Whipstitch is cheerfully going to the dogs this weekend.  I’m seriously looking forward to it.  Wanna bring your dog down to our place for some fun??

It all starts this Friday, July 16, with a Yappy Hour for the two of you: join us at the shop from 5-7 pm for treats (for canine and hominid alike), drinks, music and meet-n-greets.  Leashes are required, but you and your dog will have the run of the shop!

On Saturday, July 17, it’s dog heaven all day long. Come by at 11 am for a boxed, piped dog bed demonstration & learn all the tricks to making your companion the prettiest place to sleep.  Then, from 1 to 2:30, learn to make a gorgeous martingale collar–with leash to match!  Register online to reserve your seat–space is limited, and they’re going really fast! Follow that up from 3-5 pm with a Doggie Ice Cream Social and free Pawdicures–a sweet treat and a nail trimming just for pup!

On Sunday, July 18, take part in our Dog Treat Swap Social at 3 pm.  Bring some of your favorite homemade dog treats, and trade them–along with the recipe–for new yummies your pet will love!  RSVP for this event so you’ll know how many treats to expect to take home, and tell puppy to save room for dessert!

All weekend long, you and your pup are welcome in the shop.  We’ll have water bowls on hand for heat relief, and like-minded dog-loving souls to help you find the pooch-themed fabric you’ve been craving.  See you then!

I love what I do.  For example, today my Twitter friend Patty Young was heading through Atlanta, and she and her charming husband stopped off at Whipstitch to visit.  How cool is that?

I love Patty’s lovely fabric collections (my girls have multiple garments made from her fabrics, and I even used one of her prints on the car seat for the new baby), and am so impressed by how consistently good her work continues to be.  Her Modkid patterns are super cute and so well-written, and always unique without trying too hard, know what I mean?  So to have someone whose work is so strong, and whose personality comes through in her blog posts and her Twitters, to have her drop by the shop as she drives umpteen hours to her next destination, well, that’s pretty cool.

As you can see in this candid shot, clearly she and I are now BFFs.

Seriously, Patty is warm and charming and funny, and everything you’d think she is from her blog and her fabrics.  We talked about the fear folks feel when they begin to sew with knits, and how each of us got over that.  We talked about what we like in a shop design–she even said that if she had a shop, it’d be just like Whipstitch, at which point I blushed to the roots of my hair and said, “I’m totally putting that on the blog.” Her husband and I bonded over our experience with Etsy.  I recommended a fantastic restaurant for their late lunch before the two of them headed on to her speaking engagement.  It really wasn’t like meeting someone for the first time at all–how can it be, when you hug first thing, and then get to talking?  The online craft community is so open and inviting and close-knit, and I worked hard to make Whipstitch a place where that can be tangible and accessible in the real world.  Having a visit like Patty’s today is a very, very cool moment for me, seeing those online connections become real, and forming another friendship in the sewing world.

For real: I have the coolest job ever, yo.  Happy sigh.

I arrived at the shop on Monday to find a gift bag on the counter.  I asked if it was a birthday gift for Diana, our intrepid shop manager, and she informed me it was for me!  Yippee!

And then I opened it.  An unexpected gift is always lovely, but to find a handmade quilt, stitched with exquisite linen, using fabrics selected to coordinate with the car seat cover I made for our baby, well, that goes way above and beyond.

This tremendously thoughtful gift is from the ladies of the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild, who meet monthly at Whipstitch.  It goes everywhere we go now, and I can’t even tell you how many compliments I’ve already received!  Thank you SO much, ladies.

I feel so inspired by the work these ladies have done, and so humbled that they’d go to these lengths on my behalf.  I’m headed right back to keep hand quilting the project I’ve been working on this week.  Feeling inspired yourself?  We’re adding Intro to Patchwork and Quilting to our class schedule beginning in August, and an English Paper Piecing Patchwork class in September.  If modern quilts have interested you, or you’re wondering when and how to take the plunge, we’d love to see you at the shop!  Not in the mood to quilt?  We’re offering a Baby Gift Workshop in July, too–make a bib, a burp cloth and a receiving blanket all in one night.  You, too, could make someone’s day a whole lot brighter with a handmade gift.  Check out all our class listings on the Whipstitch classes page.

If you’re not from Atlanta, you’ll likely not have heard of the Inman Park Festival, but around these parts, it’s one of the most anticipated street markets of our spring calendar.  When I first moved to Atlanta in 1997, Inman Park was a few blocks of residential street that were blocked off for music, crafts and food the last weekend in April each year.  Nowadays, it’s HUGE, covering nearly 12 square blocks and with an attendance of 30,000 annually.  Like, it’s BIG.

Whipstitch is delighted to be part of the festival again this year, and we’ll be pitching our tent along with the other crafters and artists along Euclid Ave in the Inman Park neighborhood.  We’re bringing full yards of our most recent fabrics, fat quarter and half yard bundles, notions, samples of clothing made from the fabrics we carry, and plenty of info about our classes and upcoming events.  If you’re around, we’d love to have you drop by and give us a shout!  Once we know our actual location and cross-street, I’ll Twitter the booth so we’ll have a chance to see familiar faces and meet some new ones.

Speaking of high traffic, by the way, when we opened our doors last month we planned out our shop schedule based on the assumption that on Friday afternoons, most folks would be headed out of the city to beat traffic on their way home; Friday has been an early day for us, and the shop has been closing at 1 pm.  We learned super fast, though, that some of you are cutting out of work early to come see us (so you can head home and cut out some sewing projects…).  And we couldn’t be more thrilled!  Beginning this Friday, April 23, our NEW STORE HOURS on Friday will be from 10 am to 7 pm.  We’d love to have you drop by and stock up on supplies for weekend crafting!

Take care, all, and happy stitching!

At the risk of the blog becoming all-shop-all-the-time, one more post about our new retail space: last Thursday, we opened to the public and hosted our very first Sewing Circle inside the new Whipstitch.

Great turn-out, such a good vibe, and such a fun night to welcome visitors into our new home.

We lit some candles for mood lighting as the sun went down, and everyone shared their current sewing projects (including: a ukelele case with custom embroidery, a felt Christmas stocking with lots of embellishment, sorting through a vintage pattern collection, and tackling a knit dress).

Folks took their time shopping and admiring the new fabric displays (love’em!).

I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished in such short time, and SO excited that the space is finally open.  I can’t wait to see all the new workshops we’ve got planned, all the camps that are coming up this summer, and meet so many of you I haven’t had the chance to meet before.

Come by soon, introduce yourself, sign up for a class, and thanks again for all the amazing support and encouragement!

Happy Stitching,

Deborah