WE'VE BEEN HERE...MAKING MASKS!


OK, so you've not heard from us in many weeks.  We've all been following the directives to stay home, stay safe, and learn the correct way to wash our hands.  And members of the Hudson Valley NY Chapter of the American Sewing Guild have been doing just that.  But not just that......We've been here all along doing what we can to support all those folks who are working so hard to help get us through these crazy times. 

Many of us have been making face masks. Lots and lots of masks
in many different styles, for lots and lots of folks.  In fact, 40-50 of our chapter members and other sewing friends have made well over 1,000 fabric (aka washable) masks since mid-March. Only the difficulty of finding in-stock elastic slowed the process down a little last month.

And just so you know, we made them not just for ourselves, but we made them for our families (here in NY State, Florida, South Carolina, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Minnesota), for our neighbors, and for anyone that asked. Specifically the following:

Vassar Brothers Hospital
Northern Dutchess Hospital
Westchester Senior Center
Harvard Medical Center
Orange County
The Fountains of Millbrook
Orange County 
North Salem Volunteer Ambulance Corps
doctors' offices in Rhinebeck
Salvation Army in Beacon
Stony Brook Hospital
Hudson Valley Hospice 
Danbury Hospital in Connecticut
Various area nursing homes
Bon Secour in Port Jervis
Rockland County hospitals
Numerous local grocery stores 
.............and many more.

Our many thanks to the mask makers.  Job well done!

Our deepest gratitude to all those folks out there doing their very best to get us successfully through today's challenges.  

Thank you!!

June Sew-phisti-cuts Meeting

The June Sew-phisti-cuts meeting was one of sharing.  Various small projects that members have made (either recently or in the past) were presented as options for this year's community service project.  We plan to work on items of our own choice at home and will consolidate them together later in the year for distribution to local family shelters.  The focus will be on items that would be appreciated at the holiday time by female clients.  

From top, clockwise:  zippy bags, shoulder bag, snap bags, chiffon and keyhole scarves, mini-zippy bags in different shapes, knit or crocheted cowl neck wraps, fleece hat, mini-purses

Peggy Norton is collecting the directions for as many of these items as are possible.  She will supply them upon request as they are available.

Show & Tell

  

Peggy made herself a white t-shirt and decided to decorate it with some self-covered buttons.  She "fussy cut" the button covers from interesting Asian-style prints and varied the button sizes for additional interest.  Great idea!

Peggy's paper-pieced cat blocks

Maura had always wanted to make a purse with the metal frame and closure.   She recently found this cute pattern in a kit and decided to try it out.  Success! and not hard too do at all.

 Pat's most recent baby quilt in a simple block and strip pattern.

These are Pat's most recent purses.  This style could also be used for our community service project selections.

Connie recently finished this Judy Niemeyer quilt top

Connie's Judy Niemeyer retreat quilt - awesome!!

Connie's Vintage Print Quilt for a retiring friend

Closeup of Connie's vintage  print

quilt

Curtain Call

The Howland Cultural Center in Beacon NY is a non-profit group preserving and operating the historic 1872 Howland Circulating Library building as a center for arts and cultural activities.  Recently they approached our chapter with a request for curtains;  specifically, they needed to cover the artwork on the walls to provide a plain backdrop for performances and other events in the gallery space.  Judy Longacre and Maura Kristofik met with the staff to determine their needs, mocking up a sample to test their design.  The staff liked it, our chapter board gave the nod to proceed, and Judy began to round up volunteers.  The result was an almost all-day effort from Sandy, Isobel, Kathy, Peggy, Danielle, Mary P, Mary D, Judy, Maura and Sue (who put blood, sweat, but no tears, into her work!).  Jaye Vaughn also popped in and out during the day to help.  By 4 pm the Center had a stack of freshly pressed curtain panels all made up.  Judy did an awesome job of organizing everything - kudos to her for all her preparation to make the day go as smoothly as possible.  What was most impressive was how everyone worked as a well-oiled machine, picking up work wherever there was a backlog, and just pitching in to get the work done.  They all deserve numerous "curtain calls"!  Well done, eveyone!

Peggy at the serging station

Judy works the press.

Sandy marks the hems.

Sue carries on despite her collision with the rotary cutter.

Completed curtains in foreground;  Judy finishes up the last couple.

First completed panels are hung.

The work crew (minus Jaye who had to leave early)

Making a Difference

Last Saturday, October 22, members of the Hudson Valley Chapter of ASG did their part to make a difference for someone less fortunate.  Once again the Poughkeepsie Plaza graciously hosted us, letting us use an empty store space.  The staff at Sew 'n Vac lent us sewing tables and chairs, and later a vacuum to tidy up after ourselves.  Quite a few people spent part or all of the day pinning, pressing or sewing to make pillowcases, caps, neck gaiters and scarves to be donated to local shelters.  Here are a few pictures from the day, showing only a few of the many folk who helped out that day.

Getting Ready to Make a Difference

At our October meeting, the Sewphisticuts zoomed through a stack of fleece, cutting it up into the strips and circles that will be stitched together into fleece caps and scarves.  The Charity Chics group already did much of the preparation for making pillowcases, so when our Make a Difference Day event rolls around on Oct. 22nd, we'll be ready to sew.  Speaking of that event, we need folks to sign up for that day.  The event runs from 10 am to 3 pm, but however long you can stop in to help is appreciated.  Set-up will most likely be done on Friday evening.  If you can help out that night or anytime Saturday, please contact Connie Pennisi and let her know.  Help at the end of the event is especially appreciated as it takes a bit of work to restore the room to an empty, clean storefront.

