Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Weekly Update & Show & Tell for February 21, 2015

Hi Fabric Fun Ladies, here we are looking at the last weekend in February already for 2015... you ladies have continued to make this club so much fun!   This week we had some fun show n tell even with a smaller size group of ladies.  I still say our club's show and tell time is the best anywhere.    I hope that you have a chance to go over to the BlogSpot that Lois Rose keeps up-to-date every week because it is true that "a picture is worth a thousand words"...!

This coming Saturday will be Fidget Quilt focus - no lunch & learn this month - I know that we are breaking tradition (a little here - remember we did have cake & snacks a couple weeks ago on the 14th), but we'll make sure to make March's L&L "top of the morning" fun!   The Daily Sun's Jill Sherman is doing an article about all the ladies who make Fidget Quilts as part of their charitable giving here in The Villages.  On Saturday, The Daily Sun Photographer is coming to take pictures of you ladies at work designing and making/sewing up Fidget Quilts.  Please don't be shy, come, bring your machines, don't have a machine, then come to help sort, iron, design in the fun way we do just by picking and choosing fun motifs, ribbons, braids, any/all embellishments that we can add to these comfort-giving small quilts.  There will be plenty of supplies and plenty of fabrics pre-set as "quilt tops" - all ready for just your added touches.  Remember - there are no mistakes - absolutely none!  You cannot do wrong and each and every one always turns out perfect and they are all well-loved instantly.

Heads up - Calendar - still working on getting that all together.  For 1st Saturday of March we have planned to make Spring/Easter placemats - using what is called strips piecing.  Please see Lois' picture from this week's show and tell.  And attached is the pattern/instructions that give you the fabric requirements.  Lois will demo the oval placemats.  We will also have patterns/instructions for rectangular and wedge-shaped placemats that specifically work very well for round tables (I have a round dining room table so this is my favorite shaped placemat.)  Sue Campbell is making up templates to use for the wedge-shape versions.  Whether round, rectangular, wedge shape is the version you are interested in, the fabric requirements will be the same.  So, please use the JoAnn's instructions attached to get your fabrics in line. 

FYI, I'm planning to make up several "kits" to make available (fabrics, batting, cotton needed) that I'm going to put a reasonable price on (below retail for sure).  This will help any ladies who come at last minute and cannot gather supplies of their own choices.  While I'm cutting for my own, it certainly will be just as easy to cut a few extra sets up. 

Sharkys Vac & Sew in Wildwood (and I heard that 466A is going to be opened up again soon - Yea! straight shot to Sharkys!) continues to get in more and more fabrics every week - surely those walls must be busting out... their prices are almost considered below retail when you compare Sharkys to quilt shops and even internet outlets where you pay for shipping.  And Sharkys sell 108" wide quilt backing fabric at very, very reasonable prices - Consider this... a yard of 108" wide fabric is more fabric than purchasing 2-3 yards of reg. 42" fabric! and when you add up the 2-3 yards of a 42" fabric and compare to just 1 yard of 108" fabric - that's one way to get more "bang for your buck!"  So I do hear that Sharkys has fantastic variety of kids fabrics and new spring lines from Moda & Timeless Treasures.  I plan to find out personally, up close & personal, later today!

Reminder - SeaBreeze Potters' Show & Sale is Friday, Feb. 27th 8am-12Noon at SeaBreeze right there in the Neptune room. 

Reminder - March 14th - No Meeting - the rec center is blocked to us that day for other use.  We will be planning a full-day Saturday Fabric Fun meeting for May!  The Potters owe us a meeting day for last fall when we gave them our afternoon Saturday time for one of their sales.  I'm all "ears" for suggestions on what you'd like to have planned for our May All Satur-Day!  It will either be May 2 or May 9 at this point.  I'll let you know confirmation once the details are all set with Potters.  Suggestions - ??? are very welcome.  This will be our full day to play together - we'll make plans for lunch break and make that a little fun as well.  So come 1/2 day or full day, it'll be something that works for all our ladies and the way our club likes to make sure that new-to-experienced sewers are included. 

