A Thread-aholic in Colorado

...this quilt that I've made

The First Big Event!

Over the last 3 days, we hosted a Serger Retreat, produced by #SueGB Events.  Our Educator, RoseMary Keene was so awesome. She is an Independent Baby Lock Serger Specialist, and believe me, she knows sergers!

Most of day one was spent learning about sergers. The mechanics, the reason why they do what they do. While that doesn't sound all that exciting, it really was. Part of learning how something operates is discovering why it operates in a certain way. It's so fun to watch new sewists discover, how with a push of a button, the Baby Lock sergers thread themselves. That whole "astonished" look on their face is priceless.

By the afternoon of the first day, the class was serging. You have to love the sound of 24 sergers humming through a community center hall.

By day three, the ladies and one gentleman, were doing complicated cover stitching and even some free-motion work (yes, the Ovation's large sewing bed allows for free motion serging!).

I will say our first big event was a success.  And I have to give credit to the "girls"... Amanda, Nancy, and Deb who kept me organized and worked so very hard at the show and behind the scenes. 

And kudos to Randy, who prevented any mini-melt downs on my part - mostly the day we woke up to a heavy snowstorm the day of the event. He ran errands and made sure we were all taken care of quite nicely, plus had the refreshments all ready at the store for Friday night "store night". And a big thanks to the Brookside Community Center for use of their beautiful facility.

We were all very tired, but oh so happy for those who took home their brand new Ovations after the show. What an exciting sewing adventure they will have!

We will be beginning Club Ovation very soon (machine classes to continue the educational part of learning the Ovation Serger). This class is FREE to all those who purchased their Ovation from First Stitches. Regular price is $75.

And don't forget about Serger Club, where you will actually make projects to take home that day. Call for availability for May.  AND...sign up early every month... these classes fill quickly.

We are already planning another SueGB Serger Retreat for sometime later in the year. We want to get enough participants ready so we can bring the SueGB Advanced Class to Cañon City, but it is required to have taken the SueGB Serger Retreat first, before you can take the Advanced Class.  So watch for this!

Again, thanks to all who participated.  What a fun weekend we had. And I still have some chocolate leftover! Yippee!

On the move.... yet again.

We're growing out again.  The Little Brick Building is about as full as it can be.  So Randy has decided to move his repair studio to the Jailhouse, the middle building in our complex.  He's moving out of the dungeon, where he's been since we moved in. 

Guess where they want me to go.... yep.  The dungeon.  Hmmm.  Not quite sure I like that name, so I'm thinking it's going to have be re-named.  Like Kim's Kubby, or something a little less drastic than dungeon.  We'll see.  We'll probably take a vote or run a contest once it's all complete.

The back room now houses my little 36 sq. ft. office area, machine storage boxes, and a desk for checking in product.  We would like to see that room turned into a "back room demo area" where we can have demos and give private lessons or just plain open sewing time. That's the plan anyway. Plans always seem to turn out to be just guidelines sometimes.

One of the biggest challenges with a new business is always finding creative ways to expand, to better serve the customers. It's a process and it keeps it interesting to say the least.

We'll keep you posted on our progress.