Magic Mike's Internet Quilt

Magic Mike is a short, chubby, slightly balding middle aged family guy from the Wilkes-Barre, Scranton area of Pennsylvania who got involved in the recycling material by accident. I have some family members who own a health care apparel sewing factory and used to see how much wasted fabric they threw in the dumpster every week and figured someone could put those pieces to good use.

Around this time, I got on the Internet and found the Rec.Crafts.Textiles.Quilting Newsgroup and posted a message about the scraps going to waste and now the rest is History. So far we have saved over 40,000 pounds of fabric scraps from ending up in the landfills and instead thay have gone to many great causes.

Lesa Farmer, a woman from I believe Kansas, used to frequent the newsgroup and read the postings of the people who I had sent scraps to and decided to organize a project to make a quilt for Magic Mike and have quilters from around the country send in blocks to be added to it. They send me this quilt just before Christmas in 1996 and I was touched by this unselfish act by someone who I had never meet or sent scraps to. She took it upon herself to collect the block donations from everyone and then assembled the blocks and finished up the quilt and mailed it to me. This is now one of my prized possesions and it seems like every time the family gets together, someone always asks to see the Magic Mike Internet Quilt.

Around this same time, the Internet was getting a lot of bad press because of some stories that had hit the newspapers. Lesa decided to write a letter to Dear Abby and tell her about the good the Internet can do and how caring and helpful the rec.crafts.textiles.quilting newsgroup users were and she even mentioned Magic Mike as being one of the Good Guys on the Internet becasue of my Scraps to Wraps Project.

In late August of 1997 I found out I had a benign brain tumor and needed surgery and was overwhelmed by the amount of email I received from people all over the world. People from just about every state and as far away as Denmark, Germany, Sweden, New Zealand, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and even one from some kind of Emerette of Saudi Arabia, and many other places I can't remember, were wishing me well and sending prayers for a speedy recovery.

I was faced with the knowledge that after surgery, I was going to be deaf in my left ear, 3/4 deaf in my right ear, my facial muscles were going to sag, my left eye would not tear, and I might need speech therapy. Well, thanks to all the prayers of my Internet Friends, and the steady hand of a Wonderful Surgeon, I have suffered none of the side effects that were supposed to happen after surgery and unless you know I had brain surgery just a few years ago, you can't even tell.

Below are some pictures of the Magic Mike's Interent Quilt and someday, I hope to add pictures of the individual blocks to highlight the talents of each contributor.

Magic Mike's Internet Quilt

Here's is another photo

A special thank you goes out to all the people who contributed to this project. Thanks a million to Lesa Farmer for taking charge of the project and assembling the finished product. I can't express how much this means to me and my family. It is these acts of kindness that reinforce the great things that the internet can accomplish if only we endeavor to put it to it's fullest potential.

A heartfelt thank you from my family to everyone
out there in appreciation of your efforts

Click Here to Contact Me

To go to Magic Mike's Scraps to Wraps Page, click here
Magic Mike's Scraps to Wraps Project
Rec.Crafts.Textiles.Quilting Newsgroup Page

"Magic Mike showing off to the local kids how easy it is to recycle!!!"
Many thanks to Sammie from Software Specialties for the Magic Mike Graphic Above
Software Specialties' Web Page
Family photos transferred to fabric using a commercial heat press.
Have the entire process completed for you.