About Me... Professionally

Certified Teacher with Sulky of America, specializing in Creative Machine Art Classes.  
 
Certified Quilt Instructor through Quilt in A Day with Eleanor Burns. 

I'm always taking new classes.  Learning new tips & techniques, I can pass them on to you!

I have my associates degree in liberal arts, but if you ask me... it feels like a Masters in Parenting.  

Personally...

I'm Robbie and I'm a mom.  Before anything else that may come into my life, that describes me fairly well.  Everything that goes with being a mom, a continual life lesson, that's me in progress.  I have five wonderful kids, ranging from 25 to 10 and a  a wonderful partner whom I love dearly. 

I suppose it wouldn't be fair not to mention lots of fish, Rex our quinea pig and a dog named Nova!

Almost forgot Harry and Sunshine, our hamsters.

Some days the best I can do is just that, stupendous!  Other days, my best isn't so good.  Sewing, quilting & crafting keeps me sane. 

About Frankie's FAMILY RESPITE CAMP, FFRC.

With a therapeutic need/desire for quilting & sewing, my goal is to open up a respite camp for families with special needs kids, specifically behaviorally and mentally challenged kids.  The family will get a quilt filled with memories of their time spent at camp, sent to their home to have as a keepsake forever.

Frankie's Family Respite Camp will be about providing a safe, loving & nurturing environment for your entire family while at camp, in addition to your child with special needs.  I understand that when a child has behaviors different than most kids, the foundation of that family must be extraordinarily secure.

Kids that are severely challenged mentally, offer up situations that those who don't have kids with these types of needs may never truly understand.  We can be sympathetic towards the needs of the child who is out of control at the market, but empathy is a double edged sword.

I would like to say that I'm just a wonderful person, someone who wants to help kids with special needs, but that's just not the case.  I never set out to do anything of the sort.  I just wanted a break more than anything, a moment frozen in time, a breath of sanity.  Even to this day, I find it hard to believe that I'm the only one out there who is losing it, finding it, and losing it all over again. Sometimes you just need a break, if only for a minute to regroup and grab the amazing mom (parental) skills that you have within you.

Five kids equates to an entire handful!  I believe that each one of my children, and my other half are special in their own rights... including Frankie.  I am always trying to teach Frankie the right way to behave, to have self-dignity, all the things we take for granted.  Because I am my son's bully of choice, the answer to the unasked question of "What can I teach my son?" may be better asked as, "What can my son teach me?"

Doing what's right for your children doesn't aways feel good, sometimes it hurts more than you even dreamed possible.  Although Frankie lived with a support family for 2 1/2 years, I'm glad that he's back home..  When I say that I understand what it feels like to be different, looked at with miss givings, I truly mean it.  I try to remember that being a good mom means letting people help you.

Welcome to the starting point for Frankie's Family Respite Camp, FFRC, opening in the near future.  "If we don't dream it, it will never come to fruition."  Robbie

Please email me anytime with your thoughts an ideas to help make this vision a reality.  Please forward a link of this website to anyone you know that may be able to help. 

Robbie@SewablesByRobbie.com   

Bird on a Branch


My dad was a macrame artist, in addition to many other things.  Maybe that's where I got some of my craftiness!