a weekend of art crawl, a concert, bikes, chickens, beer, laundry, cats.

This weekend was lovely. With the sun shining and the thermometer reading above 20°C during the day, it felt like the first weekend of summer. Art Crawl was on Friday, which meant a long day and a packed shop all evening. This was our fourth art crawl at Needlework, and it was by far the busiest. In fact, it was crazy busy! But that's great! Lots of new faces, and many people who hadn't been to an art crawl before. Fun! After we closed up shop, we went to the Dinner Belles concert down at the Leander Boat Club. An excellent end to the night.

On Saturday we ran our first Wiksten tank class. Have I mentioned how much I love that pattern? The answer is: lots. I love it lots. It was great seeing a bunch of wonderful ladies make their own versions.

On Saturday evening a whole gang of us met up at 9:30pm outside of Downtown Bike Hounds with our bikes and lights and helmets in tow. BIKE GANG! Last year the tradition of late night summer group bike rides was started, and it's in full swing again. This was the first group bike ride I'd been able to join this year, and I'm pretty sure Courtney counted at least 20 something of us. Our friends are amazing.

Where did we bike to? 270 Sherman for the closing night of the TH&B exhibit! Erick and I had checked it out during Doors Open Hamilton, but this time the highlight was chickens! And quails, and baby chicks, and roosters, and a turkey! Amazing. 

After 270 Sherman, we hopped back on our bikes, biked to Bayfront park, hung out at the tug boat, biked to Augusta, ditched Augusta, then claimed a new bar for our own. And that was Saturday.

Sunday was all about tidying the house, laundry, gardening, and bbq.

GOOD WEEKEND.

p.s. my camera has taken up almost permanent residence at NW, so unless I remember to make the effort, iphone/instagram is where many of my photos are going to come from these days. Better iphone photos than no photos though, right?

back.

Almost 3 months ago we opened Needlework. Over a month ago I tried to do a blog post here (the above photos are from that attempt), but that didn't happen. This past weekend I officially finished school. Done. Tonight I am going to try to get back into the swing of Kate The Hunter blogging.

The Needlework blog/site is going to remain primarily about the shop, classes, sewing, crafting, etc. I miss documenting and posting about my own personal day to day life, so that's going to continue to happen ici. I really enjoy the fact that I can go through my blog and see what I was up to 3 years ago. It's handy for someone with a shite memory like me.

Anyhoo, it's spring time now, and I'm looking forward to an amazing summer of awesomeness. In the words of our friend Kieran "This is going to be the best summer yet".

24 days.

Counting down.

brushes, rollers, drop cloths, and scaffolding.

There's been non-stop painting happening at Needlework lately.

Needlework!

Liz and I have some super exciting news!!! A couple of Wednesdays ago (November 30th to be precise - yes, I haven't blogged in forever) we presented our business plan for Needlework to the loan review committee at the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. The presentation went well, with lots of good positive and constructive feedback. That afternoon (while I was sitting at the One of a Kind Show) my phone rang and I got the wonderful news that we were approved for the loan!! Amazing! All systems are a go!

We've started placing fabric orders, signed the lease on our new space, bought a couch for the shop, and have cutting tables waiting to be assembled. We just need to set up our website (a work in progress), order a lot more fabric, finalize and order notions, buy some sewing machines, tables, chairs, check out counter, paint the building, get a sign made...and do a gajillion other things!!! Neither Liz or I have any background in business, so this is going to be a fun and interesting learning process. But we're up for it!

Since we had the keys to 174 James Street North (!) in time, we decided to whip something up for the December Art Crawl. We set up a quick window display, and handed out candy canes and coupons for a free 1/2 hour of our sew by the hour studio time. We'll be doing this again at the January Art Crawl. Probably without the candy canes, but maybe with something else!

We're so excited, and hope that you will join us on this adventure! Soon we'll have a Needlework blog (and twitter and facebook accounts!) up and running, and you'll be able to follow our progress there.

FUN!! EXCITING! YAY! HOORAY!

Thanks to friends and family for all your input and help! This is just the beginning.

holy busy life, batman.

This photo cracks me up. Sookie looks like she could be singing. Or yelling. In reality she was yawning. Which is something I've been doing a lot of lately. So busy! Let's make a list:

1. Finish assembling knit wall (as always). Installation happens sometime before November 30th

2. Laser cut digital design assignment, due tomorrow

3. Paper making samples - three 3D forms, due next Tuesday

4. Weaving sample, due next Tuesday

5. Come up with an idea for a product line (multiples) before this weekend, come up with imagery if I decide to incorporate screen printing, finalize design. Coat a screen, shoot a screen, buy fabric, start printing by Monday.

6. November 24th-December 4th. One of a Kind Show with Jenna whenever I'm not at school.

7. Come up with an idea for a knit structure made with hand spun yarn. Specifically something I can knit while at the OOAK show (two birds, one stone)

8. Needlework business. This could have its own list.

9. Write 3000 words on alpaca farming

10. Clean the house

11. Count down to December 16th. Last day of class

12. Make christmas presents

Needlework

So I've got some news. Big news. And it's not just my news, it's also fellow Beehive member Elizabeth Simpson's. For the past four months or so Elizabeth and I have been brainstorming and researching and scheming. And now we have a plan. The plan is to open a textile based store and workspace on James Street North in the very near future. The store will be called Needlework.

Our vision is to bring together the DIY and craft community in the Hamilton area by offering them a creative workspace and a local source for a thoughtfully curated selection of fabric, yarn, notions, patterns, and books. We hope to offer specialized sewing and knitting workshops in addition to a sew by the hour space.



We've been inspired by similar creative spaces such as The Workroom, Emmeline & Annabelle, Spool of Thread, and Purl Soho. But we are still very much in the beginning stages of our version of this project, and we would like to kindly ask for your input. We have created a survey to gather your thoughts and ideas, and would be extremely grateful if you could take a few minutes to complete it and pass it on to friends and family in the Hamilton area and beyond. By participating in our survey, you also have a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to either White Elephant, or Mixed Media. Yay!


Thank you so much! We hope you're as excited about this as we are! We're also mildly terrified, but with the amazing support of friends and family, we think we can pull this off.

If you have any more questions about Needlework, or if you'd like to be added to our mailing list, please feel free to email us at needleworkhamilton@gmail.com.

p.s. regarding yesterdays hint: naadlwerk is Dutch for needlework.