Wednesday, May 14, 2014

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!

26 comments:

  1. Again - jealous. So jealous of all the meetups!!!! :-)

    You got some really gorgeous fabric. I especially love that textured one.

    Oh I need my hand to get better! I want to knit new socks!!!!!!!!!!!!! :whine:

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  2. Looks like you had an amazing trip Gail. I live the gem print Liberty fabric, I have my eye on that!

    I vote floral blazer for that lovely sateen.

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  3. It was so fun meeting you! I'm so glad you came to town! :)

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  4. You are amazing - all of your new sewing projects are simply gorgeous! And I love all of your new fabrics! The floral sateen is so beautiful - I vote for a floral blazer too.

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  5. What an amazing fun trip!!! Thanks for sharing :) Loving that textured liberty fabric, and all the florals! YAY!

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  6. so jealous! we're only 3 hrs from NYC and yet i've never been... hope to change that sometime! the fabrics you came away with are gorgeous, and i'm glad you had a great time with such great people!

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  7. Sounds like an awesome trip. I love the Liberty fabrics you picked up, and the socks too!!

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  8. What a lovely trip! I've only been to NY for work, but I loved it while I was there!

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  9. I was so overwhelmed on my first visit to Mood that I got a real bad migraine. Next time I went to New York I visited every fabric shop but Mood...

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    1. I'm not surprised by that! It's a lot to take in!

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  10. Gosh, so jealous of so many parts of this trip. That fabric Shar bought you is just amazing. So beautiful. Great liberty purchases - especially the textured cotton on. Would love that!

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  11. Looks like a blast, Gail! You have some great acquisitions there and I can't wait to see what they turn out to be. I want to go to NYC now ;)

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  12. Glad you had such fun! That gem liberty is so very lovely....

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    1. Isn't it great? I love it so much I now have it 2 colorways - Andrea gave me a piece of it last month too!

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  13. What a lovely trip! I'm so glad you brought back such wonderful souvenirs, too. ;)
    -- stashdragon

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  14. 2014 is your year of the blogger meet-ups! Better set something up for the fall too :) Thanks so much for sharing all those photos, especially the ones of you and Shar in your Robson coats. I don't get the textured cotton: it is a weaving design in the fabric to add texture? In any case, it sounds cool. Also, just saw that The Workroom got in some quilted Liberty and thought you'd like that for a bomber jacket.

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    1. It really is! I wonder how many more I can squeeze into this year?!

      The texture is in the weave - all those white lines you see on the back are raised. It really doesn't show up on the front even in real life, but I thought it was interesting. And the print is so pretty :-)

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  15. We MUST do it again ... and again ... and again!!! : )

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  16. I love how your socks are like flipped images of one another. You and the Robson is too cute and loved you in the Scout tee with the tied pearls. How fun to explore the Fabric District; it sounds fascinating there. Why can't there be a Yarn District?

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  17. I so glad that I got to finally meet you in person!! Next time I'll make sure it isn't a Sunday so that I can check out all the great fabric stores you visited. You picked gorgeous prints and it sounds like your whole trip was so much fun!

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    1. I mean 'I'm so glad' - oops!

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    2. I so glad too, LOL! Pretty sure there WILL be a next time!

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  18. Looks like you had a great time and the fabrics you bought are so pretty! I'm just a liiitle bit jealous ;)

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  19. Wow, what a week! It looks like you had a wonderful time, but I don't doubt that it feels good to be home again!

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  20. Look at you two gals with your beautiful bindings! I'm glad you had such a wonderful, sewist-filled trip.

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