Playing Catch Up

Do you ever get to that point where you have so much to talkand write about and then, BAM… don’t know where to start?  Well, that’s where I am right now, and hence,I am at a loss for words, or maybe it’s the fact that I am out ofpractice.  Well shame on me.  I have missed you all sooo much, and I needto rectify that, so here we go.

I thought maybe I should start off slow, and thank you allfor your well wishes.  Mom is hanging inthere, and while we still have major adjustments going on, we are all trying tomanage, to keep it moving.

I did manage to get a weekend away and go to PR Weekend in NewYork.  I had a lovely time catching upwith old friend, and had a chance to finally meet a few new friends, inparticular my roommate, Rachelle of Smoking Needles and I'm Black Martha. 

I'm going to keep my summary of the weekend short, or try too,because I’m sure you are all tired of the reviews so here goes.

Friday started out with my drive to New York with Rachelle and our first stopwas the Simplicity Site tour.  This was atreat for me because I got a chance to see Simplicity 1803 all made up.  I wasn’t sure if I would be making it anytimesoon, but after seeing it on the mannequin, this is definitely one on my listfor this summer.  My favorite part of thetour was seeing all the lovely ladies working away in the sewing area testingand working up patterns.  It must beamazing having a job like that.  As athank you for stopping by Simplicity gave us a free pattern. 

Next up was shopping and I know we had a list of shops to goto, but my favorite overall is Metro Textiles. It was great catching up with Kashi and Patricio.  Let’s just say, I was a happy camper when Ileft there.  Here are my goodies.  I wanted to buy a few pieces of silk one ofwhich has some stretch in it, and I’ve never worked or seen a stretch silkbefore, so that should be interesting.  Ileft a few things behind (double knit, sweater knit and coating fabric) and amweighing my options as to if I want to make a phone call and have themshipped.  (like I need more fabric).  Next up was lunch at Stitch which was verytasty.  From there I stopped at SpandexHouse and purchased one piece of Fabric. I was trying to be good, even though I heard some verbiage from my palsLisette and Robin.  They are bad enablers.  Thank goodness Karen wasn’t there, or else Ireally would have been in trouble.  She’sthe worse of them all when it comes to enabling.  Like that person sitting on your shoulder saying“you know you want it.”  Anyway, I had tostop at Jonathan to get buttonholes in my jacket that I wore on Saturday duringlectures.  If you haven’t been there, sew something up and go visit.  It onlytakes a few minutes, and it’s well worth the wait.  pictures of the buttonholes will be in my next post/review.  I think I was there for 15 to 20 minutes atthe most and that was with three people ahead of me.  They are amazing there, and if you ever wantprofessional looking buttonholes, that is the place to go to.  I really want a buttonholer now after seeingthe one there in action.  I also feltreally good because the guy ahead of me was getting buttons put on a suit andhe said “why would you buy a suit without any buttonholes.”  When I told him I made the jacket, he gave mea weird look like he couldn’t imagine such a thing.  All I kept thinking was, you work for afashion house.  Not all of us can affordthose prices.  Oh well.  I want the quality, but not the expense
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Friday night I went to the Schiaparelli and Prada Exhibit atthe Met.  It was very interesting andenlightening.  A word of advice, don’tlean in to check out the detail, you might set the alarm off.  =)  Ithink I was more freaked out and security. She just smiled, waved her finger at me, and winked.  Dinner was next with gelato for dessert and adrooling session at the Carolina Herrara Store. The girls had to drag me away, but here are some goodies to wet yourappetite.

Saturday was lecture day with Kenneth King and DianaRupp.  I can never get tired of Kenneth and want to be adopted by him.

  Are thesejeans and jacket not to die for?  I fellon the floor when I found out his jacket which is Fortuny sells for $300 ayard.


Diana was inspirational and I justpurchased her new embroidery book.  I've had her Sew Everything Workshop book since it came out, and it was so nice to finally get it autographed.  Justso you all know, she has a line of patterns that just came out through McCalls,M6560 and M6354.  The embroidery on theblue tunic in 6354 is not originally on the fabric.  Diana embroidered that herself and in herbook, Embroider Everything Workshop, she teaches you how to do that.  If you don’t have either of her books, theyare very well written and her book, Sew Everything Workshop, is a greatrefresher if you haven’t sewn anything in a while, or if you are just startingto learn how to sew, it will get you started.

Saturday night was the climax for PR Weekend with dinner sewing talk and prizes.

On Sunday Rachelle and I met up with Sheila, Alethia andRosie in Brooklyn to check out Sheila’sfavorite shopping spots.  An awesome timewas had by all. For some reason I don't have a picture of all of us.  Oh well, next time.


Overall I had a great time and it was so good seeing my Kyle, Connie, Jacqui, Bonnie, Sherrill, Deepika (thank you!!!), Jeanette(she's above), Sheila, Alethia, Rosie, Elizabeth, Robin, Clio, and Claudine.  If I missed anyone, please forgive me.