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They try Annette Floyd's light and crispy peanut butter rods, get an update on Mary's foot surgery and when it is all said and done, leave with around 30 small blankets for Newberry citizens whom are elderly, wheelchair-bound or nursing home residents and could use a little extra warmth or coverage.
Goodwill is not the group's purpose, but meetings often produce craft projects that help others.
The Heirloom Needle Arts Club Family and Community Leaders club has been meeting every fourth Tuesday of the month since 1987.
They still pay 25-cent dues, and each month a different member decides their activity.
Members may schedule a special craft, speaker or really “whatever they want,” said club President Henrietta Shealy.
THIS MONTH: COVERS
September was lap robe month.
After secretary Dot Merchant read minutes from August's meeting on a pin cushion presentation, the group got to work finishing its double-sided lap robes, or small, 45- by 45-inch blanket coverings.
Shealy brought in matching size fabric squares that she cut for the group to hem and sew together.
Faye Halfacre had already sewn two lap robes at home for the project, but worked on another with Floyd.
However, the two pieces of fabric they worked on-one a mud-brown color and one a pink-checked Powerpuff girls cloth with Blossom, Buttercup and Bubbles cartoons, did not quite match in size.
As Floyd tacked the perimeter of the two cloths and with straight pins, Halfacre lamented the third side's uneven border.
“Just pull it over more,“ said Floyd, widening the hem width to equal the rest of the blanket.
Then Halfacre noticed that Floyd's border pull left the blanket slightly uneven and that the seam's edge was showing.
“Turn it under,” Floyd said.
As they worked, Halfacre tucked in the sides and every three inches, stopped to hand Floyd a pin to tack the pieces together.
THE STITCH THAT BINDS
Since Floyd and others have been a part of the club since its inception, craft work has merged into friendships, and friendships have prompted care.
While hemming, Halfacre updates the group on one club member.
“I saw Mary down at the grocery store,” Halfacre said. “Her foot surgery hadn't gone well and she said she'd love to see all of us.”
Several suggested that the group visit her, but Halfacre pointed out that their visit might burden Mary because many feel they have to thoroughly straighten up their house before company comes.
“Well, we could take some fried chicken or something,“ Floyd suggested.
Waclawa Paolantonio suggested Mary should visit the group instead so “she doesn't have to clean the house.”
COME ON, DARLIN'
On the other side of the room, Merchant, JoAnne Trefsgar and Tillie Leitzsey worked to start an older sewing machine.
“Come on, darlin',” Merchant said to the machine.
Their usual sewing machine was missing its cord, so with difficulty, they tried to run another, much older machine.
The Singer Fashion Mate model 239 was old, but that was not why Merchant was having problems using it, Merchant said.
The machine was not “nearly as old” as the one she bought in 1943 and still uses at home.
The trio finally got the machine to work and Merchant took her position on the finishing end of the lap robe assembly.
She eventually received Halfacre and Floyd's pin-hemmed blanket to sew.
Merchant ran the blanket brown side up under the machine's tiny presser foot and produced a straight seam that was an equal distance away from the edge at different points.
As the blanket fed into the growing seam, the machine buzzed and rumbled the table under it.
Merchant, a lifelong sewer who began sewing doll clothes when she was a little girl, called the noise.
“I think this machine needs some oil,” Merchant said. “See how noisy it is?”
Merchant said she sewed her daughters' clothes while they were in school, her oldest daughter's wedding gown and still sews some of her own clothes.
“My mother was a wonderful seamstress and I sat and watched her,” she said.
The electric buzzing noise would stop only briefly as Merchant paused every few inches to remove the pins inserted by Floyd.
Despite edging concerns by Halfacre, Merchant said the blanket done by Halfacre and Floyd turned out fine.
PINCH, BUT DON'T TRIM
The material for Halfacre and Floyd's lap robe and other blankets was donated, and Shealy discouraged members from cutting any of the edges.
“She doesn't want to waste one inch of material,” said Merchant of Shealy.
She also strongly suggested that members stitch their blankets down the middle so the material would not shift.
Shealy later admitted being particular about the group's work Tuesday, but said she had to be specific because she had spent so much time preparing the material for the group.
She herself had completed 10 lap robes at home.
“She has just done wonderful with these things,” said Floyd. “She has cut out and cut out and cut out.”
Shealy, 87, has been president of the group since 1990. She is also the group's treasurer and in charge of sending memorials to families of deceased members.
Shealy says she enjoys the work, though its hard.
“She holds this club together,” said Merchant.
Shealy says she hopes younger people join the group and keep it going.
Already, Halfacre has brought Paolantonio to the group, who in turn brought two more friends. One of Paolantonio's friends has since brought in another member.
Two weeks ago at the Family and Community Leaders' meeting in Union, the Newberry group won two awards for bringing in new members and having a high percentage of new group members.
But still, the club is recruiting.
“Anybody who's free on the fourth Tuesday morning, we'd love to have them,” said Halfacre. “This room is plenty big and we can hold them.”
The group meets at the Clemson Extension Annex at 9:30 a.m. every fourth Tuesday of the month.
Meetings typically last until 11:30 and visitors are welcome.
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