July Charity Chics

The Charity Chics took time at this meeting to make fabric flower pins that will be attached to the fleece hats they are planning to make later this year.  They also took a break from sewing to hold their annual indoor "picnic".  Everyone brought a dish to share and a fabulous time was had by all.  

They often receive  correspondence from recipients of their projects.  Here are two such letters:

Florence made a set of 4 placemats using the Jelly Roll Rug technique.  Her tip is to "press the heck out of it" to get keep the strips from rolling. :-)

 Kathy E. created multi-sized mitten patterns and samples for future Charity Chics' fleece sewing projects

 Mary made this large tote bag and matching zippy bag using the Jelly Roll technique (even on the side seams).  The top of the bag and straps were made using bias tapes.  The bag closes with a large zipper.

 Do you love these bags?  They are actually one of those freebies
with some modifications.  Did you ever make a quilt block just for fun, but didn't want to make the whole quilt and didn't know what to do with the block?  Mary took a couple of those quilt blocks and made pockets.  The fun part is you get to enjoy the quilt block and it covers the logo on the bag.
If the bag is super big, adding a zipper may be helpful.

Already have enough tote bags?
How about sharing them with family, friends or donating one of these beauties to your local family shelter.  

This crocheted scarf was originally only cream color.  Mary had some multi-colored yarn the worked just perfectly as accents down the sides, in the centers and in the fringe.  Isn't it so cute?

July Sew-phist-icuts meeting

The Sew-phist-icuts have been working on a number of different projects recently and July meeting had Sandy teaching the group how to make a boxy style zippy bag.

 
These cuties were made by Peggy.  (Of course) she just had to make these using fabrics with a cheery cow print on it :-)







Show &  Tell:

 Peggy has been a super-sewist this summer.

First is a Cross-Body Bag, a free pattern from SewCanShe.com.

Next, is this comfy tunic top that she modified by removing the neck facing and stabilizing with the neckband.  Changing the directions of the stripes provides a lot of interest at the neck and sleeve hems.

 Finally, Peggy created this summer t-shirt using some fabric leftover from a different project and fabric "shared" at the Sew-In this summer.

June 29 Chapter Sew-in

June 29 was the date for this year's chapter sew-in.  If you couldn't make it, we're sorry we missed you but here is a quick re-cap and some photos to fill you in on the fun.

Approximately 20 members and 2 non-members enjoyed a full day of sewing, learning, lunching, and all-around wonderful socializing at the Powelton Club in Newburgh. Their continental breakfast featured delicious pastries, fruit, and beverages providing us with lots of energy to start.  Luncheon was a scrumptions full-course dinner finished by brownies, cookies and fruit after our presentation. This is the second time we've been hosted at the Powelton, and they do a wonderful job catering to our food and space requirements.  

Lots of room to spread out with separate cutting and pressing areas

 Everyone brought their own projects to work on and some even completed them.  

 

Kathy E. made this cute reusable sandwich wrap.

The lining is washable and saves you from using plastic bags.

Isobel finished her quilt-of-the month club. Yeh!

Kathy completed a Linus quilt top

Between luncheon and dessert, Terry Perri gave a short presentation on making strip-pieced rugs.  She shared some of the various techniques for strip sizes, batting or no batting, tools she likes to use, and stitching details to help those who were planning to try this out. What you don't realize until hearing her talk, is that this technique can be used for making more than just rugs.  Things like table runners, tote bags, placemats, zippy bags......Check out some samples below:

Terry's presentation and showing her roll of pre-cut batting strip.

The rug "slice".

Rugs and place mats

Rug slice and placemats

Charity Chics June Meeting

June found the Charity Chics making medium-size tote bags for a local church's food pantry.  With advance planning, Sue pre-cut 30-40 bags, allowing Florence (the day's project leader) to organize and direct all of the worker bees as soon as they arrived.  Nylon webbing was used for the handles. We completed 20 of the bags before the end of day.  The remaining bags will be finished at a later time. With the "no more plastic shopping bags" law soon to go into effect, we may receive requests for more of these in the future from different agencies. 

Show & tell:

Florence completed this t-shirt quilt top for her granddaughter.   Great job!

Check out this easy styled giftcard holder made by Flo

Kathy E. finished this lovely wool scarf for herself.

Mary was busy using quilt blocks from a past sew-in to make zippy bags for the shelter ladies.  One block was used for each side and the bags were lined with left over stash pieces.

Front

Back

Flo has been super busy!  Snap bags, eyeglass bags, and pot holders.