Show & Tell:


Micki - I started by sharing my "Seams To Me" sampler that was an exercise looking at various types of seams used in construction of many sewing needs and how little swatches of each type was placed in a fun this and that sampler form.  You girls here me talk about my "Foot Book" that I loved and somehow misplaced in moving from MD to FL and all the CT, VA, and CA stops inbetween during those years... this new little sampler is inspiring me once again to revise my remake hopes for a Foot Book.   I also shared the Turtle version of the Easy! Rag Quilting Simplicity pattern.  (Mary Naz is doing a harder Turtle version!).  These smaller easier ones only have 5-6-7 pieces total to sew together to have a beautiful little baby version - Turtle, Butterfly, or Snail!.  The club has the templates and instructions easy to follow!  Lastly, craftsy.com is a terrific resource for free information and tutorials.  Yes, there are classes for $'s at craftsy.com, but there are many, many free patterns, free classes, free tuturials, free stuff! galore at that website.  I used one of the tutorials to complete one of the seams - flat felled seam - that I did not have a special machine foot to make - so I made my flat felled seam sample swatches using "old school" way.  Yes, there is now a convenient new machine foot for my Bernina machine, but not going to store and paying out the $'s needed to purchase, I was still able to do that swatch easily following helpful tutorial available at craftsy.com


 
 
Marie Bray - made a beautiful casserole carrier - great job lady!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Kathy Jones - pillowcases for Case for Smiles and zippered bags - all made in Kathy's usual expertise!












Donna Pachy - continues to produce her monthly wallhangings for family and shared "March" she made to send to her daughter & grandsons in CA!  We all know how much our kids love receiving our lovingly-made treasures, especially our grandchildren!  Wow, Donna has become quite proficient in stippling and fancy quilting - and she's using variegated threads beautifully, too!      





Carol Planck - (Here is where I'm giving Carol a Standing Applause!) Carol is continuing to make herself stronger and more well each day - God bless and keep up the good work!!  Carol continues to inspire with her expertise of Bling and new techniques.  She wow'd us with an array of tote bag made in her famous Peacock-ese fashion and T-shirts using new machine and embellishing materials available.  Everything is beautiful and again... check out the pictures for a thousand words!!













 
 
Edie Cave - was very busy sewing for the club's charitable efforts (as usual).  Edie is so unselfish in her time for sure!   She shared and turned in 3 cat hammocks and 4 pillowcases - thanks, lady!








Lois Rose - (we're all convinced Lois is able to operate on a 22-23 hour day!)  No kidding... this week she shared another quilt she made with Native American fabrics for a friend - lovely!, 
 
Easter Spring Placemats - that she detailed and has agreed to lead the demo now for March 7th, and Lois got her creative process ramped up this week making a "Fractured Frenzy" fabric-art wallhanging.  
And, yes, Fractured Frenzy is now on calendar for April! demo.  This technique works very well with the "repeating" fabrics found easily in today's marketplace - borders, and just about every print fabric has a "repeatable" pattern... so more on that later!
 
 
 
 





 
Alice Meunier - shared an adorable O.R. cap she made for her daughter who is an OR nurse.  And Alice shared her zippered bag!  Good job!!!  I'm personally thrilled you ladies took the zippers and fabrics and made up your bags so you could see how easily zippers can be inserted and how pretty they turn out.  
 
 
 
 
 

One more thing - from Donna's wallhanging of the month process came discussion of "Tablerunner of the Month" idea.  We all use tablerunners for our counters and tables, etc. and how much fun it is to have these treasures to pull out of the closet at the last minute when someone arrives or we plan our get-together, or just every day use to make our homes a little cheerier - just for ourselves!  When you think about it a table runner often times can be double as a "wallhanging" for a narrow vertical wall - which we all  have in our homes down here in The Villages.  I've got a couple spots here in there in the house that are either "covered" with the current month's fun - or usually empty, ha ha!  My house up north was "coated" with stuff, but none of that seems to suit down here (huh! how'd that happen?) and it seams I don't have as much time to crank out the stuff I did up there (imagine that - it's The Villages!).  Anyway... I'm all for a Tablerunner of the Month gameplan and this could even become our Lunch & Learn tradition.  We'll try to get this set up soon... we'll have the tablerunner available to display for L&L, pattern templates and instructions and demo set up for each month.  We may be even able to incorporate a few "kits" each month. 

Still planning, but coming soon to a meeting near you!

As always, prayers to all of you and your families and friends.  God bless our military men and women serving around the world and keeping our nation free, Amen.


God bless,  
 *´¨)
 ¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·'
     Micki MacCumbee

Club Leader, Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts

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