Hey everyone, happy Tuesday! I’ve spent most of my day in the studio working with Jess and Kali to finalize a bunch of plans for 2024, including new project releases, future quilt and wool box contents, our LIVE with Lisa and CommentSold schedules, upcoming quilt-along details, and more! I mentioned recently that one of my goals for the new year is to be more ahead of the game more than ever before so that we can continue to improve Primitive Gatherings and The Gathering in every way possible. Judging by everything that we’ve accomplished so far in 2024, I can already tell that it’s going to be a fantastic year full of fun and creativity!

Speaking of CommentSold, I hope you were able to join us this morning for our first broadcast of the year. Jess and the girls kicked off the 2024 CommentSold season with some new items that we haven’t seen before. If you missed it, no worries! As always, you can catch the replay by visiting the “LIVE Videos” area of either our main Facebook page or on the STITCH with Lisa Bongean group Facebook page. I know that between the Primitive Gatherings 12 Days of Christmas event, the actual holidays themselves, our store-wide inventory, and my traveling, show schedules for both CommentSold and LIVE with Lisa got kind of wonky for a while there… The good news is that as of today, we are back to our “normal” show schedules unless otherwise announced. That means the next time I will go LIVE on my STITCH with Lisa Bongean YouTube Channel is this Thursday at 1:00 p.m. CST. After that, around 2:15 p.m. CST we’ll hop over to the CommentSold studio for an hour of Valentines Day goodies. Join us! Valentines Day is one of my favorites…

Aside from being back on air, I’m also super excited about our new, interactive Primitive Gatherings Events Calendar. Have you seen it yet? If not, let me give you a little tour. First of all, there are a couple of ways to access the calendar. My landing page – http://www.lisabongean.com – has links to basically all things Lisa Bongean/Primitive Gatherings/The Gathering. It’s your one-stop-shop! Conveniently enough, it also includes a link to the Events Calendar, which you will find at the top of the page under the “Events Calendar” tab.

If you are on our regular store website – http://www.primitivegatherings.us – you will find a similar tab at the top of the page, simply called “EVENTS.”

Easy enough so far, right? Even more good news – it stays easy! I absolutely LOVE that the new PG Event Calendar is just as simple to use as it is to find. Not to mention, it’s pretty too! Once you’re on the calendar page, it looks something like this…

Notice that classes and clubs are color coded consistently to make it easier to find the one you’re looking for at a glance. Simply scroll over each event for more details and a brief description. Once you find something you like, click on the event for information on how to register. You’ll find that you can register and pay for most clubs and classes right through the calendar – it’s a really great new feature that we’re super proud of! Please be aware, however, that due to lodging factors and other various special circumstances, there are some cases where you will need to call The Gathering to sign up. In that case it will be stated in the event description.

Once you’re comfortable with how the calendar works, I encourage you to play around with some of its features so you can customize it to how it works best for you. For instance, You can set filters according to what event type you’re looking for, which makes locating your favorite class or club that much faster. You can also select which way you’d like to view the calendar – as a traditional calendar, list, or grid view. It’s super slick and we are SO happy to have it up and running!

I really encourage you to poke around on the new calendar to see what we have coming up in 2024. Since we’re still working out the details on a couple of possible events coming up this year, we don’t have 100% of what we will be offering listed quite yet, but don’t let that scare you off. The majority of the classes, clubs, and events that we have planned are posted and ready to rock!

Alright gang, I think that’s enough new information for one day! Time for me to switch gears and start figuring out what’s for dinner tonight. I’m thinking something nice and hot – comfort food of some kind sounds pretty good right about now… All of a sudden Mother Nature is making up for the unseasonably warm winter we’ve had so far by blessing us with over a foot of snow last weekend, and sub-zero temperatures for the rest of this week. I think the high today was 4° and that’s long gone. We’re currently sitting at -2° and under a windchill advisory. In other words, ba-zero – ugh! Definitely stitching weather, and not good for much else. If our local weather man is actually right for once, the cold snap should only last until about Sunday or so. After it passes, I’m really hoping to finally be able to get out onto the slopes to make a few turns on the skis I bought last season. I enjoy winter, but when it’s too cold to do anything fun I start to feel a bit resentful, so I’m really looking forward to getting out there. Keep your fingers crossed for warmer weather and stay safe out there, wherever you are! See you soon. ~Lisa