not with us this week but would like to join in next week, see Mickie's email for the full instructions.  Here are the steps we covered this week:

1. Cut interfacing pattern on scissor lines, resulting in 4 separate panels and 2 handle strips.
2. Lay 2.5 inch fabric squares on rough side of interfacing panels in a design pleasing to you.
3. Fuse each fabric square to the interfacing with a light pressing.
4. Cover panel with an ironing cloth or freezer paper and press again so all squares are flat and secure.
5. Sew short seams of each panel with 1/4 inch seams.
6. Clip short seams at the intersections between each block, being careful not to cut through stitches.
7. Iron seams in the direction shown by the arrows printed on the end of the interfacing panels.
8. Sew long seams, making sure seams ironed in previous step stay in the direction they were ironed, so they "nest".

Next week we will show how to put the bag together.  Requirements for next week will be in the weekly email.  Ladies, you are all doing great and we can't wait to see the finished bags!