Free Pattern Site

Just ran into this site and thought you would all like to view it:

http://www.freepatterns.com

It has a variety of crafts listed: crochet, knitting, beading, paper crafts, cross stitch, quilting, sewing, plastic canvas-quite a list! Enjoy.

Pam

Stitches Midwest 2008

Margaret, Jan, Helen, Kathie & Dawn

Early in the morning of Saturday, August 23rd, we headed for Threadbear Fiber Arts Studio in Lansing, Michigan.  The “boys” opened the shop at 6:30am for any last minute purchases before we boarded the bus for Stitches Midwest.  We made brief stops in Charlotte and St. Joseph, MI to pick up a few more knitters.  Marcia, our host/organizer, gave away many door prizes along the way.  Jan was lucky enough to win a book.  We arrived at Stitches by 11am.  An incredible number of vendors offered yarns, patterns, books, needles, and other knitterly stuffs.  Knitter Nervanna!   They demonstrated, gave out samples and SWTC gave us a tote bag, though we missed the bare chested models that were handing them out earlier.  Debbie Macomber was there signing books.  Later Dawn was lucky enough to speak with her when they were shopping at the same booth.  We shopped for 7 hours, ate expensive sandwiches that turned out to be really good.  Helen and her daughter, Janie, discovered a restaurant upstairs so Dawn and I joined them for a really tasty dinner.  We were back on the bus at 6pm for the drive home.  We changed buses in Kalamazoo due to technical difficulties with the air conditioning.  Actually the AC wasn’t working at all.  It was a very miserable trip till we changed buses.  When we returned to Lansing the “boys” had opened the shop so we could use the bathroom, get coffee, have a snack, and buy anything we needed for the trip home.  It was a long trip but very enjoyable and all for $70.  Can’t beat that.

Stitches Midwest 2009 is scheduled for September 10-13.  Wonder how much it would cost to fly?

Great Idea

I don’t know how many of you embroider, but just learned of a new product which I thought was very useful: “Soluable Canvas”. It’s made by DMC Embroidery Floss company and you simply tack it onto whatever you want to embroider on (like a blouse, tea towel, shirt, etc.), sew the embroidery then soak the finished item in a bowl of water and the background ‘canvas’ dissolves, leaving a finished embroidery! Pretty neat, eh?

Pam L.

Answer to Discussion Subject (previous)

Hello, all;
It is with a great sense of gratitude that I report to you that we,
Waterford-Area Knitters & Crocheters, have a very benevolent benefactor
who has volunteered to pay our Meetup fees for the coming year. I’m sure
we are ALL very grateful for this generosity. I am awed at the way this
group has grown, by the friendships and the warm spirit of each and
every one of you. Thank you, all, for helping make this group the great
group that it is.
With a sincere and humbled heart;
Pam

Discusion Help Needed

Hello, Ladies (and Brian);

Recently a subject has come up which I think needs your input. We are at the end of our Meetup.com membership as of Oct. 24th and they are asking for the $72 membership fee for the next 6 months. I’m trying to decide where to go with this: (a) charge a nominal fee for our membership in the group and keep Meetup as our site (b) drop Meetup and make up a new site or, perhaps use this site more fully for those things like meeting date reminders.

Guess I never really realized the total cost of Meetup when I started the site; it’s a great tool for keeping us all informed and also bringing in new members. My thoughts on using this blog is that we wouldn’t have access to people looking for a knitting/crochet group in our area like we do with Meetup, but it ‘would’ save us the $$$.

What do YOU think? Email me with your thoughts, please:

palutt@prodigy.net

Pam

Knit (& Crochet)Night 9/30/08

Almost the whole group!

(Left to right) Kim (new tonight!), Kathy, Dawn, Missy, Pam R. (Pam #2), Michelle, Margaret, Pam #1, Helen, Sandy, Jan

Kim, Missy (hiding) & Dawn

Pam2,Margaret,Helen, Sandy & Jan