Stitch Cleveland

Summer is almost over and it is time to pick up your sewing again! Many of you have been looking forward to our August Amy Butler event. We are ready to give you the details!

The fun starts on Thursday, August 14th with our Take Along Night! With pre-registration for this event you will get a preview of the Amy Butler trunk show! From 6:30 to 8:30 pm, join us for class. We will be making the Take Along bag from Amy’s new book, Little Stitches for Little Ones. With your purchase of the book, your kit (which includes all supplies to complete this project) is only $10. The kit is $20 if purchased alone. We are only able to fit 8 into our class on Thursday evening, so register quickly!

If that sounds like far too much excitement for your fragile heart, you can join us on Friday, August 15th when we will be celebrating Amy by auctioning off 3 gift packages (handpicked by Amy herself) during our monthly sewing social, I Sew Cleveland. The group meets from 7 - 9pm and all are welcome. Snacks and refreshments will be served while we show and share each other’s Amy Butler inspired sewing projects. 

Now a bit of bad news. We were all looking forward to hosting Amy at Stitch Cleveland on August 15th. With regrets, Amy is unable to attend our event. She has sent a beautiful trunk show for us to share with you and three generous gift packages to raffle off in lieu of her visit.

We have a few other fabulous events in August!

Katherine Shaughnessy of Wool & Hoop will be visiting Stitch Cleveland on August 16th. We are looking forward to welcoming Katherine back to Cleveland! Many of you attended her class last summer and had fun experimenting with crewel. Crewel embroidery is the art of embroidering by hand with wool thread on linen fabric. Wool & Hoop is a line of kits, supplies, and designs by artist Katherine Shaughnessy. Katherine will be teaching us how to crewel from 10am to 2pm. Registration for this great class is $85. Stop in to see a sample of the class project, a beautiful linen pillow with down insert that you will learn to embroider in class! 

If you’d like to practice a little so that you can impress Katherine with your mad crewel skills, stock up on supplies at Stitch Cleveland. We recently began stocking Wool & Hoop iron on designs, wool, and hardwood hoops.   

All of us here at Stitch Cleveland are thrilled to be in our second year as humble stitch servants. Your projects and enthusiasm have kept us inspired and we want to do the same for you!

Greetings Stitchers! We can’t wait to see you on Sunday for our monthly session of Church of Craft. For those of you thinking that it is some strange cult meeting during which we honor the Fiber Gods by sewing together some poor unsuspecting victims while using their eyeballs as point protectors for our knitting needles… you are only partially incorrect. Okay, you are completely wrong. 

What we all probably need is a twelve step program to ease our addiction to the needle (I am referring to the knitting, sewing, crewel - fill in the blank with a craft involving needles - needle). Church of Craft is a group dedicated to their crafts. Not just limited to sewing or crochet, attending a Church meeting might introduce you to a new love. There are many attendees with specialized crafts like beading, jewelry design, fashion design, and even the occasional Lego builder!

To learn more about this international organization, click here. Although we are not yet linked to the official website, we are eager to work with the other chapters of Church of Craft… and you!  

In response to requests from students and friends for more specific updates on what each one of us is doing at any given time — the sort of stuff we might not put here on the front page — we’ve added blogs for each of us to the Stitch Cleveland site:

For Megan’s Studio Notes, go to megan.stitchcleveland.com

For Heidi’s Studio Notes, go to heidi.stitchcleveland.com

For Shannon’s Studio Notes, go to shannon.stitchcleveland.com

There’s not much there at the moment, but there will be soon!

Our anniversary party was fantastic (Heidi made a cake, I’ll post photos soon), and many friends new and old stopped by…it seems like this year has just zoomed by, but thanks again for everything and for supporting independent crafty business!

We are [this many]! (holds up one finger).

Come to Stitch Cleveland next Saturday the 28th to celebrate our one-year anniversary! Well, one year + a handful of days, anyway. We’ll be stitching, snacking and rejoicing together with you, our crafty pals. Remind us to tell you who’s coming to visit in August while you’re here…

Heidi and I just got back from TNNA, the National Needle Arts Association trade show in Columbus. I was there for four days, teaching and such, whereas Heidi and the ladies of River Colors were down for the day. Check out Shannon’s knitblog for the full TNNA roundup, but basically, what we saw were a lot of strong colors, swingy shapes (think 1960s car coat) and intermediate-level stitchwork. The fashion show was full of interesting pullovers and even one swishy dress. It was a good time.

We recently got a new shipment of Wool & Hoop crewel patterns, and we’re pleased to announce that The New Crewel author Katherine Shaughnessy will be coming back to teach another crewel workshop in August. If you missed her class last July, you’ll want to be there! Seems the first half of August is going to be quite exciting — Amy Butler is coming to sign books as well.

With the boiling summer heat, think skirts. And if you want to learn how to sew them yourself from our new Amy Butler fabric (the shipment’s finally here! yay!), you know who to call…

THIS SATURDAY: Both Stitch Cleveland and River Colors next door will be closed as we head south to Columbus for TNNA, a major needlearts show. We’re checking out the newest, coolest stuff to bring home for you!

Summer hours: we’re adjusting our hours for summer to match River Colors. New hours are as follows:

Monday - closed

T, W, F: noon - 5:00

Thursday: 2:00 - 8:00

Sat: 11 - 4:00

Sun: noon - 4:00

And other hours by appointment. Megan is planning studio nights for Tuesday, Shannon is scheduling weekday classes for Monday or Wednesday nights (email her to set up) and Heidi will be in Thursdays, so if you’re looking specifically for one of us during the week, that’s when to look.

Megan has been working full-time as a designer for a Cleveland-based company for the past few months, and Shannon’s going to be teaching at ArtWorks for six weeks during the summer, too, so book your classes now, as times are limited and Meg’s already scheduling into July at this point!

If you need to reach one of us specifically, don’t forget you can always email [firstname] [at] stitchcleveland.com. This is the best way to reach us for setting up classes and other appointments. When in doubt who to ask, email shop [at] stitchcleveland.com and we’ll make sure your request gets to the right person.

Shannon recently updated the Shop Online page so you can see what we have posted in our Etsy store. We’re still working on a better, full-fledged online shopping system, too.

Questions? Give us a call or stop by!

Sorry for the superexcitement, but as many of you know, we’ve been waiting for this shipment a while. Amy Butler fabric is popular stuff! Stop by and check out what’s new. There’s more to come, such as her new collection’s patterns, but meanwhile, we’ve got great new fabric in stock for you.

Our latest shipment of Amy Butler patterns has arrived. Among the old favorites are two new patterns! We can’t wait to try the new Laptop Cover and MP3 Case! Amy’s other new pattern, the Birdie Sling, is perfect for a summer bag. We are still awaiting a new shipment of fabrics but we’ll make sure to announce their arrival!  

Mother’s Day is approaching fast — and we’ll be closed on Sunday, so you’ll want to stop by this week to grab something for your favorite mama.

How about a Stitch Cleveland gift certificate? Or fabric and a pattern you can sew together? We still have some cool Hungarian cross-stitch patterns, and Shannon’s latest book, The Pillow Book. Handknit sock earrings? A Louet needlefelting kit (seen here)?

We’ve got something for all the moms on your list!

Join us on April 20th from 1-4pm for Church of Craft. This group gets together monthly for an afternoon of social crafting. Crafters include people with talents of all types, including but not limited to sewers, designers, crocheters, knitters, popsicle stick joke writers, and really good ironers (hey, that’s an art form). This event is a great creativity boost for those of you looking to rid yourselves of the winter blahs.

See you Sunday!