Senior center will ‘top it’ at Madison Street Festival
MADISON – Members at the Madison Senior Center are working diligently to ‘top off’ their work for the Madison Street Festival.
Anna Gay, at left, and Shirley Hale work on the collegiate caps that the Madison Senior Center members will sell at the Madison Street Festival. (CONTRIBUTED)
For many years, the senior center has been a loyal participant at the street festival. In the past, the members have sold their ceramic pieces made during classes at the center.
“This year, we decided to try something entirely different,” director Vickie Parker said. They are sewing and crafting decorated baseball caps.
“We have made many yo-yo flowers out of various fabrics over the years. With football season approaching, we decided that we could make the flowers out of collegiate fabric and attach the flowers to baseball caps,” Parker said.
Shoppers at the Madison Street Festival will have several choices of colors, styles and patterns for caps that show allegiance to the University of Alabama Crimson Tide or the Auburn University Tigers.
Crimson red, ‘plains’ orange, chevrons, tigers and herringbone decorate the caps. (CONTRIBUTED)
To make the collegiate caps, the senior citizens hand-stitch the flowers “while sitting around together chatting,” Parker said. Then, they use hot-glue guns to attach the flowers to the baseball caps.
The members at the center have conducted two craft shows themselves. The Madison Parks and Recreation Department sponsored both shows. “We are looking forward to the huge audience that the Madison Street Festival draws each year,” Parker said.
Creating the handmade goods started when a few senior citizens began crocheting scarves to sell at local craft shows. “We decided that we needed something that those seniors could make that didn’t require crocheting,” she said.
Their answer was to make hand-tied scarves of mixed types and colors of yarn. “Our seniors have been hand stitching for many years. They enjoy sitting together and chatting while stitching,” Parker said.
After Oct. 5 when the Madison Street Festival is over, individuals still can buy the craft items at Madison Senior Center, 1282 Hughes Road. For more information, call Parker at 256-772-6256.
