Archive for the 'Customer focus' Category

Holy craft, Batman.

Published on July 16, 2010 in Creativity boost, Customer focus and Events. 0 Comments

Tomorrow River Colors and Blackbird Bakery will be hosting the Cleveland Craft Coalition. This is a great group of Cleveland crafters that work hard for their craft! The Coalition will be highlighting 21 of their crafters during this afternoon event. Sounds like it’ll be fun!

The Cleveland Craft Coalition is not your typical craft bazaar. Why? Because there are plenty of those and we want to offer something edgier. We recognize value in all forms of craft and art, but we wish to highlight the crafters and artists on the fringe.

Will we still work with lace and dolls and jewelry and needlework? Hell, yeah! That lace will simply be attached to a kick-ass apron that you’ll wear while baking from your vegan cookbook, those dolls will have horns & may be chewing on a bone, that jewelry will have an eastern Asian influence or resemble tattoo work, and that needlework potholder may cuss at you.


Stop by and buy some stuff from someone local. The show runs from 12 – 6pm on Saturday the 17th at the corner of Sloane and Detroit (our old place). I’m looking forward to ending my diet – both yarn (at River Colors) and regular (at Blackbird), as well as getting my Tarot cards read by PJ at Harmonizing Energy, a good friend and student of Stitch Cleveland and fellow Cleveland crafter!

Etsy Craft party… you know you wanna come!

Published on June 17, 2010 in Creativity boost, Customer focus and Events. 0 Comments

Etsy Craft Party is a global initiative to energize your local community, make art together, and throw a party in your neck of the woods. We want to celebrate crafting together on June 18, 2010 (which just happens to be Etsy’s birthday) with as many celebrations across the globe as possible.

Help us celebrate Etsy and stop by for our bash! We’ll have some demos (paintsticks, stenciling, and patchwork artists’ canvases), some snacks, and some fun. If you are an Etsy-ite come in and share your craft… it’s a great way to broaden your customer base and get familiar with some other local Etsy artists!

If you’ve always wanted to check out Etsy but have been too nervous to jump in and create your own site, use this opportunity as a creativity boost! Over the years we’ve heard a lot of questions and hesitation regarding Etsy… why not get some advice from Etsy artists in our area and a little bit of moral support?

Let’s celebrate our community’s creativity together! June 18th from 6 – 8pm… be there!

Party time!

Published on May 31, 2010 in Amy Butler, Creativity boost, Customer focus and Trunk show. 0 Comments

Hi all! We’re so excited that the Amy Butler trunk show has arrived. During Church of Craft we took a sneak peak at the goods. We were interested in how the laminated fabric looks since we’ve had a hard time getting it in. Wait until you see it! Hope ours comes soon!

We’ll be hosting an Amy Party on Friday, June 4th from 6 – 8pm. We hope you can join us. Since she will be unable to attend, Ms. Butler sent some great prizes for us to give away and we’ve gotten in some cute new things, too (this photo is a hint)! We’ll be doing several drawings during the festivities and oohing and aahing over our Student Trunk Show as well!

Just like last year, you can bring in your Amy Butler items for us to display in the shop with the Student Trunk Show this week and get a cute little prize! Bring them by during our regular hours anytime this week and we’ll keep them on display throughout next week. It can be anything Amy… something from one of her patterns, something from her fabric, or something from her pattern and fabric! Last year we had some great items. I can’t wait to see what you can cook up this year!

We’re looking forward to seeing you Friday for our little party! Come help us kick off our third year as Stitch Cleveland and a whole month of customer appreciation surprises!

Ta-Daaaaa…

Published on March 30, 2010 in Creativity boost, Customer focus, Events and News. 0 Comments

Well, today was the first day in our new place. We’re still moving in and have some organizing and moving to do but we are so pleased! Above you can see some images from the new ‘hood: some of our latest projects, a snap from out front, and an image from our mural on the back wall! Thanks to everyone who came out to wish us well in our new location at 18117 Detroit Road. We were busy with visitors new and old and lots of classes! Here are some pics from today:

Stay tuned for announcements about specials for new and returning students… see you soon!

We Challenge You…

Published on March 25, 2010 in Church of Craft, Customer focus, Events and Philanthropy. 0 Comments

This month during our Church of Craft craft-on we will be participating in a great charity project – The 1 Million Pillowcase Challenge:

Calling all quilters, sewers and crafters! American Patchwork & Quilting is challenging you to join our efforts to Make a Pillowcase, Make a Difference. Every pillowcase can make a difference in your community. A pillowcase can provide comfort for a cancer patient, hope for a foster child, encouragement for a battered woman, or beauty for a nursing home resident.

