minutes of 9/20 meeting

our september meeting was held at the new little cakes headquarters. in attendance were myself (cal), hanna, erika, rebecca, amy and caitlin.
we set a date for the fall sample sale that was proposed at the last meeting. it will be held at caitlin's studio in park slope on saturday, november 11, from 12-6. more details will be ironed out at the october meeting.
we also discussed a holiday gift sale, tentatively to be held december 8-9 at little cakes. however, after the meeting hanna realized that this would be in conflict with the gallery schedule so we will need to re-plan this event at our next meeting. it looks like a new venue will be needed so everyone should think about what options we have. amy mentioned the availability of her handsome and generous boyfriend matt's gallery in williamsburg, where some of us did a sale last year, so that is one option to consider.
caitlin updated us on her adventures in production at MCIF. previously her experience had all been good, but this time she had some problems to report: the quality has been inconsistent and a whole batch of woven dresses had to be ripped apart and re-stitched because of poor workmanship. she has also had some problems with them meeting her deadlines. the problems seem to have been ironed out so far but caitlin is going to continue searching for other production options so that all of her eggs are not in one basket... also the need for a separate cutting service was mentioned, since MCIF is not set up for cutting. amy suggested a cutter named Bob Gaver in the park slope area.
we also discussed ideas for workshops/information-sharing at upcoming meetings. amy offered to share with us her tax tips for indie businesses (possibly at the october meeting?) and requests were made for crochet and embroidery workshops, both of which i would happily teach. i also requested a DIY basic website tutorial (anyone feel qualified to teach this???) any one who has any other ideas to teach, share, or request should bring them up at the next meeting.
i brought swatches to show from an online fabric resource i found, wazoodle. they have a nice heavy-weight sweatshirt fleece that i bought after much fruitless searching. this led into a discussion of our collective desire for more organic/eco-friendly resources. one that caitlin had found, Near Sea Naturals, has gorgeous stuff but it's pretty expensive. she's going to show her swatches from them at the next meeting.
most of us had to run along so we didn't have a stitching circle after the meeting, but i hope we can institute this tradition at our next meeting. caitlin has offered to host the next meeting so we can check out her studio before the sale in november...
if anyone has corrections or additions to these minutes, please feel free to add them yourself, or e-mail them to me and i'll do it. also, if anyone needs a re-invite to the blog so that you can post yourself, please let me know!