Erica's Craft & Sewing Center Online Newsletter April-June 2012

30Things are finally back to normal hereat home. After over 20 years of havingkitties from our original cat family,our household is complete again,with a new cat family. I have toadmit, that for several months, I’dlook at these kitties and think “Whoare these strangers, and what did theydo with my fur babies ?!!”But now, still having wonderful memoriesof our Beethoven, Mozart,Tchaikovsky, Abby and Kassia, we’reenjoying the quirks and personalitiesof Bernstein, Puccini, and Lacy.Thanks to all of you who expressedsympathy on our losses over the years,and to the St Joseph County HumaneSociety and its wonderful staff forhelping us create our new family!Pucci is lying on my lap as I writethis. You can see photos of the newguys and girl in several blog posts.Just search for their names.We’ve made a change in the scheduleof our big newsletters. I’m now doingthem quarterly, rather than unevenly.So this newsletter covers April thru’June and the next one will be in Julyand go through September. It makes iteasier for me and I hope it works foryou.38 years! Wow! We’re celebratingApril 13-15 with refreshments, cake,and various store specials. WhileDick and I are there, we’ll have outsome old scrapbooks. If you’ve beenwith us for many of those years, youmight just find yourself pictured in theactivities. Be sure to take a look!In May, “our Cathys” and Dick and Igo to my favorite outside event - QuiltMarket. It’s in Kansas City thisspring and we’ll be driving, so we canbring back some of the exciting thingsrather than waiting for them to beshipped. Quilt Market is where we tryto guess what fabrics you’ll want touse in the upcoming months, what patternsand notions we can tempt youwith. The Cathys do all the hard work(fabric and a lot of the patterns), Dick“networks” and I get to do my ownthing. I love to look for things forframe quilting, new quilts I might liketo make or things I want to incorporatein Handi Quilter clubs or SewingClub, or projects I’ll do a class on.There are hundreds of booths, and it’sexhausting, but fun!Speaking of classes, I’ve had requestsfor the Designs with Lines classagain. It’s a great aid in quilting,whether you quilt on your regularmachine or on a long arm. It’s been awhile since I’ve offered it, so it’s setnow for Saturday, May 5 at 9:15. Ifyou haven’t taken this class and do (orwant to do) a lot of quilting, pleasejoin me.From June 20-23 we will have a boothat the Shipshewana Quilt Festival,and if you’re traveling to it, our storeisn’t far from there, so you can visitus here too, and use the show coupon!Our Sidewalk Sale is July 13th and14th, so it’ll be in our next newsletter,but it’s early in theschedule, so Ithought I’d mentionit now. Besure to put it onyour calendar!Until next time, mayall your stitches behappy ones!