Sweet Home Chicago

Wow, what a trip! 

Before going, I wasn't 100% sure if I would like NYC - I'm a gal who (despite a love of architecture) generally prefers the country.  But I LOVED it!  What a varied and vibrant city!  I will say this though - having experienced Manhattan for a week made me feel like I live in a small town again!  Not a bad feeling to have!

My trip was made all the better by a whole lot of bloggy get-togethers and some very nice fabric acquisitions.  It took me a while to narrow my pictures down, but even so, this is going to be a mega-post.   Let's take things chronologically.  For the sake of brevity, I'm only mentioning the bloggy stuff!

Saturday:
I attended the Workroom Social Pop-Up Party!  I met so many lovely people, some of whom I "knew" and some who were new to me.  You can find a lot of great pictures on Jennifer's blog here.  They even had a table with nail art going on!  Gah!

I wore the Scout Tee I'd made the week before.  I felt sparkly and glamorous, but HOT!  It was hot in the venue, and my tee was very heavy with 2 layers of fabric.  Plus, I'm an old lady ;-)

Sunday:
I finally got to meet Shar!  She and her family drove in to the city from their home about 2 hours away to spend part of the day with me.  What an honor!  Of course, we used the occasion to model our brand-spanking-new Robson coats.  Shar's was SO new it didn't even have buttons on it yet, LOL!  But look how gorgeous it is!  It made me wish I'd also chosen a floral instead of a solid, although I do love mine too.

We got some funny looks from the concierge when we modeled our contrasting bias tape:

I'm also wearing a new, unblogged Hemlock tee that I made literally days before the trip.  I love my cream floral one so much, and always wished I had a similar black one.  So when I found the fabric at JoAnn's, I snapped it up.  And I'm so glad I did.

Shar presented me with a beautiful and generous gift of fabric:  two and a half yards of this amazing stretch sateen she'd ordered from Mood!

I keep going back and forth between making a floral blazer, or a dress.  Or another coat?  Gah!  Can't decide!  In the meanwhile, I just keep stroking it:

Monday:
Evelyn was able to take a day off and we spent the entire day together, chatting away while she showed me her city.  We started out walking the length of the High Line park - so lovely:

Had a fantastic lunch, and then worked our way back north and into Central Park.  It was a gorgeous day - we really lucked out!

Tuesday & Wednesday:
Hubby was between meetings, so we explored the city together.  I took a LOT of pictures, but I'll spare you :-)

Thursday:
A rainy day, but brightened because I spent it with Sonja!   This lady knows the Garment District, so she took me around to some of her favorite shops.  We started out at Mood.  I was completely unprepared for how huge and overwhelming this place is!  I came with some ideas of what I wanted, but couldn't find what I had in mind.  So I "settled" for this beautiful piece of silk twill, which will likely become an Archer:

After that, I had the presence of mind to ask her if any of the shops carry Liberty, so she took me off to B & J.   This was my favorite of the fabric stores I visited, and not just because they sell Liberty!  It was smaller, quieter, and less of a sensory overload because everything is nicely organized.

I was astounded at the wide selection of Liberty they had in stock.  This is just a small part of the bolts:

The fabrics are cut from these bolts, but they have a very nice system of hanging samples which make it a lot easier to look through all the different prints.

I ended up with two cuts of Tana Lawn, each enough for a shirt:

Friday:
At the party on Saturday, I met Carolyn and we chatted for a while.  We ended up connecting later in the week and decided to have a lunch date on Friday.   It was so nice to talk to her one on one, in a quieter venue!

On my way there, I stopped by B & J again - I just couldn't get a particular fabric out of my mind.  So I ended up buying this as well:

This is also Liberty; it's listed as "textured cotton print."  You can't really see the texture from the right side, but you can from the wrong side:

I really see this as a dress - an Emery if my muslin works out - so I bought 3 yards of it.

Hubby had a fair number of meetings in the evenings, so I took advantage of my alone time and knit up a pair of socks with the yarn I bought last month in Toronto!  You can't tell, because my camera can't handle it, but the colors are NEON!  Such a cool yarn.

So that was my week!  I had such a great trip, and as I said, it was made all the better by getting to hang out in real life with so many of my bloggy friends.  Isn't the internet swell?  These are all people I never would have met otherwise, but I'm so thankful they're in my life!