Thursday Morning:
We barely had the Magnolia room doors open and neighbors came calling, seems they heard there were blankets they might take home. Working as fast as our scissors would run,
the FBCW Sweat Shoppe was running at full speed!
All 25 tables were manned and womaned to the max.
Every set of shears was in play and for several hours,
supply could NOT keep up with demand.
Folks were lined up out side the door!
(no photo - too busy)
Some folks resorted to ‘calling’ blankets as they were being assembled. Anyone who passed by
(much less volunteered) during this time will attest to the sweet intensity that filled the room on Thursday.
Think Black Friday after Thanksgiving 100 IPAD2’s for $50 kind of frenzy...
oh yes, just like that for a bit!
By 3pm,
we closed our doors to let the scissors
count some sheep,
while we...
counted blankets.
Seems over 260 blankets
were made and personally delivered (most to on campus neighbors) in about 8 hours.
Thursday Night:
'Ye Old Sweat Shoppe'
gets a make-over
We started by creating a shearing corral, where designated 
Scissors Sheriffs aka: The Fuzz, would fringe the fleece as well as,
guard, charge & doctor our My-T-Fine scissors,
therefore increasing the likelihood our trusty shears would not become quite so anemic Friday.
Early Friday Morning:
the Fuzz got busy with a little lot of help from
(TROUBLE, is their middle name...just ask them!)
Yes, the Fuzz got VERY busy, fringing piles of uncut fleece blankets before the next troup of
fast tying, big hearted blanket angels arrived for the day.
These two?
Record Breaking Fuzz
Add a third cutter, and they can fringe a blanket in 2 minutes flat!
Don't let the bum leg fool you,
Michelle can really cut some fleece!
Resident Fuzz, Dr. Tim.
Scissor Surgeon extrodianire!
For an hour or so, we kept tables loaded and hands busy, but before long the scissor coral grew dark, as a growing number of blanket stalkers circled the cutting station, looking to snatch up fringed fabric, sometimes before the final cuts were made.
We had some serious Blanket Angels in our midst, on task and on a mission!
Oh, they look harmless enough,
but just try and get between them and their ‘called’ covering.
It was not pretty!
(see Stacy there, to the left? Serious blanket stalker ;-)
By late afternoon, and more blanket deliveries
we realized we might need to pull an all-nighter to finish
ALL 500 blankets planned for delivery to Clarkston Saturday morning.
At this point, our sweat shop crowd had dwindled, scissors were struggling and
it looked to be a very long, possibly lonely night…
hardly!
Friday Night:
Between word of mouth among ‘the usual suspects’, sending a shout out for help to our facebook friends and Twitter peeps, God delivered another 40 Blanket Angels of every shape, size and age to joyously work the night shift! With goal in mind & plan in place, we embarked on our marathon by stopping everything.
Yes, everything!
We gave our shears a well deserved break and
MADE every fleece wrangler take a break as well.
An hour and 45 minutes later after the scissors caught their breath,
our late night blanket angels returned in full force, ready to get ‘er done!
Armed with smiles, snacks, music and caffeine
our night work began in earnest.
In no time at all, the Magnolia room was bustling in a flurry of activity,
punctuated by praise, thanksgiving and
happy anniversary song!
(Dan and Gayle celebrated their 17 years of marriage tying hundreds of love knots all night long!)
The Fuzz were buzzing,
Fleece Ninja’s tied piles of fleece
and some of our littlest Blanket Angels
wrote personal messages of hope in every card!
PSSSSSSST!!
Don’t tell anyone, but at times, the Magnolia room was rockin as our late night angels flung some fleece while getting their praise on with Sister Mandisa – truly GLORIOUS!!
Before we knew it,
in what seemed record time,
all 500 Clarkston bound blankets were cut, tied,
prayed over,
packed
and ready to go.
To Recap:
In 3 days - 1,050 fleece Blankets were similarly prepared & delivered!
Would that you all could have shared the blessing of loving loud
…well, you CAN!
After 3 days and 31 football field lengths of fleece, we still have blanket needs.
The remainder of the LoveLoud weekend we invited our neighbors to join us in tying blankets for others,
shared our meals & snacks while getting to know each other better.
We collected names, addresses, & ages of those we had no blankets for
and promised personal blanket deliveries, sometime before Christmas.
Our barns are empty, we have no fleece
once again a time of mice, cookies, blessings and blankets
Without support from blanket angels near and far,
we have no fleece to make these holiday blankets with.
Sooooo
this is where you come in!
We need 200 donations of $8.85.
That’s $8.85 per blanket.
With these funds, we will order the shipment of fleece needed to keep our promise.
Once we have fleece, we will message you all to join in preparing & delivering these holiday blessings!
In the meantime, rejoice with the rest of us over blessings given, received and yet to come! And remember, it is NOT about these blankets but what God is accomplishing through them!
Disclaimer: this update is loaded with a few bits of dramatization, and satirical humor. No entity (FBCW or others) has been or ever were actually operating a Sweat Shop, or sanctioned midnight dancing under the stars. These comments were poor attempts at humor from FFF leadership with a bit of fleece on the brain. The Fleece Ninja’s and Fuzz caused no harm except maybe a side ache, sore face or pulled muscle here and there due to having an excessively good time! Sound like fun to you? You really MUST Join us next time!
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