Covid-19 Updates for Upcoming Events

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you all healthy and that you are weathering this pandemic okay.  I know it's taking a toll on everyone.  Please know that I wish you all the best and hope for nothing less than things being back to normal soon!

Here are some more updates for you on our upcoming events.

Our upcoming retreat is cancelled.  I'm sure this is no surprise to anyone. We will hope for a November retreat.

As you saw in the email, our social meeting for next Saturday has been cancelled. You should have received an email about that.  Jill offered in her email some online alternatives to keep you engaged with the sewing community.  Gudrun Erla is hosting a quarantine quilt along that you might enjoy participating in.  There is also a free quilt along for national quilting day you might be interested in.  We hope these are things to keep you engaged and distracted.

Given our successes with some online formats the last couple of years, the board has decided to purchase a professional Zoom membership for the guild.  This will allow us to host up to 100 participants at a time, with no real time limit (ok 24 hour meeting limit - not an issue!). Remember how the Zoom meeting kept ending with Rene'?  Well, that won't happen anymore with a subscription.  We can record and keep recordings for later streaming/download.  We decided this would be a great investment for this situation and beyond.

So, we are pivoting for our April meeting.  Guild member Lisa Ruble is going to do an online program for us for our April meeting.  More details will follow.  You will all be able to join our meeting by Zoom, and we can still "get together."  We will save the gab making for later.  If this persists and there are other teachers who cannot come, we will come back to the bag making. Pam and I will host that and demo/teach it for you online.  (I'm just not in a position to do it right now, with all the demands at work.)

We have discussed maybe having our social meeting next Saturday on Zoom.  If we decide to uncancel the meeting and do it virtually, we will let you know.  We are all just a bit overwhelmed right now and are not sure we could pull it off in time.

Big virtual hugs to you all. 

Peace and Be Well,
Stephanie

Retreat Update

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all staying healthy and safe.

We are scheduled to have a retreat at Camp Lutherwald April 2-5.  Given the uncertainty of the times, we are just leaving this on the schedule for now and waiting to see what happens.  We only have a small group of people who are planning to attend, and we will have to bring our own food anyway (given the small size of our group).  We will wait until closer to the event to make a decision about what to do and what people's comfort level is at that time.  The folks at Camp Lutherwald have told us (graciously) that we can cancel right up until the last minute.  So, if you can just sit tight, we'll check back in closer to the event.

Thanks for your patience and stay healthy!

Stephanie

Recap of Sashiko Worksop with Rene' Martinez and Show and Tell

On Feburary 29, 2020, we were very fortunate to have Rene' Martinez join us to teach us all about sashiko stitching.  Sashiko means "little stabs" and is a Japanese technique.  Rene' shared with us some examples of her work and gave us a wonderful tutorial on how to do it.

It was very fun to have Rene' with us virtually.  We had several members who were away at a retreat.  Even they didn't miss a beat (hey, I'm a poet and don't know it!), because they could log in to join us virtually.  Another advantage to our occasional virtual meetings!  We are learning that we quite enjoy this format.

Thanks to Rene's daughter, we even had dual cameras going so Rene' could show us close ups of how to do the stitching. 

 This was not just a lecture, but rather a workshop format so guild members could stitch along with Rene'.

We all worked on a small make-and-take, courtesy of Rene's shop!

Folks made great progress on their projects, and many even finished!

Rene' was gracious enough to share some additional links with us for additional inspiration and information:

Simple Sashiko book

Mending Matters book

Aaron Sanders Head on Instagram 

Karen Stevens on Instagram

#sashikopatterns on Instagram

Yumi_Wasai on Instagram

 

Rene' added some extra Olympus Sashiko panels, thread skeins, and Tulip needles to The Craft Table’s website if anyone is interested.  She also has a limited amount of Lecien Cosmo brand preprinted fabric panels, thread, and needles listed as well. (Check your email for a message from the guild that includes a coupon code from Rene' for a limited time!) Rene' is continuing to add products to her website; feel free to email her with any questions regarding product or anything else. Most Sashiko items will be listed under the Shop, then Embroidery/Sashiko tab on her website.

You can find more of Rene's work on Instagram.  She is @renecreates.  You can also find information about her neat studio @craft.table.orlando on Instagram.  Also check out her Etsy shop Rene' Creates.   She has a lot of fun stuff, including fun enamel pins!

After Rene's presentation, we had a short business meeting that was mostly about the calendar.  Check the calendar link in the upper left of this page to check out updates.

Then, we had show and tell!