Gifts From A Friend Who Sew

There was a time when it was hard to find women who didn't sew. Now it is the other way around. It's really nice to find people who love to make things. Nowadays, it feels like you've found a long lost friend. The lady above is that kind of friend to me.


Last Tuesday, I stopped by my place of worship to see if there were any orders for recorded services to fill. While I was there, I called Pauline. During the course of our conversation I told her I was at church. So she said, "I have something for you. I'm going to bring it now." To my surprise, she brought me eight very generous cuts of fabric (rayon/wool blend). What a great gift. I was over enjoyed to say the least.







Word on Ms. Pauline - She's not a blogger and doesn't plan to start any time soon. On occasion, she has asked me, "Where do you find the time?" Chuckle, Chuckle. Pauline is a designer/sewist who has enough clients to run her own business full time. That's not to say she accepts every requested commission. No, no. She is selective. The client, the job and price have to be just right.

It's great to have more fabric to choose from for my fall wardrobe. I do see at least a couple pair of pants for me and DD. Maybe a jacket or two.

Happy Sewing!
C

In the Company of Women Pt II - The Sewists

This weekend I had the pleasure of meeting Barbara, Patty, Patti, Mardel, and Diane. Most of these women are members of PR and blog as well. Marji and Carolyn were coming too but could not attend due to jury and illness in the family.



Barbara Bell at Counter in Vogue


Patti Ferguson organized this Chicago meet, greet, and shop. This kind lady is great source of encouragement and is to be commended for bringing us all together. Last fall she emailed me to introduce herself. Both she and I know one of the Assistant Vice Chancellor's for Research at the University. Patti suggested that I join the Stitcher's Guild and expressed her likes of my sewing projects.

I met the group at the Vogue store in Evanston. Afterwards we had lunch. Then everyone headed to Fishman's. This is the premier fabric store in Chicago. Whatever you are looking for, you are sure to find it at Fishman's. Mardel bought some of the most beautiful fabrics from there. I looked and watched. I've shopped there many times, but was not in the market to purchase high end fabrics this trip. lol May be later.


Notions Section (Vogue)



Zipper Corner (Vogue)



Mardel Searching for Treasures (Fishman's)


After shopping at Fishman's, we said our good-bye's. I headed for home and the ladies headed back to Skokie.

This was a wonderful meet, greet, and shop. I really enjoyed to the company of these creative women. And everyone came away with beautiful fabric either from Vogue or Fishman's. My only "two" disappointments were Marji and Carolyn couldn't make it, and I couldn't spend more time. It was great to share sewing stories and life experiences. Thanks to Deepika, PR, women all around the globe have united to form a dynamic group of creative people who may influence the market for all things sewing.

Patty and Diane at Fishman's

In the Company of Women

We had a wonderful time at the Abbey. Everyone should treat themselves to a spa visit at least once. The Fontana Spa is the bomb! Love it! Love it! The Fontana Spa offers great specials throughout the year. Our package included 2-day hotel accommodations, $110.00 Food credit, $110 Spa service credit all for $395.00 per person.

My sister, Mona, planned this spa vacation for the group. The Abbey is one of her favorite places to visit. She treats herself at least four times a year. Six of us traveled in three cars to Lake Geneva (2 hour drive from Chicago). Tricey and I arrived first with the rest of the group arriving shortly afterwards.

Here's the set up:

We checked in, unpacked, and set up our own personal bar.




Tricey Helping Mona with her luggage.



Mona gifted everyone. (Martini glass, candle, body spray, and a copy of the Phenomenal Woman poem by Dr. Maya Angelou.)



Our spa services started at 2:00pm on Thursday and continued through Friday evening. We talked about about everything from presidential candidates to family matters. No male bashing.


Dinner the Thursday evening. Left to right: me, Anita, Mona, Tanya, Christie, and Tricey



I know many people aren't "big" on salad, but this salad was delicious. Mixed lettuce and greens, strawberry, mandarin orange, roasted pecans, blue cheese and raspberry vinaigrette dressing. Mmmm Mmmm good. I'm going to make this at home.


The bar which was located in the center room. We had adjoining rooms for easy access.


The bartender taking a break.


Christie- Better known as Bernie Mack's lil' sister. This woman had us in stitches the entire time.


Ms. Tanya, too tickle to pose for the photo.


The Abbey is really a beautiful place to visit. Friday we had planned to go for a long walk by the lake. Friday morning we woke up to this.


