Time for "Sew and Share" 2009!!!

Here's a chance to share your time and talents once again...........

A little summary of 2008 "Sew and Share".......

Words cannot express how much your time and talents were appreciated!!!

Saturday afternoon stitching.........

I am terribly remiss at getting the photos posted of our Saturday afternoon "Sew and Share" efforts. I posted the photos from the morning and then totally forgot that I needed to post the afternoon shots. Oh, boy, please forgive me! So here they are ....................

This is the big room called the "Community Room" at City Hall. It's a great room to work in with lots of light and a big kitchen at the back. As you can see, there are projects in progress all around the room.

Here are two of the happiest gals I know - Joanie and Dorothy. They are tying one of the quilts made by Adella's neighbor lady. When they were done tying, Barb took over and trimmed the edges and added the binding.

In July, Anita brought this finished patchwork quilt top and then several of the gals did the tying. It is huge! I bound the edges and it was another finished quilt that will head off to Iowa.

This photo below shows some of the fleece scarves that we made. We got fourteen scarves finished and two pair of gloves and one hat. I had purchased some mittens but will go out and do a little shopping so that each scarf has a matching pair of mittens and perhaps a hat, too!

The last activity of the day was putting the stitches and loops for hanging on the Christmas stockings that Anita and Pastor Kathy had stitched together. I showed the gals to just take large running stitches with the yarn and it gave it kind of a decorative look. They were giving me a hard time because they said I made it look easier than it actually was when they started doing it. But they did it and when they are filled with some goodies, there will be some smiling faces for some boys and girls this Christmas!

Stitching on the stockings are from the left - Dorothy, then Darlene, and Joanie.

As the day progressed, we stacked the items made or collected around the piano in the corner of the community room. It was fun to see the piano disappear under such a volume of quilts, scarves, totebags and more. All of the quilts will go off to Iowa. We had talked that a couple of them might go over to Sibley County Services but the need is so great in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area that they will head south. All of the totebags and the pillowcases will also go to Iowa but about half of the scarves and stockings will go to Iowa and the other half will go to our own county, Sibley Services for those in need in our own area. In the future, almost all of our items will go to Sibley County unless some special cause arises that we decide to do some stitching for. In the meantime, I have received items from the Eastern Long Island Quilt Guild that will be added to our donations to Iowa, plus a few other items. I'll be posting those photos in the next few days - really, I promise I will not forget this time. As of this writing, about one third of the quilts have been delivered to Judy Heilers, our contact in Cedar Rapids and I am preparing today to deliver all the rest of them to my son's girlfriend's sister who is visiting in Minneapolis and she will take the rest of them to Judy. How's that for a convoluted sentence and an interesting path to get the quilts to where they are needed?

Thanks so much to everyone who donated time, talents, materials, food, etc. This has been a great adventure and there's still more good works and good fun to come!!!

Saturday "Sew and Share" - Morning

Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful! We were all in a good mood because it was just such a beautiful day, plus we were a group of gals who were gathering to help others but we knew we were going to have a great time in the process! And we sure did!!

Barb (left) and Kate (right) were all smiles as they prepared to stitch up stockings and bind quilts. Barb brought some scrumptious peanut butter banana muffins for all of us so that we would not go hungry til lunch. :-)

Carolyn came to help and while diminished vision keeps her from sewing as she used to many years ago, she rolled the scarves to smooth the seams on the fleece scarves that were stitched up the night before.

Dorothy (right) and Joanie (left) took the scarves and snipped the ends to tie up fringed edges like those done on the popular fleece blankets. That's Pastor Kathy in the background selecting thread for stitching up Christmas stockings.

There were a few tied quilts from our last workday in July so Sharon took one that Cathy had almost finished and prepared to trim it and then add a binding.

This is Lane. She joined us after reading the poster that I had on display at the library quilt show. She's mom to two little twin boys and wanted a chance to get out and share some stitching time with friends and she did just that!!

And this is me, Sandi. I am adding some decorative stitches to the scarf that I made on Friday. Behind me you can see the stacks of fabric, stockings ready to stitch and yarn for tying the quilts.


Anita (left) and Kathy (below right) were the "Christmas Stocking Stitchers" and completed more than two dozen stockings from a variety of red and green knit fabrics. The stockings were already cut as they were left-overs from a project I did several years ago when I worked for a computer company. At that time, co-workers signed up to take one or more stockings and fill them for boys and girls, then they were donated to a local agency for a Christmas toy drive.




We had worked really hard and at noon we were ready for a break for lunch. We are pictured below after enjoying a delicious meal of chicken salad, a hamburger-rice-cashews hot dish, fresh tomatoes, spinach dip and bread, baked beans, a banana meringue dessert and much more. Recipes will be posted later for the hot dish and the banana dessert. :-) With lunch over, it was time to get back to work................... afternoon photos posted tomorrow!


Pictured above from left to right - Sharon, Kate, Carolyn, Anita, Pastor Kathy, Barb, Dorothy, and Joanie and next to her was Lane who ate quickly and had to leave so she could get home to care for her boys so her husband could leave for work!! What a committed, sharing group of gals they all are!!!

Friday "Sew and Share"

Finally, I am getting to the posting of the pics from last weekend's "Sew and Share" event. Sorry to be so slow but I really had to catch up on some laundry, cleaning and just stuff! We had a fabulous weekend and really got a lot of things done!

