Last Blog Post for FFAC

I am saddened to say that this will be the last blog post for Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts.  Micki and I have parted ways and she has asked that I no longer manage the blog or make charity deliveries for FFAC.   Per the email Micki sent out last week, I will be returning any undelivered items and all supplies I have stored for FFAC before next Saturday's meeting.   If you are working on a Hospice Quilt or any fidget quilts, the finished items should be given to Micki for delivery.

I have submitted an application to the Recreation department to start a new club called Sewing 'N More, and have requested a room for Wednesday afternoons.  It should be listed in the new clubs announcement in the Recreation News for the next 2 weeks. If you are interested in joining this club, please contact me.  My phone number will be listed in the announcement.  After the 2 notices in the Rec News I am to provide the Recreation department with a count of potential members and they will then assign a location and time. I will let all interested persons on my list know when I have details.

If you enjoy Saturday afternoons at FFAC, please continue to show up for those meetings and support Micki, regardless of whether you are interested in the new club.  There is no reason why you have to choose.  You will be welcome at FFAC on Saturdays and/or at Sewing 'N More when that club is assigned a room.

I wish Micki and FFAC the best for the future of the club.


Lois

Weekly Update - May 14, 2016

Fabric Fun Ladies,

Show & Tell:

 

Lois - unfinished quilt for Welcome Home project

Pat Pipa - 2 Kitty Fidgets

Lu Karatzas - Showed her plans for a Baby family "foot" quilt, neck coolers, shirt with paint glue trim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jane Swafford - Fidget

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Susie Pendry - embroidered zippered purses for neices, wallhanging for brother, Ben Franklin
(yes! Ben Franklin is in their ancestral tree)

 

 

Bev Minnerly - sweatshirt conversion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dawn Wright - walker bags and explanation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audrey Philips - towel towels, quilt top (made using String piecing technique Brenda Severa shared back few months ago) and softie toy

Micki - shared UFO's including templates for fans and Quiltsmart fusible facing used for applique, Quiltsmart tote panel similar to Midi and Mondo bags

 

Hilary Miles - hand stitching extraordinaire projects, dolls, bags, needle cases, etc. all of which will be available for purchase on her soon-to-be virtual store in Etsy.com .

Ruth Campbell - "jakey" stomp-stomp Fidget Quilts - 4!

Next Saturday - We will begin work on walker bags for Ocala Oaks rehabilitation Center.  Dawn Wright' samples will be our guide and prototypes to use.  We have plenty of the supplies already on hand at Sea Breeze to make a nice supply to donate to this facility in Marion County.  

Next Saturday - there are several bags and bins of loose and mixed up fabrics, big, little, fleece, corduroy, cotton, flannel fabrics to sort thru for the Walker bags.  We'll need to take time to do that, as well as write out the directions for the bag sewing.   Ladies who want to bring your machines and begin some piecing, that would do well.  Ladies who don't want to bring machines, that would be helpful for the sorting and other prep work needed.

PJ Fabric Fundraiser - The club began making PJ sets for the Girl Scouts Drive that takes place November/December every year here in The Villages.  Our target is to make the PJ sets for pre-teen and teenagers in the larger girl and boy sizes.  

We got an excellent start this spring, but we've suspended work for when our snowbirds and seasonal members return again this fall.  We have a very large spool (enough for many, many) of elastic already (which believe it or not is a major cost of consideration when making the PJ's).  But we will need to raise money for Fabrics for the bottoms.  

In discussion, we decided the following guidelines:  1-we will hold the fundraiser sale in the room at Sea Breeze during our club hours; and 2-we will only make to sell items that are not already part of another club's fundraising efforts; 3-we will make the items to sell during our club meetings and in our own homes (personal preference of each member to choose). 

Sign-up starts for participating in PJ Fundraiser:  Not everyone seems interested in making PJ's or sale day fundraiser effort to fund them.  That's perfectly understandable because we all participate and donate thru other venues and clubs in The Villages and your other homes.  For that reason, I'm beginning a sign-up sheet to get us started and see where we are headed towards designating a Saturday to hold a fundraiser in the fall.  