It snowed all day. So we spent all of our time in the spa: by the pool, in the sauna, having spa treatments. After a silk wrap and a custom message who can think about taking pictures.

We all checked out early Saturday afternoon. Christie and Anita headed for home. They went to the Jill Scott concert Saturday night. The rest of us went to the Huntley Outlet Mall, which is on the way home to Chicago.

Well that's it! We had a great Spa weekend. If you can, visit the Abbey or a spa near you. You'll definitely enjoy it.

Now back to the sewing. I'm working on my many reviews. I've worn one of my dresses twice already.

The Business and Pleasure of Philly

I really don't want to talk too much about the business conducted in Philly, but because it was the reason I visited the City of Brotherly Love it would be wrong if I didn't at least mention it. Anywho, the main purpose of the trip was to attend an advisory meeting on Friday. And since there was no flight that would get us their before 8:30am, we had to fly in Thursday. Two of other vendor clients are located in Philadelphia, so we met with them on Thursday afternoon. I was able to steal away from the meeting a few minutes before 4:00pm, with the boss lady's permission, of course, to meet Karen. So I hopped in a taxi to meet her at the "Clothes Pen", 15th and Market. Funny name the 'Clothes Pen', right? I thought it was a store. It was actually a clothes pen statue in front of a building.

(BTW- I didn't get a chance to see much of Philly, but I did see the bell and the treasury building. We drove right by them on the way from the airport. I saw a couple of huge bridges, but these one or two day business trip do not allow for time to really enjoy.)

Hailed Karen from the taxi, she jumped in, and off to Fabric Row. Karen and I traveled to the 700 south on 4th Street where we shopped and talked about our favorite hobby, life, family,.., . We were able to stop and shop at four or five shops with less than an hour and half shop time. The merchants closed between 5:00 and 5:30pm weekdays.

This is a picture of the shops we stop in. Oops forgot the name of it. But there are rows and rows of button boxes.




Two of the shops that we visited reminded me of shops in my home town. Kincus Fabrics at 754 South 4th Street is similar to Vogue Fabric on Roosevelt Road, only smaller. Kincus Fabrics has a little bit of everything. Their fabric ranged from high end to very affordable. The sales people were friendly; Edgar (Ed) cut fabric for me and shared a story or two about sewing done by his wife. As Karen blogged a few days ago. Ed was sporting a very well made shirt stitched by his wife. She could go into the shirt making business. Of course I asked if she sewed for others. Ed's response, "Only for family and friends. People really don't appreciate the value of handcrafted garments." Here is a photo of me and Ed, supplied by Karen (I forgot to bring my camera again. I did take a few pictures with my camera phone, though.).






I only purchased two cuts of shirting fabric at $6.98/yard. Fishman's in Chicago has shirting of similar quality, but $3.00 more per yard. Here's Karen surveying the land of fabric.




Like Karen, I'm trying to sew more and buy less fabric. So I tried to shop with a purpose, and not buy so much because it's "pretty". This spring/summer I want to make a few button down shirts.





PA Fabric Outlet at 747 South 4th Street put me in the mind of Textile Discount Warehouse on 21st near Damen Avenue. They had some leather pieces that you can buy by the pound, invisible zippers for 50 cents, and other notions for a discounted price. I grabbed some rayon ribbon, snaps, and hooks and eyes. All of which were of very good quality.




My third cut of fabric was from Maxie's Daughter, Inc. 724 South 4th Street. This picture does not do it justice. May be once it's made into something it will look better.






After shopping, Karen and I got something to eat. Guess what?..., Philly cheese steaks. It was finger lickin' good. We had a good time. Short but sweet.

Friday was all about business. The project team attended an all day session at the University of Penn hosted by our vendor, InfoEd. Here's a photo from the 14th floor of Huntsman Hall on Walnut Street.






At 4:30pm we were off to the airport to take a flight back to Chi-town. Sometimes my job is exhausting, but I do enjoy the work that I do. I like helping people and am grateful to have a job (my bread and butter). The sewing is like strawberry jam, sweet.

Up next, projects finished over the weekend. Mojo is back!

Happy Sewing!

Back from Philly

Late last night, I returned home safe and sound from Philly. I'm glad to report that the trip was good both professionally and personally. Karen (Sewing by the Seat of my Pants) and I met up Thursday afternoon. We had a great visit. THANKS KAREN for your hospitality! You're awesome.

There are some great shops in Philly. I'll talk about them in my next post. Today I want to get a little sewing done.

Happy Sewing!