We’ll all be getting together to work on our pillowcases. We have many donated fabrics for you to use or you can bring your own or purchase some here at Stitch Cleveland. Bring your machine if you have one and a basic sewing kit (scissors, thread, etc…) and we’ll make space for you at our last event in this location. Check out the 1 Million Pillowcases Challenge website for free patterns and more information about this great event.

Our event will be on Saturday, March 27th from 1 – 4pm. See you then!

Stitch Cleveland is Moving!

Published on March 19, 2010 in Customer focus, Events and News. 10 Comments

For the last three years we’ve been loving life next door to River Colors Studio. This has been a great place for us. Starting off a small business can be difficult. Thanks to Erika and the staff at River Colors, Stitch Cleveland had the opportunity to learn from another female entrepreneur and contribute to the crafty corner on the far side of Lakewood.

When we started out we had a vision of being a place where people could learn something new and fun, meet some new friends, hang out and stitch! Thanks to all of you, our wonderful and supportive customers, friends, and family, we’ve grown over the years into a full on classroom offering fabric, notions and supplies in addition to our group and private lessons.

Things have been busy. Classes have been growing. We want to keep up with the demand for more classes and fabric, more fun and creativity, more sewing groups and social events! So, we would like to announce that at the end of March, Stitch Cleveland will be moving to our new spot in Lakewood!

Don’t worry… we’re still in the same hood, just a stone’s throw away from 1387 Sloane Avenue. Starting on March 30th, you’ll be able to find us at 18117 Detroit Road, right next to White Cloud Studios, Breadsmith, and Color By Numbers Salon.

We are really looking forward to seeing you at our new location and hope that it will give us the opportunity to better fill your needs as students and designers. Along with our new lounge and boutique, you can look forward to seeing more fabric, supplies, and of course, handmade items.

There are lots of exciting things to come in the next year! We can’t wait to show you what we’re up to!

Pets love handmade, too…

Published on March 18, 2010 in Customer focus and Tips. 0 Comments

Recently someone stopped in and told us that lots of animal shelters could benefit from our fabric scraps…

Wha?!

Word on the street is that you can sew a pillowcase shaped ‘sack’ and fill it with your fabric scraps. Once it’s full you’ll stitch it closed and – wallah – a pet bed! We’ve got a pillowcase pinned to our huge cutting table that has been collecting small scraps all week. We’re doing some research to find out which animal shelters may be able to use our handmade pillows and will surely keep you posted.

Lili loves the pillows I make for everyone else in the family – the one in the picture is Liam’s pirate pillow. Of course – I should have made her one ages ago!

Grey Cardigan is in season again…

Published on March 11, 2010 in Customer focus and Events. 2 Comments

Okay, so we’ve talked about Brian a.k.a. Grey Cardigan before… now is your chance to see what the hype is about. Head over to the Tremont Art Walk this weekend and you can check out Grey Cardigan’s something borrowed, something grey print debut.

Stop in on March 12th from 6 – 9pm at The Banyan Tree and you might even see Andrew himself! Maybe he’ll give you his autograph!

Looks like it’s going to be a promising weekend in the good ‘ole 216! A perfect weekend to support local art!

P.S… if you are a local artist who has an event coming up we want to know!

Patternmaking Must-Haves…

Published on February 23, 2010 in Customer focus, News and What's new. 0 Comments

I think I heard your sewing room calling for a new gadget. Check out some of the new ones we got in…

Needle tracing wheels, awls, pattern notchers (all shown here), as well as hip curves, L-squares, french curves, rabbit hole punches, pattern hangers, tape measures (and more!) are available at Stitch Cleveland.

Don’t forget we also offer industry pro dressforms and half size dressforms. Stop in to see our floor samples and decide which one you need.

Vote for Threadless Designs!

Published on January 30, 2010 in Customer focus, Events and News. 0 Comments

Hi all! Just wanted to tell you about grey cardigan… a great local artist who has a design on Threadless.com for you to vote for! If grey cardigan, aka Brian Jasinski wins he will be rewarded with prizes and money, fame and fortune!

Threadless.com is an awesome site where you can submit design ideas, buy prints and tees, and just browse through pages and pages of cool artwork. New designs are released multiple times a week so there’s always something new to check out!

I know that you are on your way to clicking that link and casting your vote for Brian. But just in case you need another gentle nudge, I’d like to tell you that Brian is also a gifted stitcher and personal friend of Stitch Cleveland.

So jump over there. You can even submit your own design to one of their contests… then you’ll be famous and rich.

But let Brian win this one…