Weekly Update - May 16, 2015

Micki is away this week and next, attending her son's wedding.  Hope everything is going well and they are having a great time.  I filled in as M.C. for this week's meeting and Lu Karatzas will fill in next week.

We had a light turnout this week, but it was a great afternoon anyway. Fewer people allowed us to interact with each other more.  I love the larger group that usually comes out, but this was a nice chance to work closely with each person.

Show & Tell:

Lois Rose only had 2 machine embroidered in the hoop bookmarks to show.  She claims to have a few larger projects in the works despite a very busy schedule over the past few weeks.

 Elen Hein was busy this past week.  She showed a completed fidget quilt, a cat hammock, a dog toy, and a hand-sewing caddy neck scarf. 

 Lu Karatzas was next (she hates to go first even though she's usually the first to sign up for show and tell). She proudly showed her first ever crochet project -a lovely scarf.  Lu is teaching herself to crochet and is enjoying this new craft.

Lu also showed how she has enhanced her fabric scrap bag to include a pocket and a scissor holder.  Nice additions!










 Last week I brought in several stacks of fabric cut into various size squares and challenged anyone interested to match them up and sew them into larger blocks.  Lu took me up on it, took a pile home, and came back with the finished squares.



Several other ladies were busy matching squares both last week and this week.  We now have lots of sets of 4 little squares ready to be sewn into blocks.  Once we get all these little squares together we will be able to start designing some nice scrappy quilts.  

Kathy Nichols showed a lovely qult she made for her grandson.















After show & tell, Kathy dived into the project of sewing little blocks into big blocks.  We are making great progress.

 Donna Risman gave an impromptu demo of my favorite table runner again. (See

Show & Tell - October 18, 2014)  We convinced her to run a workshop for this project at a future meeting.  Anyone who would like to do this, start looking for some border fabric and when you find one you like, get about a yard and a half, and you'll be ready for that project.

She also brought in a beautiful quilt top that was made by a woman who has passed away.  This quilt incorporates doilies, ribbons, and lace as well as fabric.  Donna has the task of finishing it with backing and quilting and was looking for our suggestions. 

For a project this week I showed the group how a travel tray can be made so it packed flat but snaps at the corners provide vertical sides to keep jewelry, keys, coins, etc.  in place.  We had some challenges with the snaps.  I found 4 different kinds to try, but the sew in ones seem to work the best.  I had 2 different sew in ones, but the stand-alone metal ones worked best. The ones that press in like rivets are difficult to get lined up, even using the tool designed for that. A hammer actually seemed to work better.  We didn't try the plastic ones designed for baby clothes because it looked like the would work best on thinner material.

Next week Lu will be running the meeting. Continuing with the travel theme, she will be showing how to make jewelry zip lock storage cases.  The dimensions for the fabric are as follows in case anyone wants to use their own fabric, but we have lots they can use as well as ribbons.  Lu will bring a box of gallon size zip lock bags to share.

Jewelry holders:

(2) 10 1/2 x 9 inch fabric
(1)  10 1/2 x 9 inch piece of batting

(1) 9 x 1 1/2 inch matching fabric ( 1/2 ribbon can also be used)

(1) 30" long ribbon.

(6) gallon size zip lock bags  (Lu will bring these)

We will also continue to work on creating scrappy quilts out of our donated fabric.  I am looking forward to seeing how many quilts we can turn these leftover fabrics into. As before, the finished quilts will be donated to the Marion County Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse Center.

Hope to see you all next week.

Lois