Weekly Update - June 27, 2015

Hi Ladies:  Happy 4th of July to you all and to America!!  Please enjoy the week for our nation, enjoy the Freedom our Forefathers set forth for us by forging the awesome documents that provide our nation's foundation, enjoy the Safety our Police and Fire (our first responders across this nation) provide for us and our communities every hour of every day, and always enjoy pride in all branches of our U.S. Military that stand for Freedom at home on our shores and deployed around the world.  America The Beautiful! God bless America!!  God bless the U.S.A.!!!  

Before getting started with last week's Show & Tell, big huge thanks to Lois Rose and Annette Reddy for leading June 22nd meeting and the Bobbin Robin fun project!!  

Annette Reddy will be getting us a link to the Bobbin Robin contest for submitting the cuties you are making up!!  

Before we began Show & Tell, we took some time to examine a quilt Linda Parr has been asked to repair. It is a beautiful 30+ year old quilt that has a small tear in it from a pet's claw.  We all chimed in with suggestions.

Kathy Nichols - pillowcases and "Robinette" a very frilly version of Bobbin Robin!

Lois Rose - Bobbin Robin with sewing notion adornments of buttons and odds and ends - so cute AND the BIRD made it to 21 ROW BY ROW SHOPS ALREADY!!  Is that not amazing - Lois, you inspire all of us with your sewing crafting and just fun enthusiasm - we will miss you over next few weeks/months.  However long it takes, we've got your space open for you always!!!  God bless and lots of thoughts and prayers coming your way from all of us.

Nancy Cartlidge - rag quilt (a pretty large one made with 4 inch squares - that's right, lots of seams and lots of snipping going on for this one! and pillow case

Joan Thomas - very pretty tote bag made "upscaling" a beautiful giraffe motif from a blouse she felt had seen it's "better days".  Joan cut the motif off and fashioned a beautiful pocket for the front of tote along with pretty choice of complimentary fabrics.

Jane Swafford - thanks for bringing the very patriotic flag adorned cupcakes, made some more pretty pillowcases!!

Sue Kapellen - "dress" let me say it is a dress fit for a princess - yes, her 3 yr old granddaughter!   Gorgeous dress fashioned from hand, embroidery, serger, machine work, you name it and altogether a finished project that is absolutely lovely!!  Loved the pretty red, white and blue salad you brought made with watermelon, blueberries and feta cheese and greens - Yummy!

Judy Johnston - quilt - beautiful one - starting with panel of barns with quilt blocks like you see around the country, Judy framed the "barn blocks" and added lovely wide border and made a beautiful quilt for a friend.  Judy picked up Henry Glass Patriotic Panel Fabric at Tomorrow Treasures (beautiful Kaufman fabric) and plans another beautiful quilt for herself!  Love the theme:  LET FREEDOM RING and AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL!!

Eileen Navikas - shared the quilted quilt of big blue blocks bordered with the many, many small 2 inch blocks borders that she's made for her husband.  Eileen's husband will be starting dialysis, so prayers go out to hubby and Eileen for support and comfort.  Eileen also shared terrific crochet needle organizers she made for her mother and herself.






Kathy Jones - Shared a terrific shirt she picked up on trip up north recently to Adirondecks.  It's made using two t shirts and cutting top one to make the pretty "embellishing surface" on front. 


She also showed a neat way she found fat quarters folded at a shop.  Folding them in triangles and crossing them into a star, tied with ribbon, make a cute fabric gift.

Snowbirds, Seasonal and Butterflies - please remember we think about you often, love hearing back from you from time to time, hope that you're having lots of fun where you are and enjoying sewing crafting projects.  

Originally, I planned to do "Christmas" small make and take sort of projects for June and July and that got "sidetracked" (yes, enjoy a chuckle on me, Lu!) with my own additional travel and extended grandsons' stay for summer.  

Plan B:  Footbook Machine Feet know-how and Sewing Techniques!!   For the summer, I'll be demonstrating each week a technique/sewing machine foot.  I combine these because they go hand in hand.  Special sewing machine feet are made to aide a certain sewing technique, so you can still do the technique without the sewing foot, but having the foot (supposedly) makes it easier to accomplish.  If you follow along each week, make your "sample" stitchout, and print out the accompanying "pdf" handout - - you will have your very own Foot Book of machine feet know how and sewing techniques to enjoy and reference.  Step by Step, week by week, you will be amazed how it all ties together into some pretty fantastic fun!!

