Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts: Weekly Update

Hi and Happy Valentines to all you sweet ladies of the club, Boy yesterday was fun!! Show & Tell, Happy 92nd Birthday to Ruth Campbell, discussion around PJ's, you ladies sure know how to be social sewers!!

Again - we want demos - Bev Minnerly - please write up your ear warmers and let's get that demo on calendar; Linda Parr and Nancy Cartlidge - I'm not kidding both you ladies need to demonstrate the fun&done stuff you've been sharing and learning, and Ellen Hein - Demo any/all of those wonderful ideas and techniques you have going. I've just called out 4 ladies here... but this list could be expanded to each and every single one of you sweethearts... I'm not going to quit on you... I want you all to take your turn because as demonstrated yesterday with the discussion around the demo table just about PJ bottoms and related ideas - each of you have good - great! - input!!! Our club is for sharing and learning basic to advanced... it all counts and it all is interesting.

There are a whole bunch of 15/16 boys and 15/16 girls PJ bottoms started - we customized the pattern pieces to make the lengths "capri" to maximize the number of PJ's we'd be able to make out of the $190 fabric on hand, and I thru in a beautiful rose print for girls and a (not as pretty) plaid print for boys. Ladies got the fabrics divided off the bolts, folded in the way to go with the Tween pattern pieces, cut the PJ sets and Ellen and I were sergiing the sets so ladies could take home and finish. Maryann finished up one demo PJ bottoms for us that Ellen serged before the meeting started. I really like the "double" insertion method of elastic waistline that Ellen showed us using 1/4 in wide elastic!!!! Ladies we'll share this more with you in additional demos. It is a very useful idea that can be used in other ways besides just as waistline application. Thank you all for you help... and thank you to all the ladies who took home PJ bottoms to finish. Once we have the first "stack", we'll pair up with Tee Shirts and then do the creativity with all of those to make the PJ sets that were so well received by the Girl Scout group in December!!

Reminder: Busy Hands Happy Hearts is holding a Craft Sale at their club meeting - Monday Feb. 22 - Coconut Grove - 12 Noon to 3 PM

Next Saturday - Pillowcase Dresses - these are fun - quick, fancy - and we can make some for the shelters close by here in the surrounding counties, let alone any of you who have granddaughters and nieces who would love these cuties for sure. Got any pillowcases cluttering your closets that could be used... please bring them with you. We've got plenty of laces and yarns to embellish the dresses already. They do use biased binding... that comes in handy and so do ribbons, especially grossgrain about 1 inch wide. Janey Westra is sharing her expertise with us and this will be a fun demo to watch.

Talk about pillowcases - I shared the tutorial found on the internet this past week of shorts for boys/girls made from - Pillowcases!!! No kidding... so I'm attaching the pdf that I made copy/edit the internet tutorial. We'll be looking at this first hand in coming weeks, along with the shorts for boys/girls (called Britches) using old/new Tee Shirts!! FYI, my daughter-in-laws love these things for PJ bottoms!!

Pinterest... yes a demo is in the works... Actually there are several You Tube and other video tutorials out there on the WWW that clearly explain and demonstrate the wonders of Pinterest. I'm even considering making a Pinterest Board for FFAC. Don't want us to get too sophisticated because we have this email and we have our blog... and we have our wonderful weekly meetings in the beautiful rec center SeaBreeze... that's a lot of fun already!! Sew, thanks for your feedback and enthusiasm as always!!

Feb. 27 - Lunch & Learn - and thanks to Linda Parr for securing a new supply of paper products, we'll be having none of the issues of eating soups with forks or small plates only like last month. As always, no RSVPs required, and it's a pot luck fare... don't want to make anything special... that's all okay... just come... pick up ice tea, or grapes, we always have plenty.

Show & Tell:

I started it off this month with the 4 receiving blankets out of flannel for my future granddaughter and two small pillows - blue puppy and pink rabbit. And I shared the awesome, truly amazing, sonogram pictures from this week... it is never a cliche to me to say each one is a God's miracle... and to see this darling, living, beautiful girl growing each moment in the womb and already see her facial features is nothing short of miraculous. Praise God!

JoAnn Colin - charity quilt and pillow - adorable and fleece!!! Yes, our queen of fleece did it again!! And the pillow is really adorable that compliments this little quilt - please be sure to look on the blog for it.

Ruth Campbell - Happy 92nd Young Birthday Lady! shared the 4 cat hammocks she made during the week. Ruth had a couple of friends with her this week, the wife of Pastor of her church and another lady from the church. Ruth wanted to share (and show off) her fun sewing club with the ladies and the ladies wanted to come and share a wonderful birthday time with her. Best yet... the two ladies were very impressed with our club!!

Nancy Cartlidge - Beautiful Easter fabrics table runner made with the fun and done idea of quilt as you go and finished with nicely mitered self binding.

Linda Parr - Valentines table runner made just the right size for their table. And we enjoyed very sweet memory of Helen Foxx as Linda shared the beautiful little wedding ring quilt made by her wonderful Mom. My goodness it is so easy to remember Helen coming in the room with her classic smile, and especially on near holidays she'd wear her favorite MaryJane shoes with festive socks to mark the special day. Linda says that she sleeps every night under the quilt and that is sure loving comfort. RIP dear lady Helen.

Bev Minnerly - 2 bag totes (and I gotta say Grey & Pink make an awesome combination!), and ear warmers for her grandsons - these were made with scraps of fleece, pieced together and then constructed to be the useful head bands that kids prefer to wear these days. Actually, I gotta say that I'm interested in fashioning one for myself for those chillier nights down at the squares. It's been pretty windy lately and I think one of those would come in handy.

Lu Karatzas - Hearts and sayings - and Family Quilt in Progress - nicely coming along. Beautiful plethora of hearts with little pockets for just the right sayings. And Lu shared her extra little saying cards with all of us, including one of my very favorite quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson, " What lie behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us." This quote was posted on both 4 yearbook pages for my sons, both their high school graduations, Scott's US Coast Guard Academy yearbook and Cory's US Naval Academy yearbook. Lu shared her favorite saying by Anonymous, "A friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart." Lu definitely fits that description for all of us this week! Thank you, Lu, for sharing your heart and friendship. And thank you for substituting picture taking Show & Tell for Lois Rose who was away attending an embroidery workshop (uh oh - going to see a lot from that... !!)