2020. What an unprecedented and uncertain year it has been. Who could have predicted that hand sanitiser, masks, bubbles, tiers and lockdowns would become part of our regular vocabulary.
 
But in spite of all 2020 has thrown at us – when the going gets tough our customers, friends, staff and volunteers have proven to be incredibly resourceful and resilient. For this we say THANK YOU!THANK YOU!
I would like to write a very personal thank you to our hard working and ingenious staff Liz, Amelia, Sarah, Anissa, Helen. To our talented and dedicated teachers Pat, Susan, Carol, Denise, Sharon, Alex, Kay, Sam and Tricia.
To our amazing volunteers Patricia and Susan. To all of you - thank you for your efforts, working tirelessly to keep everything going in such a difficult year.

THANK YOU!
When we entered lockdown back in March few would have predicted that knitting, sewing, crochet, patchwork, all crafting would become as popular as it has. In many ways, we never needed convincing as this is our passion at Stitch! Discovering the joy of crafting has been one of the positives to come out of this terrible year. There will be things people will look back on with pride and pleasure - a new-found enthusiasm for making things and during this time we have all had time to reflect on what’s important in life - family, friendship and supporting each other.
 
We were so pleased to hear from all of you over the past year that sewing and crafting has been a therapeutic activity in these uncertain times. It has certainly helped us cope with feelings of isolation and uncertainty and has brought some degree of peace and solace.

THANK YOU!

We have been running our Stitching Circle on Zoom since mid-March and it has been wonderful to see our regulars catch-up each week, lighten the load and see what everyone has been working on or just chat knitting and crafting! We look forward to returning in the New Year and a big thank you to Sharon for being a fabulous compere! Please carry on making your twiddle muffs and squares for dementia blankets, they are so gratefully received by their recipients.

THANK YOU!
When there was an appeal by North Middlesex Hospital for volunteers to make laundry bags for hospital staff to safely store, transport and wash their scrubs following their shift at work you listened when we asked you to get sewing. Hundreds of washbags were made - what a brilliant effort by our local crafting community! Denise of Natural Yarn Barn rallied us all to make crochet mask adaptors for NHS staff too! Thank you!

THANK YOU!
Thank you to all the children that joined our free lockdown crafting sessions in the summer on Zoom. We had a lot of fun and you all got very creative sticking and drawing and making! Well done! We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

THANK YOU!
In September we had a bit of surprise when our landlord found a new tenant and we had to leave the old Grouts building at 397 Green Lanes. Fortunately we found a new home just up the road and got to work building a new shop front within the Post Office at 364 Green Lanes. With the help of some brilliant builders and sterling effort by everyone we were back up and running within 3 weeks!

THANK YOU!
Thank you to all our customers who have supported us throughout this year, we remain incredibly grateful to each and every customer that chooses to shop and take classes with us. To everyone who shopped locally and showed their support for the shopkeepers, traders along Green Lanes and the surrounding streets of N13, thank you for your patience, for keeping to the rules and keeping us safe and most of all for the encouragement you gave us all to keep going.

THANK YOU!
We have been fortunate this year to be part of the The Community Business Trade Up Programme run by School for Social Entrepreneurs (SSE), in partnership with Power to Change. The programme included 12 learning days, spread over nine months. SSE supports community business leaders to increase their income and build stronger organisations, so they can create more benefit to their local areas. Although the meetings had to take place on Zoom due to necessary restrictions we met some very interesting community businesses along the way and it was a really inspiring experience.
 
We also have just finished a term of working with our first school, West Grove Primary, as part of our Reduce, Reuse, Refashion project working with the London Community Foundation @iwill_campaign.The kids have been enthusiastic, creative and eager to learn throughout and are looking to be fantastic, upcycling champions. Our project continues into summer ’21.

CLASSES FOR 2021
We await news from the government on Tier 4 restrictions. On the basis that we are allowed to re-open our premises, below is a summary for January classes currently scheduled. If we are not able to run them in January, the classes will be pushed back to February. We know many of you are looking forward to taking places on your postponed classes and we will do everything we can, within government rules, to make this happen.