In chapter news, there is a Serger workshop being planned for next March.  It will be limited to 8 people, but if many are interested a second one may be scheduled.  More information will be forthcoming about that.  The annual meeting and luncheon are coming up on Nov. 6 at Hudson's Ribs and Fish.  You should have already received an email about that.  Please note the deadlines for sending in your response and ballot.

Our next meeting in November will be a sewing meeting, with Pat M. helping us to make the nifty lined bag that can be used in a multitude of ways.   A list of necessary supplies will be sent out ahead of the meeting.  We will also discuss scheduling of the December dinner meeting.

We had a few Show and Tell items; pictures follow.

Connie's quilt in pretty pastels

One of Peggy's napkin rings

Judy's shawl - finished after MANY years!

The story behind Judy's shawl is that many years ago she had it almost complete, but disliked the fringe that the pattern had called for the finish the edge.  After our program about crocheted edgings, she thought about replacing the fringe with a crocheted edge.  Peggy helped her find a pattern that might work with the design of the shawl, and Judy proceeded to finally finish her shawl!

Pillow Talk

 Our May meeting was dedicated to service sewing:  we would make post-surgical pillows for patients at local hospitals.  We reversed our usual order of things and did Show-and-Tell first so that we could then go straight through with our sewing until the end of the meeting.  After Show-and-Tell, we got a nice assembly line going.  Connie had cut out the squares ahead of time, so we were able to pin in labels, sew, turn, stuff and close up about 30 pillows in an hour.  Nice work, everyone!

Peggy's crazy-quilt zippy bag

Peggy's large tote bag

A lovely little bag by Pat

Tanya's Zombie bag

Sue's thread-painting project

Maura's jeans:  classic on left, pull-on stretch on right

Everyone hard at work making pillows

No New Resolutions!

For the past two years, the Sewphisticuts have declared sewing resolutions to start the new year, hoping that making a list (and declaring them publicly) would provide impetus to really get to those projects!  Well, that didn't happen very often - fun while it lasted, though.  So we tossed last year's resolutions right out the window and moved on.

We used this month's meeting to do some brain-storming.  Everyone contributed some ideas and wishes and we were able to block out a schedule for the upcoming year.  We have some pretty interesting stuff coming up!

For next month's meeting we are going to explore knitting and crocheting, specifically as decorative edgings added to items we've sewn or purchased.  Everyone is invited to bring books, patterns, samples, or directions related to this topic.

Judy agreed to do a program on making bias binding.  Date to be determined. 

Several of us want to know more details about making handbags, such as interfacing choices, to achieve a more professional look.  We hope to find someone with experience to do a program for us.

Ronnie suggested an exploration of crazy-quilts, so I agreed to present some research on these at one meeting (probably in March), with the following month being devoted to sewing some samples.

June will be our sewing room tour - Peggy volunteered to show hers again since it has been redone since we were last there.

July is planned to be a Pillow Project sewing meeting to make pillows for the hospitals and rid Connie's attic of donated fiberfill.

Everyone wanted to return to doing Make-a-Difference-Day;  Connie volunteered to organize it.   We made a list of possible groups to benefit and Connie will get back to the group soon about projects.

Also on the table - some field trips in the nicer weather, most likely on a Saturday, perhaps to FIT's museum in NYC.   Suggestions for any other interesting places are welcome.

We had some Show-and-Tell also.  Pictures follow.

Kathia made a portable ironing pad.

Kathia made a "waste can" for sewing scraps.

One of 4 placemats Maura made to match her inherited china.

A machine-embroidered quilt by RoseAlice

RoseAlice's paper-pieced quilt

Judy's slacks made of brushed twill.

Maura's fake mink vest, not quite finished

Maura's corduroy slacks - fabric from last May's tag sale.

Hats, hats, hats, and a few scarves

The Sewphisticuts kept up with the theme of community service from last month's meeting and did some more charity sewing this month.  Hudson River Housing will be the beneficiary of fleece hats and scarves to be given to clients just as the chilly weather begins to move in.  Eight of us showed up to cut out hats and scarves and sew them up.  Ninety minutes later, we had a stack of over 20 hats made with a few matching scarves.  About a dozen more hats were cut out and a few of us took them home to finish up.

Finishing up some hats

A large size hat is modeled!

Judy did a short presentation about free-motion embroidery to prepare us for trying it at next month's meeting.  She gave us a list of materials we will need and got us thinking about what we want to try.  The list will be emailed to members before next month's meeting.  We also had Show and Tell; pictures follow.

Peggy made a purse for a friend.....

....and a top for herself,

as well as a knitted neckwarmer.

 

RoseAlice has an embroidered quilt started.

Maura's sheath dress from vintage pique, and skirt from stash remnant.

Aprons for Thompson House

Wednesday was a good day to be in air conditioning, what with the temperature outside being in the 90's.  So the five of us who gathered that evening at Hobby Lobby stayed a little cooler as we worked on making aprons for residents of Thompson House in Rhinebeck.  The aprons are designed to protect residents' clothes as they cook, bake or do craft activities, and are made with wheelchair-bound users in mind.   Twelve aprons in larger sizes had been requested, so our goal was to make at least twelve.  By the end of the evening we had cut out 16 from various fabrics in the chapter's stash, finished three and had several others in various stages of being finished.  The unfinished ones were doled out to be completed at home.  So within a few weeks we should have all twelve completed aprons.

Kathia, Connie, Judy and Ronnie hard at work.

We had a few moments at the end of the meeting for some Show and Tell, pictures of which are below.  Next month's meeting will be another round of service sewing, with the plan being to make some scarves and hats for the benefit of Hudson River Housing.

A quilt by Connie

 

Another quilt by Connie

Judy's show and tell photo - sundress for her granddaughter.

Ronnie's potholder using method from July meeting

Potholder back