Newsletter August 2020

Hello everyone!
I have been trying to get to my laptop for the last week to send out an email to all you lovely customers; We have been inundated with sales of ELASTIC and attempts to write anything at all have been constantly interrupted by another sale at the counter!
The good news is we had our best week EVER last week. The sad news is I have sold out of 3mm and 6mm wide elastic – but I do still have a good supply of hat elastic in both black and white, and plenty of wider elastic 10mm and up.
We have several great free patterns for face masks on the counter and they have been rocking out the door. I must say I’m quite impressed with some people’s creativity when it comes to making such things – I also admire the determination of those who confess to not being a sewist but want to give it a go anyway!
I haven’t got to making a set of masks for myself yet, aside from a quick sample or 2 whipped up in the last lockdown. Any requests from my family will just have to wait until things settle down a bit!

You can access a free pattern on one of these websites below if you still need to make your own facemask.

https://www.deaconess.com/SpecialPages/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask/Documents-Mask/Mask-Information

Face Mask Sewing Pattern – 4 Sizes

We are of course trying to encourage social distancing and use of hand sanitiser in the shop, and ask that if you have downloaded the NZ COVID TRACER that you use it to record your visit to our store.

We have a huge supply of Fat Quarters that have also needed replenishing daily with so many sales, but its a great opportunity to sell some of our older stock at reduced prices, so we have a table with some good specials at the moment – 5 FQ’s for $20, some half metre rolls for $8.50 and some lovely 1 metre bargains less than half price @$15.00

With the cancellation of the NZ Gift Fair at the end of this month as well, it doesn’t make it easy to source the new products coming through,for Christmas. As many of our reps come out of Auckland, the phone has been HOT and online shopping and sending emails is becoming the new normal.
Some of our overseas orders have been slow to come through. I am holding off ordering Westalee Rulers and some other products out of US as the exchange rate and freight charges mean I need to pass the extra costs on to my customers, and so I would rather wait until prices are more realistic before ordering.

Some of the fabric making companies are still in partial lockdown and a lot of our fabric orders are at least 2 months behind; sadly some fabric that was ordered won’t be arriving at all. I have had my first delivery of beautiful Christmas fabric this week from Moda 3 Sisters though, and in my opinion it really is one of the loveliest ranges I have stocked. More Christmas fabric is slowly starting to dribble in now.

We also now have DMC Hollie yarn and patterns in store in a lovely range of colours. This is a merino, silk and cashmere mix and knits up beautifully, especially for the little people in your life.
Yarn sales are going extremely well, and I’m learning lots about knitting. The next thing to look forward to is the arrival of some knitting patterns by ‘Truly Myrtle’, so check us out on FB if you want to know first hand when they arrive…hopefully in the next week or two.

Our Thursday afternoon KNITTING GROUP is proving popular and we have had different ladies attending each Thursday. If you would like to come and sit around the table on Thursday afternoons from 1:30pm – 3:30pm Jenny is here – its $10 for 2 hours of knitting bliss and all the help you need with knitting issues!

Taupo Quiltmakers have their bi-annual Exhibition at the Great Lake Centre on October 2nd – 4th.
I SO hope this can still proceed as the planning committee have done a wonderful job in organising this event. With so many exhibitions and craft markets cancelled this year, it would be awesome to still be able to go ahead with this one. We will have a merchant stall at the exhibition, and we will also have the shop stocked and ready for visitors. I have asked Barrie Ashton from Wonderfil Threads to set up a little stall in our shop, so that will be a good incentive to go to the exhibition and then come and shop for threads and other lovely stuff with us in store.

We also have a club night in the shop on Thursday 10th September (God willing) where we will have some special treats to tempt you with. Lets hope and pray that these events can still happen. we are learning to hold everything very lightly as our circumstances can change very quickly these days!