Clayton crafters take part in web meet-up

CLAYTON -- On Jan. 26, in 674 cities across the globe 2,565 crafters simultaneously participated in a world-wide crafts meet-up organized by the educational web site craftsy.com. Clayton’s Sew Happy Fabrics participated in the free event with a decorative mesh wreath demonstration and dinner for more than 40 crafters.

“This was our way of giving back to the people who have supported us over the last two years,” said event coordinator Cheri Yurtin.

Yurtin teaches quilting at Sew Happy Fabrics. She frequently takes on-line classes from craftsy.com and read about the meet-up on their web site.

“We chose wreath making because we thought it would have more appeal to people [than quilting],” Yurtin said. The demonstration was conducted by Kathy Nall and Michelle Gearheart.

“On that day we had 49 people who had RSVP’d on-line for the event,” Yurtin explained. “Since that was the official cut-off date we came in second place for registered participants world-wide,” she said. Yurtin went on to explain that other locations may have surpassed the Clayton total after the registration deadline, but added, “We don’t count them!”

As the second place victors, the people at craftsy.com sent Sew Happy Fabrics a goody box filled with badges, name tags and other giveaways. “Once people found out we were competing they really tried to get their friends to register,” Yurtin said.

Sew Happy co-owner Carol Mangum said that the response from participants was positive. “People said that they enjoyed the demonstration and that they will participate again,” Mangum said.

The free event included dinner and dessert. “The demonstration lasted for about 45 minutes, but some people were here for three hours!” Yurtin said. “We put our husbands to work greeting people and even parking cars!”

Sew Happy Fabrics celebrated its second anniversary in business on February first. The store is owned by the mother-daughter team of Carol Mangum and Samantha Draughon.

They offer sewing and quilting classes for a variety of skill levels. The owners started a weekly “sit and stitch” and monthly quilting guild. Frequently additional classes, like how to make half-square triangles and quilt-in-a-box demonstrations, are held. More information and a schedule of events can be found at sewhappyfabrics.com or by coming to the store located at 100 Pecan Lane in Clayton.

Cheri Yurtin has been teaching at Sew Happy Fabrics for a year. “I have always been interested in any kind of craft,” she says. She has a quilting teacher certification through the quilt in a day program and also works with long arm quilting machines.

Displaying the on-line world map of the 674 cities which participated in the meet-up Yurtin said, “This demonstration was our way of giving back to our community and putting Clayton on the map in the crafting community-- literally!”