Monday, October 31, 2022

Penn Oaks Newsletter

 President's Note

It’s November already! I thought the October workshop and meeting were fantastic. We all had a great time. Thanks so much, Bob for the wonderful class. The Question is, what’s next?

A reminder: our password will be working at 5pm. Bring your dinner and we can all chat. Also, we did decide to stop with the snacks list. We are not up to speed yet. If you want to bring a snack for yourself, or to share, please feel free.

Another thing: while the newsletter will continue to be sent to members and former members, the zoom link will go to members only.

There was a lot of enthusiasm in October for having more sewing events. We are able to do that, at no extra charge, on the days of our meetings if there is no conflict with the Church’s schedule. November and December are out. November, because we have not planned for it and December for the Christmas activities. We can discuss this more.

Looking forward to seeing you all.

The zoom presentation looks to be interesting. What can we recycle into quilts? That is not the topic, I know but just imagine. What else can we use to make quilts?

Programs

November 14, 2022
Julia McLeod, Everything but the Cotton
Let’s explore the world of quilts that were made with what I call ‘Not Cottons’. 
When quilters don’t have access to a stash of quilter’s cotton, what do they turn to? This one- hour lecture, trunk show and Q & A session shows quilts – antique and modern – made of wool, silk, polyester and more. The trunk show of my own work shows what you can create with neckties, saris, kimonos and other unusual, ‘not cotton’ textile
s. 
 

Interleave workshop. We had a fun time at the workshop and most everybody went home with a finished top.



2022  Board

President - Carolyn Davis / Jamie Loncaric

Program Chair - Donna Daley

                      Assistant-Deb Houck

Treasurer - Rita Marie Smith

Recording Secretary - Angela Brant

Corresponding Secretary - Nancy DeTeodora

Membership - Elizabeth Young / Sarah Reindel

Ways & Means - Jen Burke

2022 Quilt Guild Challenge - Rikki Newlander

We are making quilts for Kids or for 40 or a local Hospice. The challenge is to make a quilt 40 by 40 (or bigger) using the scrap bag provided by the guild or your own scraps. You can make a string quilt or a scrap quilt and any size 40 by 40 or above. For anyone doing  the quilt challenge I will provide 25 81/2 inch squares to use. I will cut them on my AccuQuilt. Please email me and then  I will bring them. to the Dec meeting. I am out of town until after the Nov meeting. 

Rikki

2023 Getaway

We are still taking reservations for our Getaway. We have a few spaces available. We will accept the Getaway reservations at the November meeting and via snail mail. Contact Ellen or Cindy for a registration form.  We will continue to hold our Getaway at the Amish View Inn & Suites at 3125 Old Philadelphia Pike, Bird-in-Hand. Next year, the Getaway dates are February 22-26.  The sewing room is large and comfortable, allowing one 6 foot long table per quilter. The sewing room fee is $600 plus 6% tax; this amount will be shared equally by all attendees. The room is available from 2:00 pm Wednesday through 1:00 pm Sunday. The room rates (including tax) for a single/double room will be $136.53 for Wednesday/Thursday nights, and $188.70 for Friday/Saturday nights. A deposit of $100.00 per room will hold your reservation. The final payment is due December 20th. Come for one night, two, three or all four nights to sew, shop and visit with your fellow members. Just a reminder, the POQ Getaway is completely self-funded. Members are responsible for finding their own roommate and for sharing the room cost. Our contract is for the Double Queen Rooms. Take a look at the Amish View Inn web site ( www.AmishViewInn.com) to learn about this wonderful venue.  Please contact us with any questions.

Ellen McMillen (ejmcmillen@verizon.net) and Cindy Vognetz (cvognetz@hotmail.com)

Ways & Means


Membership - Sara Reindel and Elizabeth Young

We had 21 members attend the meeting tonight and 3 guests for a total of 24 attendees'.

  Penn Oaks Sunshine

If you know of a guilt member who could use some well wishes or encouragement because of a sickness or life event, please contact me at Grasshopper1@gmail.com.  I will make sure to send our collective good thoughts to our fellow member.
 Nancy DeTeodoro

Bits and Pieces From The Textile World

1. In a letter to vendors today, Fabric.com announced that it will be shutting down. The company, which is owned by Amazon, said it alerted employees to news on Monday.

Fabric.com was originally the website of Phoenix Textile Group, a company founded in 1993 as a wholesale distributor of apparel fabrics. Phoenix Textiles launched the website in 1999 in order to experiment with selling yardage directly to consumers online. Amazon acquired Fabric.com in 2008 in an effort to expand its inventory of craft and hobby materials. Fabric.com was one of a suite of freestanding websites acquired by Amazon that also included Audible and Zappos.

“We have been selling to them since 1996,” said Andy Weinstock, President and CEO of Edley Fabrics. “We wish their employees continued success. It will be interesting to see if anyone or any company steps up to fill the void.” Weinstock surmised that the labor costs involved in cutting fabrics were too high for Amazon’s current business model.

For many fabric companies, Fabric.com was the industry’s largest buyer.

Over the last few years, though, difficulties had begun to surface. Weinstock said Fabric.com had been paying vendors late. Another fabric company executive we spoke with also said that Fabric.com’s payments to vendors had been slow over the last few years. About six months ago, Amazon reached out to Fabric.com vendors to say that all fabric would soon need to be sold directly on Amazon.com. Vendors were told to upload all of their products to Amazon in one, three, or five-yard increments, seemingly with no regard to the fact that fabric manufacturers sell wholesale by the roll or bolt, and not by the yard. “They expect us to cut and ship overnight for free,” this executive said. “They don’t understand fabric at all.” The longtime former employee we spoke with said that over the last few years, management repeatedly asked if selling pre-packed cuts would work. They said no.

“I think the exit of Fabric.com in this market will ultimately open up opportunities for more business for independent quilt shops, as well as an opportunity for new shops to open,” said Gina Pantastico, Co-founder and Director of Operations at Cloud9 Fabrics and Felicity Fabrics.

“This will be an adjustment for fabric manufacturers, but once we all get over our initial shock and surprise I think this could be a positive change for the fabric industry as a whole,” Pantastico said.

Fabric.com will close down on October 20. Employees have been offered a severance package or the opportunity to seek employment in another Amazon division. Fabric.com is headquartered in Kennesaw, Georgia

2. Avelea Brings Greek Fold Embroidery to the US Market 


As a custom tailor creating vestments for Greek Orthodox priests, Krista West traveled to Greece many times to source materials and do research. It was on one of these trips that she discovered the beauty of Greek folk embroidery. That was the inspiration for Avlea, her company that is introducing traditional Eastern Mediterranean cross stitch to the US market.

3. Instagram is testing (and seemingly will be rolling out) a new feature that would allow users to schedule their feed posts ahead of time (finally).


4. Members of YouTube’s Partner Program with at least 20,000 subscribers will soon be able to tag their videos, Shorts, and live streams with shoppable links.

And YouTube has made some improvements to the user experience including pinch to zoom which could be helpful for seeing details in a DIY video.

5.  “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art By Women” at the Smithsonian  American Art Museum in Washington, D. C. November 18, 2022 – April 16, 2023. https://americanart.si.edu/ 

 6. “ Wild and Untamed. Dunton’s Discover of the Baltimore Album Quilts” at the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, MD. Now through September 2023. https://www.mdhistory.org/exhibitions/wild-and-untamed/ 


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