If you are a snowbird/seasonal member an want to participate in the sale day fundraiser, please let me know by return email.  I will add your name to our list.  We will keep everyone up-to-date on efforts and projects thru email and sending patterns/pdfs along as well.  

Please keep in mind that Ellen Hein will be back to show us tee shirts 101 - design the pattern, material, and sewing. Ellen has already duplicated store brought tee shirts that you cannot tell the difference other than Ellen's are better made!  She has some of the knit fabrics on hand that is part of club's stash that she is using to do prototypes and then other ladies can use as well.  This will be a huge cost saver for us to use donated knit fabrics for tee shirts.  We will hope to get cotton donations for the PJ bottoms as well.  However, since we want juvenile/teen appropriate prints that will limit what we can use and the donations.  

As always, ideas and suggestions will go along way to making our sew sale day successful endeavor for the club.

Have a good week, take care, and God bless you and your families,

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

Club Leader, Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts

Weekly Update - May 7, 2016

Hi Fabric Fun Ladies, here we go...

Lu's phone number found - She'll be highlighted in a Daily Sun article about the cooling (neck) wraps that the club made and then Lu so wonderfully made for all of her tennis team members!!   The article is being done by Lisa Lawson of The Daily Sun to highlight things that make us cool in summer.   Please look for it in an upcoming article/

That's Lu and the stuff you all do, take the fun little things we learn here and there and spread them around - that's why I so proud of all of you and this club!!!  

Happy Birthday to my good friend, Hilary today!!!  Hilary is one "l" for and is so lovely, she only needs one "l"!!  She's going to start an Etsy business when she returns to England in a few weeks.  This Saturday you'll see an assortment of some of her really cool and beautiful work, and the kind of lovely items that will be available in her Etsy store.  I'll keep you all posted on that, too.  She plans to spend more time each year here in The Villages, so look forward next year to a couple "classes" planned for Fabric Fun Saturdays!!

This Saturday we're going to look at the Man Shirt Conversion Aprons - if you have one already done, please bring that along.  I'm attaching a pdf - we have several - this one is just a couple pages and has good pictures.  The sleeves that get cut off can be used for their own projects like "wine bottle bags".  We're thinking of making a bunch of these to sell perhaps down at booth at Brownwood as fundraiser for money to buy more juvenile fabrics to make the pajamas for pre-teen and teen sizes for Girl Scouts Christmas Drive.  We just discovered a huge (really really big) spool of perfect width elastic for making the PJ's, so that cost is covered already.  

Ladies, if you have any other ideas for projects to make for a fundraisers (the little fun projects we like to do and maybe you don't see at craft shows already) please don't hesitate to speak up and give us your suggestions.  We want any and all ideas we can get!!

Ladies, please put our dear member Carol Planck in your daily thoughts and prayers.  Carol, you'll remember, is our "bling lady".  She's been through a horrible few years of health problems and culminating in needing lung transplant.  She's been on and off the list on that roller coaster ride a long, long time.  Just recently, she was all the way to the operating room, prepped, ready to go under anestheia, and the donated lung failed to hold air, 13 hours after arriving at hospital was sadly sent home again.  Carol, please know we all are praying for you and wishing you Godspeed healthy again.

Show & Tell:

 

 

Lois Rose - bed caddy with room for back scratcher and slots for cell phone and I-Pad cords!  Great additions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lu Karatzas - 3 friends' quilt - yes, Lu and two of her friends working a combined effort to do a memorable quilt for a friend.  Typical Lu!

 

 

Ellen Hein - charity quilt made from squares from our donated fabric- another perfectly made project from this talented sewer.  Ellen will be back in the fall, show us how to make a tee shirt pattern (for kids and ourselves), how to personalize and how to sew them up!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bev Minnerly - phone cover, doll dress (special order for Dawn) - Bev did the I-phone cover demo on Saturday - that could be customized for Samsung, whatever, and shared how easily they go together.  We've got Bev scheduled to show us her talented ways of matching up fabric grains beautifully!

Dawn Wright - shared an absolutely EASY peasy walker bag - these will be on the schedule to make for the walkers that the facilities like receiving

MaryAnn Emric - caddy and needle cases - all good work from maejet!!