If necessary we will look at transferring some classes that are suitable to teaching on Zoom where we can. Carol is planning to run an intermediate quilting course over Zoom in January. The teaching will comprise of six 1 hour sessions, dates and times to be advised. Sessions will be recorded so participants can also watch them at their convenience. Participants will receive clear preparation instructions as well as notes to support the zoom sessions. Please email if you are interested in attending.

Sew and Make with Seamstress Pat, Wednesday 6th Jan, 12-1.30pm, £30
Come along with a simple item or garment you are currently making, adjusting or starting and that you need help with. Perhaps you would like to make Christmas gifts, a Christmas table runner? Pat will help and guide you through the sewing process. This is a continuous running class which you can book week to week where. Not suitable for beginners dressmaking. Currently limited places due to social distancing.

Learn To Patchwork, Thursday 7th Jan, 12-2pm, £30
(With Pat Stevens) This is a beginners/ intermediate patchwork course for quilters starting out or continuing your journey, you will ideally be proficient on a sewing machine. You will need to have mastered using a cutting mat and rotary cutter. In this course you will learn how to make a patchwork cushion, wallhanging or lap quilt. Currently limited places due to social distancing.

Learn To Use a Sewing Machine, Saturday 23rd January, 11-1pm, £30, Saturday 30th January 11-1pm
This is a one-off class for beginners to get to know how to work a sewing machine. Learn your way around the workings, parts and components of a sewing machine and make a simple product to help put your skills into practice. We will finish the class by you making a small fabric item eg cushion cover or small fabric box.

Intermediate Quilting One Day Workshop, Sunday 17th January 10-5pm, £75
In this course you will learn how to make accurate triangles as part of creating a star shaped quilt. You will add a border and binding. A big focus of the day will be experimenting with different methods of quilting the layers together using a walking foot and a free motion quilting foot.

Crochet For Beginners, Saturday 9th & Saturday 16th January, 10-12pm. £45
3 spaces available
Over the 2 weeks you will learn how to get to grips with the hook and yarn, work the foundation chain, double crochet, treble crochet, turning chain, simple pattern reading and basic finishing techniques. At the end of the course you’ll take away some small, fun items that you will have made.

Crochet For Beginners, Sunday 10th & Saturday 17th January, 10.30-12.30pm. £45
6 spaces available
Over the 2 weeks you will learn how to get to grips with the hook and yarn, work the foundation chain, double crochet, treble crochet, turning chain, simple pattern reading and basic finishing techniques. At the end of the course you’ll take away some small, fun items that you will have made.

Crochet Basket class - dates to be announced!

​Learn to Knit, Beginners Knitting (2 part) Tuesday 12th & 19th January, 10.30-12.30pm
Want to learn to knit? Did it years ago and its in a bag behind the sofa and need help getting started again? Come and join this two part workshop and learn skills to keep forever....

STITCH! CLASSES ON ZOOM
Need help with a sewing, patchwork, mending, knitting or crochet project? Whilst we are in tier 4 we are very happy to offer individual one-on-one video tuition and guidance (via Zoom) with our teachers in any of the sewing, knitting and crochet disciplines. https://www.stitch.org.uk/shop/Need-help-with-a-sewing-knitting-or-crochet-project-One-to-One-Tuition-on-Zoom-p259649060 No project too big or small, we'd love to hear from you!FINGERS CROSSED FOR THE NEW YEAR!

Fingers crossed we hope to be reopening our shop premises on Saturday January 2^nd at 10am.

It is important for us all to carry on with our hobbies, now more than ever. It is essential for our mental health and general wellbeing, to have something creative and fulfilling to occupy our time, particularly during the next couple of winter months ahead.

We hope that all our friends, customers and teachers have a restful period over Christmas and we really look forward to seeing you all again in 2021. Please stay safe, stay in touch and take care of yourselves.

Merry Christmas!
 
Warm Wishes from Suzanne and the team at Stitch!