Sunday, September 23, 2012

I met Eileen!

I had my third blogger meet-up yesterday!  I got to meet the lovely Eileen of Eileen's Basement.  She was in town for a work seminar, but forced herself to stay an extra day to do a little fabric shopping, tee hee hee!

I've been reading Eileen's blog for quite a while, and she and I have corresponded a bit as well over the last several months, so she wasn't completely unknown to me before yesterday.  So it was great to finally meet her in the flesh.  She is a truly lovely and very interesting person, and I had a great time spending the day with her.  The fact that we were indulging our inner fabric geeks was icing on the cake!

She came over to my house early and we headed off to Starbuck's first, to fortify ourselves with coffee.  (Also, the fabric store wasn't open yet!)  Our first stop was Fishman's Fabrics

Now, Fishman's is my LFS* - it's so near my house that I could walk there if I wished.  But I don't often shop there!  I went several times when I first moved here, and while they had some lovely fabrics, it wasn't very well organized and the prices were somewhat higher than I'd hoped for.  About a year later, they started a massive re-organization and things were even harder to find.  So Vogue became my default fabric shop, and I really only ever went into Fishman's for buttons to put on sweaters.

Oh. My. Word.  I did not know what I was missing!  The shop is so well-organized and well-lit now, and they have a vast array of gorgeous fabrics - the sort I've been reading about but have never actually put my hands on.  Yes, the prices are higher than Vogue, often by quite a bit.  But these fabrics are something special, truly quality materials.  I had expected to pop in and maybe spend a half hour before moving on, but we spent at least an hour and a half drooling and exclaiming and pawing at fabric.  I also remembered to ask one of the employees to take our picture:

Notice how we can't take our hands off the fabric.

Of course, for the rest of the day I got so involved in chatting away with Eileen that I forgot to take any more pictures!

After we left Fishman's, we took the scenic route north to Evanston along Lake Shore Drive.  Our first order of business was lunch, although we got slightly distracted by a thrift shop along the way!  And as we were heading to the "big Vogue" after lunch, we found another antique shop, this one with loads of antique buttons.  Eileen knows a lot more about antiques than I do, so it was fun to see what she was drawn to.

Of course, we spent a couple more hours in Vogue, and Eileen was able to find a lot of the fabrics on her list, as well as a few extras.  It will be great to watch her sew these up over the next several months; Eileen is a more advanced seamstress than I am, and I learned a lot just by talking with her and watching her shop for fabric and notions.  She's got several vintage patterns she's planning on working up, so if you're into vintage sewing, do check out her blog.

My one purchase for the day was a pair of applique scissors.  I had just read about them in Gertie's new book, so when I saw them at Vogue for ten dollars, I snapped them up!


However, I also got a present.  Look at this gorgeous hank of sock yarn Eileen brought me from the wool festival she'd been to the weekend before:


I think this is going to have to become come cable-y socks.

So, all in all a lovely day spent with a new friend.  Isn't the internet grand?


*Local Fabric Shop

21 comments:

  1. Lucky!! Looks like you had so much fun.. and a gift of yarn is awesome!

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  2. Definitely needs to be cabled socks. The color is just gorgeous, definitely one of my top colors. I love that photo of you two stroking the fabric, it sounds like that place was a wonderland of sorts! Glad you had so much fun!

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    1. And it's a big hank, so I think they can be cabled knee socks!

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  3. Sounds like so much fun. And how great that you got to re-discover your local fabric store? I bet having this one even closer than Vogue will be a big temptation, no? Thanks for putting Eileen’s blog on my radar.

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  4. That "anonymous" comment was me! Sorry, I hit "enter" way too fast!

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  5. Swoon! That fabric store looks amazing! Sounds like you guys had a great time :-)

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  6. Eek! What a fun day! And how amazing to rediscover a fabric store so close to your house!

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    1. You have to call me next time you come over here! It's so fun to meet up with other bloggers!

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  7. Oh you lucky woman! That is a lovely shade of green and to have all those fabric shops withing reach...? :)

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  8. What a lovely day you both had! The internet is wonderful but making the effort to meet our cyber-friends in the flesh is awesome! I can't wait to do that with you one day. It's really great that you got to rediscover your LFS -- it's nice to know that a quick stroll will have you enjoying all those fabulous fabrics!

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    1. I am definitely looking forward to meeting you too!

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  9. The internet is grand! I was so glad to meet you and again, am so thankful to you for taking me to your favorite fabric shops. Thanks for such a sweet post :) Can't wait to see what you do with that yarn!

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    1. I've got to find just the right pattern . . . Meanwhile, I'll be watching to see what you do with all that fabric!

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  10. The Internet is grand! : ) - can't wait to see what your green yarn becomes!!

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  11. Is Fishmans still a good place to go? I live out west in Geneva, is it worth a trip, or would a trip to a vogue be better? Thanks for any input. We have nothing great out here.

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    1. Hi Georgine: I do really like Fishman's, and I go there if I want "nice" fabric and am willing to spend $$. They've done a lot or re-organizing over the last couple years, so the remnants and sale bolts they used to have are greatly diminished. And it seems that every time I go in, they've changed things around! But I find the staff to be very helpful and pretty knowledgeable. The Vogue that was near Fishman's has closed now - there's just the Evanston location now, so I hardly go there any more.

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