 

 

Linda Parr - afghan for Cornerstone!  Really cool "granny square" made into a rectangle!!  So smart and pretty finish.

 

 

Hilary Miles - couple of current stitching projects - so pretty - handstitching is a natural talent with Hilary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Helen Lawrie - doggie beds - I think 3! Hey Helen, hope that biopsy went well this week on your scalp - we love you and wish you all the best.  Ouch!

 Micki  - me - shared the quilt I made for Jennifer Ross, 17 year old senior at TV HS who lost her mother in tragic auto accident about 4 months ago.  Her mother was her only living relative!  Suzie Casta and Lisa Hanna Coan got together and put on a fundraiser for Jennifer, in honor of her mother, their friend, Michele Ross, to raise money for a college fund.  I made the quilt using pretty dots and gingham fabric squares and made the back with pictures of Jennifer and Michele and took archival pens to the fundraiser for attendees to write their names and inspirations on the backing.  It was very well received by Jennifer and the attendees at the fundraiser on Mother's Day.

We need ladies signing up for demos - the calendar is wide open.  How about our snowbirds, seasonals and butterflies out there - what projects are you working on - want to share that with us thru cyberspace - we'd love to hear about you and know what you are working on.  Just maybe we could work on something similar here and then when you return to The Villages, we'd have a Share & Compare!!!  

As always, take care, have a good week, and God bless you and all your families, 

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

Club Leader, Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts

Weekly Update - April 30, 2016

Fabric Fun Ladies:  We've been having beautiful room full of ladies each week, some just back, some saying goodbye, some here all the time, you know it all works for us!!

Thank you to both ladies doing Demos last Saturday.

1st up was Darlene Washko (Elaine Kriese daughter) with her Cut Out Tee Shirts - these hit WOW factor level.  

Next, Sue Campbell in her ever so expert and nice way lead us thru how to make the Bed Caddy, personalize it, and yes, the shelf liner is key in this handy dandy!!

Thank you to everyone lending hand with Fidget Quilts lately; response has been wonderful!  The numbers that have been delivered by Lois (and Ray) Rose is astonishing!!!  And we had fun doing a special one for someone's special sister who has a husband named Moe.  

On  last week's blogspot Lois has posted a breakkdown of all the doggie beds, cat hammocks, quilts, stuffies, pillowcases, Fidgets she and Ray have been delivering on their travels the past two weeks.  I'm telling you that our club is very lucky to have this traveling duo!!!  Thank you Ray and Lois!!

Show & Tell

Lois Rose - Fidget, sewing caddy, paper-pieced block

Jane Swafford - Fidget Quilt

Pat Pipa - Fidget Quilts

 and wine caddies for Busy Hands

Bev Minnerly - machine mat. Fidget, carrier finished.

Bonnie Meyer - ever adorable in her real hair hat! - wallhanging - beautiful Florida one!!

Ellen Hein - Fidget and dog bed

Eileen DiSanto - 2 Fidgets and 1 carrier

Marty Rhyne - Christmas Tree - this is an embroidered project

Nancy Cartlidge -- tee shirt with fancy dancy cut out short sleeves - it's her cover up, and head towel

Sharkys' classes - the classroom Al Lawson has set up for small learning classes is very very nice nestled in those 5000 bolts of fabrics and handy sewing notions, embroidery designs, threads and so much more.  Suzanne Brown is the Sewing Teacher with a beautiful assortment of classes planned.  Next time you are in Sharkys, please check out one of the upcoming classes may just be what you are looking for.  There is a website:  

We welcomed some nice and crafty ladies to the meeting over last couple weeks.  It's always fun to have the new enthusiasm and ideas come into the club.

Next Saturday - Bev Minnerly is sharing an I-Phone cover which can been configured for Androids, tablets, etc.  I love how Bev matches up fabric grains so perfectly. 

It seems our Iron came back to us, reappeared on the shelves, and stayed put all week  That is great because it is now time to be buying new cutting mat.  

I urge you to take a look over at the blogspot to see the pictures from our Show & Tell time.  They say a picture is worth a 1000 words and they'are not kidding!!

Have a good week everyone.  Take care and God bless to you and your families, 

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

Club Leader, Fabric Fun Arts & Crafts