Photos from a Busy Day



Our expert photographer



Getting ready to sew it up

Sewing buddies

Getting it done

Multi-talented

Bobbin reload

Colorful & cute inside and out



Notice the two bags sitting on the hands of hidden (camera shy) girls

Our bird sketchers are doing very well

A Busy Day

We juggled several activities at our 4-H work meeting today as you can see in the photos.  We finished all the zipper pouches,  some worked on their bird sketches, Autumn gave us a presentation on the benefits of having natural light in photography, we all enjoyed eating popcorn and ending our meeting watching a new "Kid History" on You Tube!  The last one was impromptu, not a planned activity. 

The girls did learn a little about putting in zippers, namely how to use a zipper foot, that you can actually sew over the zipper if you do it very slowly and carefully and avoid the tab and the end piece, that topstitching on a pouch zipper holds the fabric back so it won't get caught in the zipper, and makes it look nicer, and that sewing in a zipper is a skill worth having.  It does take practice, though, so I hope they will do more of it in their sewing projects.

Zippering!!

Today after the business part of our 4-H meeting, we had a zipper experience that was a first for most of the girls.  The zippered pouch is a fun way to be introduced to working with a zipper, learning the dangers of letting the needle get too close to the plastic or metal parts, etc.  We got to about half way through and will finish next time.  The girls chose some colorful fabrics, don't you think?  

Plans for New 4-H Year

So this how our club works.  We have nine members or ten if you count me (the leader).  Seven of them come to meetings, one is an independent member who had been a regular member in the past but is now too involved with many other things (as most 16 year-olds are) to attend our meetings.  She was a wonderful mentor for us last year teaching those who were interested in our group (nearly everyone) how to do pastel paintings.  They all exhibited their work at the fair last year and loved it.  The other independent member is the younger sister of some of our members who wanted to start being a Cloverbud this year and will do it at home with the help of an older sister since we are taking some time off from having separate Cloverbud projects as part of our meetings, if that makes any sense.  Sometimes it just gets too complicated to do it all.

 The way we work our meetings (after trying different things over the years) is that we have a regular business meeting the first week of each month, and on the third week of each month we have a work meeting where the members can bring things they need help with, or (and this is usually the case) I present an activity that I know they are interested in learning about, or I present something I know is important for them to learn in order to do the projects they plan to do for fair.  So we have just two meetings each month.

This year at each of our 1st meeting of the month, a member is required (by me) to give a presentation of their choice of subject.  I did the first one in December to show an example of how to do it.  I did mine on how to plan and begin a quilt project.  In January, a girl gave one on how and when to use the whip stitch. We have enough meetings before fair to schedule each member to do one presentation.

This year our club goals are:
1. Do presentations in club meetings
2. Do services projects  (Our quilt)
3. Do field trips to a quilting shop (Done) and to a floral shop to learn flower arranging
4. Everyone do a record book, 5th graders and up(Last year 3 did them)
5. Do at least 2 projects for fair
6. Have projects done (or at least started) before fair entry date June 14.

We finished it!

As a 4-H service project we decided to make a quilt starting in October.  A design was chosen and we went to a quilt shop in downtown Forest Grove to see a sample of a finished quilt made from that pattern.  The girls were given 5 piece blocks to sew together at home and during our work meetings.  We finished the 23 sixteen inch square blocks that we needed in December, and in January I quilted it and put the binding on using my sewing machine.  Some of the girls helped mark it and others made the binding strip.

It was sent on January 29th to an organization in New Jersey that is collecting quilts to give to victims of Hurricane Sandy.  Here is a photo of it.  It was a big job but we think it is beautiful.