I tried something a little different this time, two days of sewing instead of one and one day starting in the afternoon and the next in the morning. This worked well as it allowed stitchers who could come at different times/day be able to participate. I think I'll do that when we meet again next Spring to stitch up a Spring storm of quilts, bags and such!!

Spring is a long way off, though, and fall arrived this past week so the quilts that were finished and the scarves that were made or donated will certainly be welcome to those affected by losses from the Iowa flooding. And then there were Christmas stockings to stitch as no one wants a child to miss the wonder of seeing what is in his or her stocking on Christmas morn.

Here are a few photos from last Friday. I'll post the photos from last Saturday this Saturday. I do hope that makes sense. :-)

Jane, Carol and Adella were the first to arrive just before 1:00 p.m. I was unloading bags full of fabric, fleece, sewing machine, etc. Takes a lot of stuff to sew for a village. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
It didn't take us long to settle in and get going on projects. I set up a table with lots of fabric for quilts, fleece for scarves and hats, and a pile of pre-cut knit Christmas stockings. We were ready to go..............

Here is Jane putting the binding on a quilt top that Kate made at our meeting in July. Another one done!

Adella brought two giant, I mean GIANT, bags of tied quilts made by her neighbor. She's preparing to bind one of the smaller ones. Another one done. She also brought three finished tied quilts that she had made.

Carol is trimming the batting from one of the tied quilts and getting it ready to bind. Another one done.

I brought three plastic bags filled with fleece remnants that I picked up on clearance at JoAnn's and spread them on the table. Here's Darlene choosing colors to coordinate into warm scarves for winter.

While Darlene selected colors, Nancy would measure, mark, and cut two coordinating pieces that could be stitched and tied into cute scarves for kids or adults. They got 14 scarves cut and ready to stitch before they had to leave later Friday afternoon!!

Gretchen was "zipping" (yes that's a pun) right along as she sewed up lots of little humbug (or teepee) bags that will hold personal care items. She picked cheery Mary Englebreit fabrics for the bags and bought colorful zippers to match. Her machine was really humming! Gretchen also knitted several scarves that were added to our collection of items to share.

We took a break for a quick supper of sloppy joes (provided by the Women's Tourist Club-GFW-of Henderson), plus chips, sodas and pumpkin bars. Adella and Carol had to leave to get home to the farms but Gretchen, Joyce and I just kept sewing.

I had started a scarf set from some of the fleece fabrics piled on the table and Gretchen snapped this picture when I finally finished it. I hope someone else looks better in this ensemble than I do! I was pretending to shiver with cold but I think I look more like I am wringing my hands with worry. That's not the case for we were having too much fun talking and laughing while we sewed.

Joyce was also stitching scarves and making her machine hum, too! By the time we "closed up shop" at 8:00 p.m. over a dozen scarves had been stitched and another half a dozen quilts had been finished!! Not bad for a day's work!!

Thanks to all of you who sewed and for the items you brought with you that were finished at home!! I'll post more photos on Saturday and then next week, I'll go out and hang the quilts on the line for individual pictures. Plus, I'll share how the quilts we make here will be part of 2000 quilts that are being collected for the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City flood victims.

"Sew and Share" this Saturday!

Wow, I cannot believe how time flies! My last post was the day before we left for my husband's high school class reunion and then August was filled with more activities that ended with my trip to Iowa for my mother's 80th birthday. Then it was time to prepare for the quilt show in the Henderson Library and wow, time just flies by!!!
I have posted fliers and had info cards available at the library quilt show, then sent out e-mails about this coming weekend. We will have sewers and once again, we'll be busy as bees helping others.
Here's the info for this weekend. Please join us if you would like to help out!!

“Sew and Share”
in the Community Room at City Hall, Henderson, MN
Friday, September 19th from 1:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, September 20th from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
We will be making scarves and hats, Christmas stockings, quilts, and more! Most of the items will go to Families affected by flooding in southeast Iowa but some items will be donated to families in need in Sibley County. If you can sew, cut fabric, yarn tie knots in quilts or add fringe to scarves, etc. etc. please come and help.
Questions? E-mail me at stitchinglegacy@gmail.com

“Sloppy Joes”, chips and pop will be provided on Friday evening for a 6:00 supper. Feel free to bring other goodies if you wish.

Noon Potluck on Saturday. Please bring something to share- salad, hotdish, dessert, bread, etc. Coffee, tea and cider provided.

Quilts from New York......

These lovely quilts were donated by Jackie Kaspersin of New York. When I asked her how she learned of our project she replied that she was searching the web for "Quilts for flood victims" and found our "Sew and Share" information! Jackie included a note with each quilt. Sending quilts our way is not the only charity that Jackie donates quilts to. She makes quilts, afghans, and many other items for more than a dozen charities!!

This is a child's quilt and while my photography may make you think that it is the same size as the pink and green quilt below - it is not. It's called "Wild Flowers on the Yellow Brick Road."

This quilt is called "Pink Bows Like Green" and it's a larger quilt that Jackie hopes an older girl might enjoy. She also made a small quilt for a doll or teddy bear or when I hung it on the line, I thought it would make a great piece to put on a nightstand.

Some lucky someone's will get these quilts. Thank you so much for sharing your time and talents, Jackie!!

I'll have a little news to share tomorrow and then things will be quiet for a week or so. I am expecting a package from out east, though, so when that arrives I'll post the contents.