Pictures!!!

Here they are! Pictures of everyone who came to our "Sew and Share" day and, oh, my were we busy! How busy were we? Well, as the pictures below will show we were on a mission and we stayed focused. There were about 24 of us who stitched, provided lunch, dropped off quilts or fabric, personal care items and more. Not everyone knew each other when we started but by the end of the day we were all new friends!! Some who came were quilting friends from the Prior Lake quilters (where I used to live) and some were from here in Henderson (from church and Bible study) and we even had a mother/daughter team from Arlington!! We were fortunate to be able to use the Community Room at Henderson City Hall and the room is big, well-lit and it was air-conditioned. Sometimes we turned that air off and let the breeze come in which was nice - especially since the day before it was 95 degrees! Storms had rumbled through on Friday evening and gave the ground a good soaking but most of us did not suffer storm damage (Cathy had trees down in her backyard so we weren't all spared).
Doris and Arline had set out some nut breads and coffee and tea so we nibbled as we waited for everyone to arrive. Machines were set up and a couple of people that couldn't come for the day dropped off finished quilts and fabric. Once everyone had arrived, I gave an overview of what we would do and away we went. Some started sewing and some started filling the little "teepee" bags and totes sent by Cheryl (all the way from Anchorage, Alaska!). Darlene, Doris, Anita, and Beatrice (all from Henderson) got a "system" going and made sure each bag had one each of the personal care items - shampoo, lotion, comb, toothbrush, etc.

Everybody did a little bit of everything! Here are Anita and Darlene ironing backing for a quilt.

Cherie (from Henderson) is cutting fabric for quilt blocks that Pastor Kathy was working on. Cherie said she wasn't a quilter but ready to do whatever needed to be done. In church this morning she told me she has "held off" getting involved in quilting but she is now planning to start "small" with a quilt for her year old grandson. We love to get people "hooked" on quilting!!!

Speaking of Pastor Kathy, that's her on the left. She even tied our "Sew and Share" event into her sermon this morning, a message on "Sowing seeds". She is our interim pastor at St. Paul's United Church of Christ and how many can say that their pastor is also a quilter? What a treat!!!

That's Sharon (from Jordan, MN), to the right of Pastor Kathy (from Bloomington, MN). A funny thing happened when Sharon and Kathy realized they'd met before when Sharon worked at Eagle Creek Quilt Shop (in Shakopee) and Kathy came to shop there!

Barb (Savage, MN) and Kate (Shakopee, MN) were steady stitchers. Barb was stitching up some really neat tote bags and Kate, was working on a quilt top and pillowcase.

I brought a bunch of homespuns that Dorothy (from Henderson and Bible study) is cutting into dishtowel size and matching potholders. I will stitch them up later this week. In the photo below, Darlene and Beatrice are tying a small "cheater" quilt panel. It only needs a border and it will be finished. Think I am going to use that as a "banner" that we can hang outside city hall to let people know when "Sew and Share" stitchers are at work. We all agreed we want to do this again!

As I mentioned, the ladies from my Bible study provided lunch for all of us. As you can see from the pictures, they cut fabric, too. I love this picture on the left of Marian and Diane as they were having fun cutting flannel rectangles so that I could make a baby quilt. We were laughing that it didn't matter if the rectangles were cut perfectly. Diane said that was good and Marian offered up that flannel can be smoothed and stretched!

While Doris mixed up a salad, Arline was in the background ironing squares for the colorful kid's quilt that Cathy was working on. We used every corner of the community room!

Now all my friends know that I take lots of pictures and I tried to capture as many moments of the day as I could. But when I downloaded the pictures, I realized I missed a shot of a very important moment of the day - the food table!! We were provided a feast! Everyone loved the lasagna that Dorothy made, four different salads were shared by Joan, Marian, Doris, and Diane and pickles from Carolyn (our 94 year young member who was out visiting with her niece earlier in the day). Then there was dessert - not one but four!!! There was angel food cake with fresh strawberries and blueberries, and chocolate chip cookies and brownies with peanut butter chips and thick gooey frosting, and a chocolate angel food cake. As you can see by the plates in the pictures, we all did our part to be in the "clean plate club"!

We went right back to stitching after lunch was over. There was momentary problem when Cathy's machine developed a serious thread tangle. I had gone up to the house to get a tweezers for her but Pastor Kathy came to the rescue and picked the threads out carefully. I was gone a bit longer than planned as I had to walk the dog because my husband was gone. I thought Kaiser went outside while I was upstairs because when I came down the garage door was wide open and he was nowhere! Turned out he was just hiding as he knew I was going to leave again and he didn't want to be left alone. He got a biscuit so it wasn't all bad for him.

With lunch over, there was some serious quilt-tying going on. Pictured below, from the left, are Joan, Carolyn, and Dorothy and, on the right are Doris and Beatrice.

This is my friend, Sue, who is always smiling and she is a prolific quilter!!! She made this cute fireman themed quilt for a boy plus seven other flannel baby quilts, all in the last couple of weeks! And you want to be really impressed? She drove up from Mason City (on her way north to her mom's) to drop off the quilts. That's impressive. But I can impress you even more. She had water in her basement because Mason City suffered some serious flooding, too. And still she took time out to help those in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Now that's impressive!!

I mentioned that we had a mother/daughter team and here they are pictured above - on the left - that's mom, Angela and daughter, Allison (wearing the hat) who came from Arlington (just west of Henderson). On the right, is Joan Powell who came from Lakeville, which is about 50 miles east of Henderson. Distance didn't keep anybody away!! Joan was working on some nice black and white tote bags. Angela and Allison cut out bags from Strawberry Shortcake fabric for girls and from a colorful dinosaur print, tote bags for boys. They finished the girly ones and took the others home to finish and I will pick up later.

I loved this colorful quilt that Cathy (Savage, MN) made for a young boy. And, I don't know why, but I loved this polka-dot pillowcase that Pat (Henderson) made. She also made some cute ones with farmyard scenes but I really liked the polka dots. One of my "simple pleasures/favorite things" in life is knowing that when I go to sleep at night, I am able to put my head to rest on a clean and pretty pillowcase. I would hope that others will sleep well on the pillowcases that we have made.

And the last photos, are of me. I am often flitting from here to there keeping things connected, but I actually sewed this day!! In the morning, I pieced some fabrics for the backing of the scrappy quilt that was tied. Then after lunch, I started sewing on a simple flannel baby quilt and as you can see I finished the top. Only needs a backing and some yarn ties and it will keep some little one warm and cozy.

You know, we were stitching for a serious cause but we also had a great deal of fun as we sewed and we all made new friends! We really had a great day and in the next few days, I'll tell you more about when we will stitch again. I'll also post more photos. I've tallied up the quilts and tote bags, pillowcases, etc. that were made and plan to photograph the quilts out in my backyard tomorrow. It was too windy to do it today. Plus, after church, I needed to run some errands, do some laundry and then later, I took a long nap!!

I realized that there was one important photo that I forgot to post but it will be a good one to start with when I post tomorrow. If you're reading this, remember, you can participate no matter where you live. The need is great as many, many residents will be displaced for months to come.

That's all for tonight. More tomorrow. Sleep well. I know I will!! It's 2:30 a.m. Time to put my head to the pillow!!

Sandi