Materials that have been rescued from the landfill have been recrafted for the benefit of many needy individuals and worthwhile organizations.  They range from specialized catheter holders that help restore dignity to hospitalized vets to products sold in support of churches, schools, hospital programs, and other non-profits.  Fabrics have been used for creating dolls, costumes, wearable art and much more.  It’s gratifying to know that more than a ton of beautiful material is diverted from the landfill, but it’s even more satisfying to recognize the benefit that accrues to society.

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Thank you so much for your donations of beautiful fabric and tassels to the Children’s Program of the Palo Alto Art Center.  This is a generous contribution of art supplies to our programs.

We have used many of the fabric pieces for our Project LOOK! Tours.  On these tours we show classrooms of children the art exhibition, Actor! Actor!, and finish the tour by making puppets.  Over 2000 children come on those tours, each one makes a puppet, and each puppet takes one square of fabric to make.

In addition, we used your wonderful donations of tassels for our free Theater Arts Family Day.  They were a huge success!!  They became mustaches, eyelashes, and hair for our mask-making project.  At this family day we also used the fabric to make clothing for finger puppets and curtains for box theater dioramas.

The Palo Alto Art Center relies on donations such as yours in order to enable us to make our quality children’s art classes accessible.  Thank you again for your generous donation.

Best Regards,

Project LOOK! Director

Children’s Program Assistant

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My father-in-law grew up in the farming country of Ohio.  He was the first of a brood of siblings.  When asked to recall a childhood memory, he told with glee:  he had taught his younger brothers the wrong colors growing up.  E.W.E. is a barrel-chested man with brilliant blue eyes and a strong prominent forehead that bespeaks his intelligence—and bull-headedness.  Another story about E.E.: when he was an assistant teacher at UC Riverside chemistry department in the 1970’s, he had ordered a stamp to be specially made for him.  This stamp allowed him to impress upon the student exams their grades, a big “ZERO.”     So you can see, my father-in-law was a tough man, and he remains so to this day.  Old habits die hard.   This

was why this past Father’s Day was so remarkable.

E.W.E. is a chemist by profession, so I figured all chemists need an apron.  I had acquired a beautiful pin-striped, polyester yard of fabric from Hannah and Jonathan’s Fabrix distribution, and used it to fashion a bar-be-que apron for him.  The front was appliquéd with a teal-colored piece of satin.  Of course, the appliqué was the letter “e”.  I also sewed his wife another apron, bedecked with flowers-- also from the Fabrix distribution.  His wife loved her apron, as all women love flowers.  The big surprise, however, came from E.E.  When he had found out that I had sewn the aprons myself, his big, brilliant blue eyes welled up in tears.  He sidled up next to me, and embraced me against his barreled chest.  He didn’t say much, but he didn’t need to.  I would’ve never imagined my simple gift would elicit such a tender response from my father-in-law.  It was truly a beautiful moment for us.

Thank you FabMo, for helping to make it possible!

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