In October, Elaine gave a great presentation on scarves.  Elaine started her demonstration with a brief history of the scarf telling us that scarves were originally worn only by men.  Who knew?  These weren’t just any men but men of some importance either in government or of some other social status.  Elaine showed us various techniques to make scarves of many styles, including the pendant scarf, the jeweled scarf, and the hooded scarf that can be worn over the head or around the neck.  Her presentation also included a 30 inch infinity scarf and a shawl type of scarf.  All were beautifully done.

In May we took our yearly field trip.  This year we traveled to South St. Louis County for a visit to Heyde Sewing Machine Company.  While there we were given a demonstration on the AccuQuilt Go and AccuQuilt Go Big Fabric Cutter.  What a fantastic machine for any quilt maker.

Our presentation for the month of November was given by our group leader, Betty.  Betty showed us several different ways to make hand towels that could hang from a bar.  By bar I mean the handle of perhaps your oven or dishwasher as opposed to those that could hang from a knob.  The knob hangers are usually accomplished by crocheting a top with a large ring onto the towel for convenient hanging onto any knob.  Betty's designs were actually pieces of complementing fabrics sewn onto each towel.  As you can see in the photos, these were very pretty and practical kitchen towels that are available right at your finger tips when needed.  What a nice addition to any functional kitchen.

At a recent meeting, Betty demonstrated how to make a Fold and Stitch wreath.  You can find the pattern at Poorhouse Quilt Designs here.  The wreath is so versatile that it doubles as a table wreath to hold a vase of flowers or your favorite candle.  (photo from poorhousequiltdesigns.com)

At our April meeting, one of our members brought many antique and much loved aprons to share with us.  After giving us a brief history of the ever-important functions of the apron, she delighted us with an array of these wonderful works of art. Each one of the aprons was once used almost daily in a busy family kitchen.  These were from the days when the lady of the house was actually home most of the day and had a need to protect even her everyday dresses from spills and other kitchen mishaps.  After the presentation, on aprons we paired off or met in small groups and were tutored on the finer points of hand-embroidery.

Yards of ribbon, boxes of bows, pounds of buttons, stacks of name tags and clutch back pins, bottles of glue, straight pins, glue guns and glue sticks, magnets, potholders and scissors greeted the Fenton Daytime members who assembled at the September meeting to make favors, name tags and table decorations for the fall conference.  We not only glued buttons, pins and bows to our projects but also bonded within the group as we shared the work and our ideas. We look forward to doing more group projects as some of us felt we had found new friends while completed our activities.