Hey everyone! Our Handmade Parade planning meeting which was scheduled for this Thursday, July 9, has been postponed. We are sorting out some difficulty with the venue situation. I hope to reschedule the meeting in the next few weeks. If you’d like to be on the Handmade Parade planning committee - please leave a comment or email me and I will put you on that email list!
Thanks!

Handmade Parade Planning Meeting Report

We had a really productive planning meeting last Sunday, and have made big steps in getting ourselves organized for this year’s Handmade Parade! We have a wiki site set up for planning purposes, all details about the event planning and running the event will go there.

If you are interested in being part of the planning committee or being involved in Handmade Parade in any way, please send me an email and I will give you the login information for the wiki. The planning committee will have monthly check-ins, we are doing some exciting stuff!

Our tentative date for Handmade Parade 2009 is Saturday, December 12.

Who Arted? Art Show

The Who Arted group (www.whoarted.ning.com) is hosting their first art show this Saturday, June 13, 2009. The event will take place in the lot next to Chic Cheap Resale Boutique located at 3617 Shore Drive, Virginia Beach.

We have a few spaces left, so if anyone is interested, please contact kellygstudio@gmail.com

Worldwide Knit in Public Day

7 Cities Crafter Shannon is organizing an awesome event: Life, Love and Yarn (her super cool blog) and KnitWits will be celebrating World knit in Public Day a whole new way this year! Knit or crochet all day at the store and join us at 9pm this Saturday, June 13 for fun filled yarn out at Finn McCool’s in Virginia Beach! Music, food and drinks! $2.50 glass of wine and house drinks! Door prizes and more! Please bring cash as the restaurant will only allow is to have 1 check. Also bring a chair to Knitwits for the daytime! Please RSVP if possible on Facebook or in our forum.

Hampton Roads Burdastyle Sewing Circle

7 Cities Crafter Kristin (owner of Craft & Sew Studio) is starting a Burdastyle sewing circle. You can view the group on Meetup.com and get updates about it here.

This group is about SEWING! Stitchers of all levels (including beginners) are welcome to attend monthly sewing circle meetings at Craft & Sew Studio in Virginia Beach. This group is sponsored by www.burdastyle.com, which is an open-source sewing website. Here is what they have to say about the aims of the group:

“A BurdaStyle Sewing Club is a group that meets on a regular basis where people can drop by and ask questions, practice their craft and be creative together.”

The focus of this sewing circle is mainly on fashion sewing, but quilters and stitchers with other areas of interest are welcome as well. It’s a chance to get together with some like-minded DIY folks, make new friends, and get advice on sewing dilemmas. We may also do some stitch-alongs or tutorials if members would like to!

Craft & Sew Studio has four sewing machines as well as a full stock of tools and supplies, which group members are welcome to use during meetups. Please see the website for more information: www.craftandsewstudio.com

Bring in your sewing projects for show and tell, advice, troubleshooting, or just to make some progress on them! We will also discuss possible stitch-alongs for future meetings.

The first meeting is scheduled for Sunday June 28 at 6pm

Handmade Parade Planning Meeting

Thursday, July 9, 2009 7:00 pm @ Azar’s in Ghent

Our monthly craft-together for July will be cancelled because of the holiday weekend, but the following week we’ll be having a little followup meeting for Handmade Parade, our big annual arts & crafts show.

Please come to Azars for yummy food and to get ourselves organized on sponsorships for Handmade Parade. Azars is at 2000 Colley Avenue in Norfolk’s Ghent.

Hey Crafty People! Just a few items of note!

Monthly Craft-Together & Handmade Parade Planning Meeting

Sunday, June 7, 2009 6:00pm

This will be our normal monthly craft-together but will also be a discussion and getting-started meeting for Handmade Parade, our big annual arts & crafts show. Please come out and bring your ideas, we need your help! It’s time to start soliciting sponsors and getting organized!

Free and open to the public! Bring a snack to share potluck-style and a craft to work on if you wish! Come hang out with other creative people in the area, everyone is welcome!

6:00 p.m. @ Grow Interactive: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the new Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Burdastyle Sewing Circle

7 Cities Crafter Kristin (owner of Craft & Sew Studio) is starting a Burdastyle sewing circle. Burdastyle (a great DIY, open-source sewing website) is setting up a database of sewing circles by area. These groups meet on a regular basis and people can drop by, ask questions, practice their craft and be creative together.

Kristin will be hosting this sewing club about once a month at her studio and we will spread the word once it’s set up.

You can find a list of all the Burdastyle sewing circles here!

Hey Crafty People!

We have a new email list format! There’s a really easy way to sign up for these updates now on the sidebar of the site. Please tell your friends! Here are some upcoming events to put on your calendar:

Wednesday, February 11
Handmade Parade Planning Meeting

7:00pm at Azar’s on Colley Ave. in Norfolk

Come out with great ideas! This is our first of many planning meetings for our big holiday craft show, Handmade Parade. We will be going over all the duties surrounding the show, assigning jobs, brainstorming and coming up with great ways to promote it and make this our best event ever! Please join us! The food is great at Azar’s as well, so grab something yummy.

Sunday, March 1
Knitting Workshop

6pm at Grow Interactive

We will have several people teaching at this workshop. No matter your skill level, there will be something for you to learn, from learning the basic knit stitch to learning how to pick a yarn or what the heck a gauge swatch is.

If you are a knitter and can help teach, please email me!

Grow: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Sunday, April 5
Photography Workshop

6pm at Grow Interactive

Have a camera but can never get your pictures to come out quite right? 7 Cities Crafters member Liz L. will be sharing her professional experience (she works for Canon) and helping us troubleshoot our photo problems. Bring your camera if you have it. Expect to get awesome tips on simple things you can do to make your photos look great.

Grow: 350 W. 22nd Street Suite 106 Norfolk, Virginia 23517 - in the Palace Station shopping center. Grow is toward the back left corner, across from NYFO.

Hope to see you at an event soon!

To all our talented crafters, vendors, artists and friends,

After much deliberation and deep thought, we have decided to cancel Handmade Parade this year. Those of you who applied will be receiving an email from us with details so please watch for that.

We are sorry for the last-minute change in plans, but between the situation with the economy this year, getting a late start in planning, one of our most active members moving away and my own part in taking a backseat in planning this year, we ran into some financial difficulties and decided the best plan would be to call it off this year and make next year’s REALLY special. We are disappointed but at the same time we’re excited to make Handmade Parade 2009 an awesome event.

So now that we have our schedule freed up for this fall/winter, we are going to plan a really kick-butt Holiday Craft Workshop as well as a rockin’ Holiday Party! Please visit the forum to vote on the format for those awesome events and if you haven’t signed up yet, please do and join in the discussion!

Thank you so much for your interest in Handmade Parade and we hope you will check back with us for Handmade Parade 2009, which is expected to be the best yet! You guys are awesome!