Last week I started by showing "Bobbinwork" which is using the thicker threads and fibers that cannot go thru the top needle tension by loading bobbins and bringing the threads up from the bobbin area - thus sewing "upsdie down" because you will need to sew with the front side down to the feed dogs.  And talked a little bit about "Couching" but we'll spend a separate Saturday on that fun stuff.  This Bobbinwork pdf handout is from Threads Magazine website and is a lot bigger/larger (i.e., number of pages and pictures) than most of the hand-outs that will accompanying all the feet and techniques of our Foot Book.  So don't be thinking.... this is too much to read or learn.  Most of the feet/techniques are lots more simple to show and write about.  

Next week - Pintucks - with or without special machine feet - and with twin needle!  Pintucks can be tiny or bigger and they are fun ways to add special detail to projects.  Pintucks are considered "heirloom" sewing technique.  But in today's fun sewing projects, pintucks fit right in to bring embellishments and details to the surface.  

Love, Peace and Joy, God bless America, 

 *´¨)

 ¸.·´¸.·*´¨) ¸.·*¨)
(¸.·´ (¸.·'      Micki MacCumbee

Club Leader, Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts

Ed: Audrey Philips couldn't make it to our meeting last Saturday, but I managed to get a photo of her Bobbin Robbin at the Row by Row tote bag class on Monday.

Weekly Update - June 20, 2015

 We had a great meeting yesterday.  10 ladies came with lots of show & tell projects, then Annette Reddy led us in making our Bobbin Robins.  With all the fabric precut- we only had to sew, stuff and embellish.  I'm looking forward to seeing all the birds fly back in next week.

 Show & Tell:

Lois Rose - 2 little owls completed from last week's demo, but with wings and feet added. Also a little basket made out of machine embroidered blocks.

 

 

 

 

Sue Campbell - pillow cases and a cute "It'sYour Day" birthday place mat.

 

Carol Wolfhagen - her first attempt at a jelly roll quilt, very nicely done.  This is still in progress, so we will see it again when it is done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marty Rhyme - a cute baby blanket.She learned a self-binding technique from Pinterest and has offered to show us how she did it in a future meeting demo.

Kathy Nichols - took a bunch of little squares Lois had cut up for charity quilts, and sewed them together as the start of a cute baby blanket quilt top. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susanne Brown - a trivia bag she made for her World of Beer trivia group, and a tissue holder she made in her embroidery hoop.

Jane Swafford -Pillowcase and a sun-dress for her great-niece.

 

 Audrey Philips - has been busy since she hasn't been able to drive.  She came in today with a bunch of completed projects.


First, a crocheted prayer shawl.


 Then pillowcases

 a zip bag travel jewelry bag, a travel jewelry tray,

hand made cards with pull-down messages

, embroidered lace earrings,




 and cards with machine embroidered lace angels

 

Sandy Lynch - a nook cover she designed and made.










Next week is lunch & learn.  Bring something to share for lunch if you can, but if not, come anyway.  There is always plenty of food to go around.

Weekly Update - June 13, 2015

Before I get to Micki's weekly update, I want to take a few lines to answer some questions I've received regarding what the heck I am doing in the back of the meeting room with all the fabric piles each week.  A while back I took a bag of donated fabric home with the intention of filling a doggie bed with scraps.  However, when I pulled pieces of fabric out I discovered that, in with the little scraps were lots of larger pieces.  Now, I was brought up by a depression era mom who never threw away anything that might have another use.   Yes,  I love filling doggie beds with scraps, but I also think these larger leftover pieces could become quilts to keep someone in need warm at night.  So from that time on I have been taking bags of donated fabric home and separating out anything that might be cut into a usable square.

I started out cutting to the largest sizes possible for each piece, but have now settled on 4 sizes to keep things simple - 2.5 inch, 3.5 inch, 4.5 inch and 6.5 inch squares.  Note - there is almost always strips of binding left over and these are usually 2.5 inches wide, so even these can be re-purposed.   Whatever is leftover after I cut these squares goes into the doggie beds and I am still filling several of those each week.

