We have a variety of outreach projects ongoing or coming up. So many it's hard to keep track of them all. Here's an overview:
Stitching:Hospice of the Calumet Area: We need 2" square stitched designs for their cards
* and hand-stitched holiday ornaments, any design or style.
*Hammond Reads: Bookmarks, primarily aimed at children. Standard bookmark sizes are between 2" and 3" wide and 6" and 8" long but other sizes and styles are welcome.
* Any designs or materials that you wish. Some designs and more information are available at Stitching
for Literacy. This is an EGA outreach project. [We are also collecting new and lightly-used books of all types, for all ages, for Hammond Reads to distribute.]
*Marjorie Holme will have precut pieces of Hardanger fabric, donated to the outreach projects by Karen Uebler, for the Hospice cards, ornaments and Hammond Reads bookmarks at the June meeting. These are all nicely portable projects ideal for summer stitching.Threads That Bind: We are collecting hand-stitched ornaments for our show boutique. The deadline is the September meeting. All profits go to the chapter. (more details in an upcoming post)
Your finished embroideries! Please don't forget to submit one or more (or many) pieces for display in the show.
Members' Boutique: more details on this opportunity to support the guild and also make a little money for yourself will be in an upcoming post.
Volunteering:There will be a number of volunteer opportunities for our show. We hope everyone will participate before and during the show. Watch this blog for more details on volunteer sign up for the show.Camp Quality Illinois: We will be teaching at the Camp on Friday August 6. We will need volunteers one night to help kit the project (date to be determined) and as many volunteers as possible to come and stitch with the kids on the morning of August 6. Camp Quality Illinois is in Frankfort, IL.
Beginning Stitching at the
YMCA: We plan to expand our experimental program at the YMCA and make it more organized and formal. It was slow at first but we ended up with nicely sized classes of children and adults. We plan to teach this fall on Thursdays at 6:30pm from September to Thanksgiving. September's project will be a beginning cross stitch sampler, designed by Jamee Jecmen. October will be "tattoo your jeans": how to decorate your clothing with embroidery, something popular with teens right now. November will be simple holiday ornaments. We would like volunteers to commit to coming for one month to work with the beginning students.
Boxed in Needlepoint
Bunny Candle Mat
Kissing Pillows stitched,
Stitch - In - Public Day 
In September we worked on cross stitch samplers (thanks to Jamee for the deisgn). In October we "tattoed" their jeans--one student completed her design of a grape vine and proudly wore it to class. And November's class was holiday ornaments made with felt and sequin waste (also known as punchinella).
The ornament project was the most popular and most students made several ornaments. Each time our class grew and just as we were ending last night, two potential new students came by.
I love the creative chaos--the students really "ran" with this projects and came up with lots of creative ideas.
We're getting organized for next spring. We will teach in February (continuing with the sampler, finishing them up and adding them to a pillow top--there are some other projects students want to reprise and we'll do that, too), March (needlepoint on plastic canvas napkin rings and a planned field trip to Jo-Ann Fabrics), and April (beaded bracelets). The class is Thursdays--6:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Soldier Family Kissing Pillow
The Hospice of the Calumet Area 
Thanks a bunch to everyone who came out to help prepare materials for Camp Quality. We had a great group: Janet Charleston, Renee Stern, Renee Reimer, Sue Hansen, Pat Bellinger, Karen Pinta, Cathryn Wurzer. We chatted as we cut plastic canvas and yarn into usable lengths and tied it into bundles. Each camper will get canvas, a hank of yarn, a dog tag, and a needle. 
Look at this wonderful donation to the Camp Quality project by Renee R.! Plenty of military color wool and plastic canvas for everyone. Thank you so much.
We need to have a meeting to cut the plastic canvas and yarn Renee so generously donated and get it ready for Camp Quality on August 6th. We haven't scheduled it yet and only one person signed up--so if you have a prefered date, please let Marjorie Holme know. (holme9 at gmail dot com) We are thinking about Thursdays--either the 15th or the 29th. I'll try and schedule it at the Munster Library. Please come and help! Thanks!
