Edinburgh Blogger Meetup

This last weekend I had the chance to meet up with some fabulous sewing bloggers to check out the Pringle exhibit at the National Museum of Scotland.  Pringle of Scotland is a knitwear company that was started in 1815 in the Scottish Borders and they are celebrating 200 years of history!

But first, the lovely ladies:

 (L-R) Kerry, Helen, Elaine, Clare, Me, Joyce, Liz, Jen, Franca with Ellis (Photo from Franca)

It was so great to see some familiar faces and to meet new bloggers!

The exhibit was really small but packed with history.  It followed Pringle's history from the 1800s through to present day.  I found the period from the 1930s to the 1970s the most interesting.

They started primarily with knitted underwear:

In the 1920s they started producing women's golfing sweaters – which were a big hit.  This led to the 1930s and 1940s with the beautiful sweaters:

I got really excited to see the CC41 label on these long johns.  I've never seen the label close-up on a piece of clothing....

They did a great job of going through the company history and how they led some of the fashion trends of the time:

The few examples of knitwear they had were really beautiful.  I especially like this pink rhinestone encrusted sweater from the 1950s:

The detail of many of the sweaters were amazing.  These beauties are from the 1960s:

For many of the sweaters they had the original advertising alongside the display.  I just loved this paisley 1970s knit dress:

After the exhibit, we had a small bite to eat and then hit up Edinburgh Fabrics (my favourite!)  I was very good and didn't buy any new fabric (my stash is getting out of control).  But it was so nice to have an outing with my sewist friends!  Thanks Ladies!!

Glasgow Meet-Up

Wow! Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes on my last post!!  

I wanted to share some photos from the super fabulous blogger meet-up last weekend in Glasgow.  A big thank you to Kerry from Kestral Makes for organising!  We met up in a local cafe and then went en masse to Mandors Fabrics and ended the day with a lovely lunch at a local tea parlour.  So much fun!!

Here are some pictures taken by Franca from Orange and Apples:

From L to R: Helen of Grosgrain Green, me, Nessa of Nessa’s Place , Elaine of What Diana Did Next, Alison of Heavenly Handmades, Katy of I, of the needle, Elise of Foof & Faff
Katy of The Littlest Thistle, Kerry of Kestrel Makes, and Franca who is not pictured from Oranges and Apples

I got the most AMAZING Liberty fabric from Mandors:

From afar it looks like a basic design...but close-up you see:

 Photo source

...a fabulous 1920s design. It's called 'The Atrium' by Liberty. I think I am in love....I got enough for a blouse, but may need to go back and get more!!

It was a fantastic way to spend a Saturday! Thank you to everyone--I can't wait for future meet-ups!!

Blogger Meet-Up

I had a fabulous day on Sunday.  I got to meet to Jennifer Lauren, who you may already know from her wonderful sewing blog.  We went to Edinburgh Fabrics where we each picked up some goodies, then we hit up the W. Armstrong and Son vintage store and ended with a fresh scones and tea at Anteaques, a lovely tea shop and antique store all rolled into one!  It's the Edinburgh version of Mood Fabrics and Pret A Manger.

I felt like we could have talked forever--she's so lovely.  Enjoy the rest of your trip, Jennifer!

My New Sewing Room and Fabulous Blogger Meet-Up

Wow!  Moving is such an ordeal.... I had grand plans for how much I would get accomplished in the lead-up to and after our move. HA!  Never underestimate a) how long it actually takes to pack all of your worldly possessions into boxes, b) how tiring it is to pack up, clean and unpack, and 3) how chaotic it all is--any inkling of a normal life flies out the window for weeks on end.  Well, I am happy to report that we made it to the other side and we LOVE our new place.  The photo above is of my new sewing room.  I love, love, love it!  It gets so much light--look at that beautiful large window!!  What you can't see in the picture is that the rest of the room (except for my sewing machine area) is still covered in boxes.

Boxes of patterns (oh, how distracted I got packing all of these up....yeah, that took much longer than it should have...hahahha):

And of course, boxes...of FABRIC!  My goodness.  My little fabric stash is not so little anymore!  But I'm so happy to finally be settled and to start decorating my sewing room and getting/building/repurposing furniture to fit the new space which resembles an attic in that it has sloped and low ceilings.

I'm still catching up on a few things from May--one super exciting event happened right before we moved.  I got the chance to meet Tasha from By Gum, By Golly!  I was super excited as I absolutely love Tasha's blog and following her adventures in vintage sewing and decorating.

She was in Edinburgh for a very short time and I was luckily able to meet up with her!  We visited my favourite vintage store (W. Armstrong & Sons), k1 Yarns Knitting Boutique and of course, Edinburgh Fabrics!  We sneaked into this fabulous space (which is the University of Edinburgh Law School--just down the street from Edinburgh Fabrics) to snap some photos!  What a fabulous time.  Tasha is as lovely and amazing in real life as she is on her blog and I look forward to hopefully visiting her in Chicago at some point in the future!!

Hopefully normal blogging can resume now that we are starting to settle into the new space.  I will definitely share posts documenting the transformation of the new sewing space over this summer...I have lots of fun decorating plans!!

Guthrie and Ghani Grand Opening OR A Sewing Celebration

Oh My!! What a day I had on Saturday.  I met Lauren, Stuart, Sandra, Ann and Tilly.  WAIT! I met LAUREN, STUART, SANDRA, ANN, and TILLY...  ALL IN ONE DAY!  How freakin' awesome is that?

David and I went down to Birmingham to help Lauren celebrate the grand opening of Guthrie and Ghani, her new haberdashery shop.  It was so inspiring to see Lauren in her element:

The shop is a piece of art.  Lauren and her husband, Ayaz have been renovating the incredibly beautiful building for a year!  It's really amazing to read about the renovations (check out all 27 pages here....you'll be hooked) and even better to see the shop filled with people who LOVE sewing!  I can't even begin to describe how wonderful it was!

Lauren has done an amazing job decorating and the shop is filled with lots of goodies:

And now onto the sewing CELEBRATION bit....oh yes, I was on cloud nine meeting all the Great British Sewing Bee contestants...I mean, they let me into their sewing worlds for four episodes and I feel like I could talk pattern grading, seam allowances and edge stitching with them for hours!  I'm really going to miss watching them all sew!

They are all so lovely and generous as well.  Can you tell I am happy as a clam in all these photos?

Tilly and I had a great time catching up:

I just adore this photo of Ann and Tilly:

I couldn't help snapping a photo of Tilly and Lauren's button back blouses (Mathilde and Sorbetto respectively):

Can I just say Stuart is amazing?  He is so much fun to be around...and look, the lantern fabric!!

The place was decked out!  One of Lauren's friends made this adorable sewing cake:

We ventured upstairs and found a sewing haven.  A classroom just waiting to be used!  Lauren will be offering classes in her new space (with Tilly and Stuart also teaching classes):

I had such a fabulous time and picked up quite a few sewing goodies (like the fabric below):

THANK YOU Tilly, Lauren, Stuart, Ann and Sandra for inspiring us!  As Ann wrote in my book: Happy Sewing.  Happy sewing indeed!

Glasgow Meet-Up

I had a FABULOUS day yesterday!  I met up with Kerry who blogs over at Kestrel Finds and Makes and the lovely Kathryn who blogs at Yes I Like That.  We met up in Glasgow for a bit of fabric shopping and lots of chatting!  I look forward to many more meet-ups like this--I had so much fun!!

We stopped in Mandors Glasgow and stumbled upon something rather unusual:

Ritual jersey?  Can something please explain this to me?  I'm hoping it doesn't involve sewists chanting....

The Glasgow Queen Street train station is right next to the Christmas Market!!  One of my favourite things to do during the festive season!  Check out this bedazzled storefront complete with giant peacock on the top:

Can I just say that Scots are crazy?  Only here would they bring out all the carnival rides...in DECEMBER.  It's freezing and raining nearly every day and there's a queue to ride the swings (below) and the ferris wheel!  In fact, it was only last year that David and I got stuck on the ferris wheel!  We had been having 100 mph winds that year in December...they seemed to die down and so we ventured out to the Christmas market.  I'm not a big rides person but the ferris wheel seemed tame enough.  OH MY GOODNESS...I've never been so happy to get off a ride in my life.  We were at the top and all of a sudden all the electricity goes out and we are not so gently swaying in the wind.  Eeep.  Poor David, I think I might have clawed his arm off.  They left us up there for what seems like eternity.  Finally, they started hand cranking us down.  Slowly, slowly...we reach the bottom.   But it was too good to be true. They had to balance the ferris wheel and so they were letting every other car out. And of course, we were in a car that got to be hand cranked around again!  Aaahhhh!  Let's just say that kissing the ground is not something I would normally associate with getting off a ferris wheel!

David thinks we should get back on the horse and go on the ferris wheel again this year.... I think I'd rather stick with the ice skating!  I'm slightly scared to ask if any of you have had any freaky carnival ride experiences....

A trip underground with a Sewasaurus Rex

Hey look....it's Cindy from Cation Designs and me at my favourite fabric store!! When Cindy contacted me and said she would be coming to Edinburgh, I was so excited.  You see I'm obsessed with inspired by all of Cindy's creations.  There's the superman dress, the cat's pyjamas, the Sewasaurus Rex t-shirt, the Retro Star Wars dress, the My Girl on Fire Dress from the Hunger Games...and the list goes on and on.

Let me tell you, we had a blast!  Cindy is just the nicest person--with a fantastic sense of humour.  We met up for lunch (the four of us!!) at one of my favourite restaurants, then we went and scoured all the fabric lovelies at Edinburgh Fabrics.  Then we headed underground to see Mary King's Close.  'Closes' (or alleys/streets coming off the Royal Mile) were often named after the most prominent citizen living on the close.  Mary King was a prominent businesswoman in the 1600’s.  Apparently, she traded in fabrics and sewed for a living!  How neat is that?  I believe it's the only close named after a woman as it was highly unusual at that time, indicating Mary’s high standing in the town (and her sewing entrepreneurship!).

Model of the underground close

So how did it come to be underground?  Like most underground portion of cities, they thought it would serve as a good foundation. It was buried under another building--the Royal Exchange!

It was neat to see the underground neighbourhood.  One room even had the original 16th century plaster still on the walls! We walked around led by costumed guides, heard a ghost story from the time period, witnessed victims of the plague, and even got our picture taken by an infrared camera.  When we got the picture, we noticed an ominous figure in the background:

EEP!  Doesn't that look like a ghost???  I'm pretty sure it was another costumed guide....but....what if it wasn't??  Maybe it was the real Mary King try to reach out to her fellow seamstresses!

What do you think?  Do you have any ghost stories??  I want to hear them!!

Some Very Worrying News...

23 March 2012 UPDATE:  Thank all of you for your prayers and thoughts for Kal who went missing two weeks ago.  I've just received good news today! She was found safe and well in Cornwall.  I don't know the details yet but I'm SO RELIEVED!
_______________________________________________________________________________

I've just heard that Kal, the owner of the new Edinburgh Sewing Bee Cafe has gone missing.  She was last seen on the 7th of March and the Lothian and Borders Police are actively searching for her.

Photo credit: Edinburgh Evening News via Scotsman.com

Those that attended the Crafters' Ceilidh meet-up back in January will remember Kal as our lovely host for the pattern and fabric swap.  She spoke to us about her plans for the sewing cafe and for engaging the community and graciously offered us the use of her space before she was open (and even brewed us all cups of tea).  

I am really devastated to learn of her disappearance.  Can you please say a prayer/offer up your thoughts she will be found soon alive and well?  If anyone that has good pictures of Kal from the meet-up can you send them to me?  They might be useful to the police as the last picture of her is the one above taken in November. 

Creative Stitches Exhibition

I had the best time yesterday at the Creative Stitches exhibition in Glasgow.  I went with Kate who runs a lovely Etsy store called Wee Red Suitcase and Rachel who blogs over at The Crafty Traveller.  You can get a sense by looking at the photos above of the size of expo.  It was full of stands selling yarn, fabric, patterns, other craft supplies such as beads, ribbon, etc.

Here I am scoring an amazing deal on some fabric:

I got five metres of linen look fabric in an amazing teal colour--the last metre was free because I only wanted four metres and there was another one on the bolt! whoohooo (and it was already cheap to begin with!!)

There were several great exhibits within the expo center including some amazing quilts.  This one was my favourite:

I just love the story of The Owl and the Pussycat and it was great to see how someone made it into a quilt design!

Though hands down the best exhibit was the showcase of dresses from Downton Abbey.  I was very happy that we were allowed to take pictures and I took way too many!  Expect to see several posts with detailed and close-up shots from some of my favourite outfits from the first season including the Dowager Countess' purple and black suit, Lady Sybil's harem pants suit, Lady Mary's burgundy gown, Cora's cream suit with black braid trim, Lady Edith's white dress and Mrs. Isobel Crawley's black dress.

How to distinguish the sewists from the crowd...

...examining all the seam and contruction details!

A really wonderful day!  Here's a photo of Kate and I on the train ride back to Edinburgh:

Thanks ladies for the fabulous outing!  Stay tuned for some more posts of the Downton Abbey dresses!

Crafters' Ceilidh OR The Perfect Day

 Crafters' Ceilidh Group Photo, From L to R: Kerry, Karen, Winnie, Rachel L., Kari, Roo, Carolyn, Amanda, So-Ha, Kiran, Rachel, Debi B., Kristen, Franca, Alana, me, Hannah, Katie and Melizza.  Not pictured: Clare, Anneleen, Tom and Cat.

Wow, oh wow! Yesterday was the Crafters' Ceilidh--or the most perfect day ever!  Twenty-three of us met up in Edinburgh, Scotland for a jam-packed day of chatting and shopping.  It was so much fun!

The preparations began last month in earnest when Kristen, Kerry and I met-up and decided it would be great to hold a fabulous meet-up in Scotland!  Full credit for the idea goes to Dibs who's been wanting to come up to Scotland for some time (Dibs, we missed you so much!!!).  We had several planning meetings and after phone calls, emails and even crafting we sat anxiously waiting in Frederick's Coffee House for the first folks to arrive from all over the UK!

 Photos: 1. Kristen, Kerry and I chatting, photo by Roo; 2. Clare, Alana, Debi B. and Anneleen chatting away, 3. Karen and Winnie, photo by Karen.

We started out the day chatting and mingling as folks arrived and grabbing some food and caffeine for what would be a whirlwind trip around Edinburgh!

We walked through Prince's Street Gardens and took a group photo at one of the most picturesque vantage points in the city:

David was our lovely photographer and yes, we did bring a Scottish flag (teehee).

We walked first to the Grassmarket area and had fun at W. Armstrong and Sons vintage store, K1 Yarns Knitting Boutique and Fabhatrix.  We then ventured onto three fabrics stores: Edinburgh Fabrics, Mandors and the Cloth Shop.

Karen looking gleefully at some fabric with Winnie and Amanda contemplating fabric choices.

Rachel and I in the Cloth Shop

1. Rachel explaining what could be made with the fabulous 80's patterns, 2. some of the many goodies up for grabs, 3. Rachel L. showing a really beautiful gown pattern--can you believe no one wanted to take it home...that is except for me..*rubbing hands together*

We then headed to the soon-to-be-opened Sewing Bee Cafe--Edinburgh's first sewing space!  The lovely Kal gave us an introduction to the Cafe and generously hosted us in her space for our pattern/fabric/yarn swap.  We had so much fun and hilarity ensued with a contest for the funniest cover art of patterns in the giveaway.

We then headed to the Voodoo Rooms for a wonderful group dinner where we were joined by Tom and Cat.

It was such a fabulous day! Thank you to everyone for coming and for those that weren't able to come at the last minute due to illness or injury (Kate, Donna, Jane and Dibs), we're hoping to have many more meet-ups!

And did I hear a rumour at my dinner table that there is a desire for our next meet-up to be in Bath???....hmmm...what are the chances?