If anyone would like to help me create some scrappy quilts with these, your assistance will always be appreciated.  There are a number of ways anyone who wants can help:

1) Sorting any newly donated fabric for pieces of cotton fabric large enough to add to the task.  The more we have, the better our chances of putting together some pleasing color combinations for the final quilts.
2) Cutting fabric.  Although I've done a lot already, I still have 2 bins of good fabric to cut.
3) Matching the small 2.5 & 3.5 inch squares into sets of 4.
4) Sewing matched sets together (with 1/4 inch seams).  Four 2.5 inch squares sewn together will result in a 4.5 inch square, so it can be mixed in with the 4.5 inch squares when we lay out the quilts.  Likewise,  four 3.5 inch squares sewn together will result in a 6.5 inch square, so it can be mixed in with the 6.5 inch squares.
5) Pressing the 4.5 & 6.5 inch squares.  This is mostly to get the blocks that have been sewn together from smaller blocks to lay flat, but some of the one-piece 4.5 & 6.5 inch blocks may also benefit from ironing.

Once we have a good number of 4.5 & 6.5 inch blocks we can have a quilt design day, where we lay the blocks out on tables to see how many quilts we can create.  I expect this will not happen until at least September when some of our snowbirds come back.  Then anyone who wants to can take stacks of blocks and sew them together to make the quilt tops.  My goal is to have a couple of twin size and baby size quilts completed by Thanksgiving so they can be given to a needy group before Christmas.

I will probably not be able to make meetings in July, so if anyone is interested in taking some of this to work on, either at meetings or at home, please see me either this Saturday (6/20) or next (6/27).  When I am able to come back to the group we can bring our efforts together and see what we have.

Thank you in advance for your help with this.  I think if Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts had a written set club goals, it would be 1) Find ways to give back to the community (Regular Quilts, Fidget Quilts, Doggie Beds, Cat Hammocks, Pillow Cases, Book Bags, etc.); 2) Sharing sewing projects, tips & tricks with each other;  3) Supporting each other as friends  - I'm feeling this last one in a big way lately :-)

OK, enough about my pet charity projects.  Here's last week's Show & Tell update:

 
 Micki started us off by showing how to stretch strips of t-shirt material into useful cords.

Lois Rose - fidget quilt made for special request - special thanks from our club for your extra effort to fulfill this special request.  Very good work!!

Jane Swafford - more of her lovely pillowcases - these go to an excellent charitable effort at Ocala shelter for Domestic Abuse and Sexual Violence victims and their children.

 Donna Chaffee - placemats and tote bags - beautiful one-of-a-kind creations and Micki got her to show off her purse.












 Mary Nazgiewicz - fidget quilts and burrito pillowcases - Good work!!

Annette Reddy - beautiful quilt with vivid colors against black background and the "Row by Row" Tote bag that will be the rage this summer.  Annette is sharing how to make the tote bag with us over the next couple weeks - and there is a very reasonably priced tote bag kit available thru Annette that is the Timeless Treasures fabric and pattern.  She's a school teacher and knows how to get the sewing instructions down to all levels to understand.  Fun Project - check out the blog for pictures!!

Nancy Cartlidge - pillowcases, doggie beds, and baby cocoons - I'm so envious of you ladies who do the beautiful crochet and knitting work - and one of these days... I'm making those crochet cocoons for sure!!

 (I don't think she liked my taking a picture of the doggie bed.  :-))

 Joyce Yarborough - Pillow cases and plastic bag holders - this is a fun lady who is having lots of fun sharing and joining in our club's adventures in fabric projects.  I love Joyce's enthusiasm and hope you bring it along each week because it's contagious!

Ladies, I've been asked to bring in a scissor sharpener that I have - I will do that on June 20th when I get back from VA - this will be kept on our club's shelves for future use by members.  Nobody likes to work with dull scissors, so even though it's not a professional scissor sharpening, it might help get the job done!

Next Saturday - June 20th Lois Rose will be leading our meeting and Annette Reddy will be demonstrating and giving all details about ROW BY ROW - yes the fun, fun, quilt shop hop activity that is now very popular across the USA for summertime fun.  And Florida is not being left out and especially our club! since Annette works for a shop in south FL (sorry I don't know name to send that out) and luckily she is here in her home here in TV's for next 3 weeks.  She'll share this BOBBIN ROBIN contest fun with us next Sat. on 20th.  Attachments are in the email or go to http://www.rowbyrowexperience.com/ to get all the details about contest, row by row, and Timeless Treasures fabric, and the fabulous TOTE BAG that Annette will be "demo'ing", too.  Annette is happy to help and instruct ladies new and advanced sewers on the details to finished the tote bag kits to have your very own beautiful Row By Row Tote!!  This brings the great fun of this 2nd annual (I think last year was the first year of Row by Row for Florida) fun right here to our Saturday afternoon fun sewing social time - can't get any better than that!!