What a BLAST...Part-2

The big day had finally come...NYC FABRIC SHOPPING and meeting up with two of my favorite blogger friends, Carolyn & Sheila. Alethia and I woke up bright & early Friday just beside ourselves with glee. We were anticipating a grand day and let me tell you the day unfolded beautifully. On this day we started out with coffee from one of Alethia's favorite coffee shops then took an express bus into NYC. We stopped in at M&J Trims, this place was just brimming with some of the most beautiful trims & buttons of every kind imaginable. I was so overwhelmed I totally forgot to take pictures but here's a link M&J Trims I didn't buy a thing but believe me I will know where to go online for the perfect unique BLING for a garment. We stopped in at a couple books stores. One was the international bookstore that Carolyn has mentioned on her blog before. They have tons of fashion related books and magazines. I can't remember the name of it but if you are ever looking for it, it's right across the street from the famous "Bryant Park" (made famous on Project Runway), I'm sure someone could direct you there. We also went to a Japanese book store that carries some of the Japanese sewing books & magazines you may have seen on a few blogs, it's also not far from Bryant Park. We stopped in a couple fabric stores as we made our way to "Metro Textiles".

Finally we got there and immediately enjoyed touching and drooling over fabric as we made decisions about which fabric would leave the store with us. We kept Mr. Kashi quite busy and jubilant measuring up our selections. Then suddenly coming through the door was none other than Carolyn. What a pleasure it was to finally get to meet her in person. She couldn't help but notice the piles of fabric Alethia and I had amassed in the short period of time that we'd been there. Just moments later in came Sheila, the four of us just had a ball in that store. Here we are with Mr. Kashi I had my fabric shipped to my work address. I got it today at work and needless to say I couldn't keep my mind on work, I just wanted to go home. I endured the torture of having the fabric in my office and not able to play with it. At 5:30 I flew to my car and quickly but safely drove home. Ok, enough suspense here's what I got...

This gorgeous piece of fine silk crepe, This was the most expensive piece but I had to have it, Ok don't drool...HA! I hesitated on this one for a moment but was strongly encouraged by Carolyn. I would have been a fool to leave this behind, I'd been looking for the perfect orange fabric for a dress and this is defiantly it,To top it off I'll use this piece as a shawl with the the orange silk
This is a piece of silk also, yes, had to have it...
I'm not sure of the content of this fabric but it's enough for a couple pairs of pants and a skirt, The pen is there because my camera needed something to focus on...
Oh, yes and had to have this too, not sure of the content, I think it's a cotton/poly blend, this will be great as a jacket and I might be able to squeeze a skirt out of it too but I won't wear them together, that would be too much on me. This one will be a tunic or maybe a dress, it's a knit jersey,
I love this one...Ok I love them all but can't you see this as a jacket. It's a cotton sateen with a bit of stretch.Not sure of the content on this one but I love polka dots, this is a light weight kind of crepe or something (hard to describe) but this will make a cute top to wear with a white skirt or pants.Whew, that's the damage I did at Metro Textile Fabrics. I simply had a ball and now I've got to recover and get busy planning my projects.

After leaving Metro, Carolyn took us over to "Daytona Braids & Trimmings, she got us settled in and headed back to work. Then Alethia, Sheila & I stopped at another fabric store (couldn't resist) then we headed off to "Juniors" for lunch and spend the rest of our visit together chatting about sewing, fabric, projects & techniques we've tried. After lunch we parted ways and seemingly skipped off to our destinations. I must say from start to finish my trip to NYC was inspiring, exciting and just the spark I needed. We will have to do that again and next time I'll look up all the NJ/NY sewing friends out there that want to join us, the more the merrier.

I will be working on a muslin shell & sloper I think that will also help me with TNT's. Then I will be planning what to do with my new treasure trove of beautiful fabric. No breath holding please, but stay tuned, LOL.

Happy Sewing!!

What a BLAST!! Part-1

I'm flying high from my latest NJ/NYC excursion. I returned this past Saturday from visiting with my friend Altehia in NJ. I was her mystery guest...imagine that, LOL! All I can say is we had a blast. I drove up this time so I could haul back my treasure trove of findings. Believe it or not this was our first time meeting and it was like we've known each other for years. Be careful, if you invite me I just might take you up on it, (LOL) and I did just that. It all started with my visit to NYC back in April with my girlfriend from Ohio that visited me in DC. The purpose of that trip was to take her sightseeing in NY and except for our visit to Mood Fabrics I stuck to my promise to show her a good time sightseeing. But I was soooooo wanting to fabric shop, so I patiently waited until, I had a few email exchanges with Alethia and she invited me to come up and spend some time with her. Did I ever jump on that invitation...we worked out the timing and off I went. She invited me into her home & family with open arms and I count is a wonderful blessing to have been in her home and meet her wonderful family. I was treated like royalty, I can't begin to tell you what a pleasure it was.

Well, I got there Weds. night and she laid out all she had planned. At the dinner table we were talking a mile a minute, her husband and son were a bit bored with our conversation so they left us to our own devices (which was probably a mistake, HA!). So, Thurs. morning after breakfast we grabbed our wallets and cameras and off we went, first to the "Brooklyn Museum" for a wonderful display of couture gowns and clothing. Here are a few pictures, but for more click here. WOW! you talk about 'eye candy" we got an eyeful. After that we sped off the the Bronx to visit a couple "off the beaten path" fabric shops and...yes....of course we got fabric, HA! Here's what I got between the two shops we went to, on the bottom underneath the black & white fabric there is 20/yds of muslin...This is just a photo inside one of the fabric stores, "Fordham Jerom Fabrics...Even thought Alethia had prepared part of our dinner the night before her husband completed dinner and had it waiting for us when we got back...is that awesome or what! SO, we talked well into the night until we were just exhausted. Yes, I slept really fast in anticipation for the next day of NYC FABRIC SHOPPING and meeting Carolyn and Sheila at Metro Textiles!!!

Part-2 coming...

Happy Sewing!!

Trip to NYC

I made a quick trip to New York for a one night stay-over last week. I was taking a girlfriend to NY for a sightseeing tour. We had a really good time but you must know that my mind was on fabric stores. I didn't get to go to as many as I wanted to but I did get to stop at Mood Fabrics and got just one piece of fabric...can you believe that. I got this piece of fabric,
a silk chiffon, also I asked for a large bag just to have something with the Mood name on it and they gave me this canvas bag. Other than that we hit all the main sights, Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island and tour bus rides. We walked & walked & walked, my girlfriend wore me OUT! We had a couple silly girl moments
so it was all good. Most of my trips to NY has been to visit family (in-laws, etc) and had not gotten to do the city tour thing in quite a few years so it was fun. Now that I'm back I hope to get some sewing done this weekend, so....more to come.

Happy Sewing!!

My Hawaiian Vacation

I know it's been a while since I last posted. I was so consumed with getting ready for my vacation to Hawaii. It was a wonderful trip, the weather was perfect. In fact it didn't rain (except for a couple mini showers that dried up immediately) until I was on the plane waiting to come back home. I looked out and it started to pour down rain, I mean buckets of rain. We did something different each day and had a really full trip. Check out my Vacation Slide show here: I couldn't imagine not getting some Hawaiian fabric, that was high on my list so this is what I found:

Also I like to collect thimbles from places that I visit, here are the thimbles I found: