January 13

We had a good time last night. There were 5 of us total and I was the only one not creating a bag from the demonstration project. Amber did a great job of running from machine to machine keeping everyone stitching and making progress. I was running from spot to spot trying to keep kids out of trouble and make sure everyone knew where the trash can and bathroom were. I did sit down a crochet a little and actually continued that course after the last of the guests were gone. It was nice to sit quietly by the fire, hot tea and a little bit of cake on the table beside me, crochet in hand and consider what went well and what could have been better.

One thing I really enjoyed was the fact that we set limits and didn't over emphasize the food. In the past I loved our meals, I loved how much time and attention people put into the dishes they brought and it became a focus of our meeting with themed food nights and lots of time spent around the buffet. I loved it, but I think we got less and less done the more we focused on it. I also put a time to begin and a time to end on the flyer. In the past we didn't set a limit and there were some nights we were in each other's living rooms late, late, late into the night. Last night everyone left around 9:00 and there was still time to clean up a few things and wind down before going to bed.

I wish that we could have handled the instruction time a little differently. I would have loved to be able to teach everyone the same step at the same time. Had everyone brought their own sewing machine that might have been possible. Some people do not yet have machines so there was a lot of back and forth and working around each other. It worked out, and Amber handles things like that without a problem, I am just a sucker for order and really had to step back and just be available to service my machine or answer sewing questions when I could. I had a great time doing that, and I guess what I'm really saying is, I could not have done what Amber did. Everyone seemed very happy with what they went home with and I have to say some of them were really cute.

Amber Dunn and her sister Ashleigh made large totes instead of the Valentine bag, It was the same thing just on a larger scale. They also opted for lining their bags which turned out very, very cute.



Karin and Amber Hunter made the project, as advertised, for their school age girls and they turned out very cute.



Amy was unable to make it at the last minute and asked that the step by step tutorial for making the bags be posted here. I will try to do that. I did take a few pictures but not nearly as many as I'd hoped. Thankfully the instructions are not difficult and between myself and Amber, I am sure that we can communicate the steps needed to complete the project.

It was a lot of fun and I'm looking forward to next month's meeting. As soon as we know what will be happening we will post here as well as send out an e-mail and e-flyer.