Southern Sewing Sistahs!

Whew!  The kids are asleep and I'm finally at a point to sit down and post about some fun things that have been happening over the past few weeks.  I'll start out by introducing you to a few of my favorite girlfriends (aka the Southern Sewing Sisters).

(L-R:  Janice, Moi, Brenda, Mary Lynn, Sherry, and Nancy)

Four of us angels live here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, one sweetie is from Mississippi, and one darlin' is from Louisiana.  We met a few years ago at our favorite sewing retreat and have become good friends.  I wish we could see each other more often.  We get together about twice a year, but already have plans for October and are working on next spring!

The Martha Pullen Sewing Market was in Arlington a few weeks back so we planned some fun around that.  We hit lots of quilt shops and fabric stores in Fort Worth on Tuesday, then more on Wednesday in Dallas.  Thursday and Friday were market days, and we had some fun sewing on Saturday and Sunday.  Thanks Brenda for opening up your home and office to us so we could stay and play!  She has a huge office with a nice, big conference table that worked great for all our machines and another room with large tables that doubled as pattern and cutting tables.  Big hugs to her hubs, Bill for fixing great breakfasts and dinners while we were there.  He even whipped homemade biscuits and in the shape of Texas!  He's a keeper!

I found a few cool things that week that I HAD to have...

 

Fabric, (well duuuuhhhh!), the new Sewing with Whimsy book by Kari Mecca (and some cool toys to go with it), sewing gadgets that I obviously need (how did I ever get along without them?), a free copy of the Sew Beautiful magazine (yay Free!), and the lint roller (he swore I would never need to buy another one... he looked honest to me!). 

And look what Janice brought us sisters!  Love her!

 

Sewing market is always fun.  Free classes, demos, lots of goodies to buy!  And, we got to see a few of our other sewing buddies!   Molly and Bettie came for the day - they always make me wish I had a sister!  And, Lorene of SewItUp.com was there in her booth showing off her latest kits and creations.

And, I finally had the pleasure of meeting Kay Whitt of Sew Serendipity.  What a sweetheart!  Kay lives in a neighboring city and I found out she grew up not too far from where I lived.  Small world!  She was obliging and posed for a picture.  However, I had to go back later and ask for another picture. I felt like a goober.  I guess I didn't see the lady who was standing behind Kay and holding up something she was looking at in the booth, thus exposing her arm in a not-so appealing way.  So, we took another.  Thanks Kay!

 

I bought her book and have already picked out fabric and muslin (all washed and ready to go).  I'm looking forward to sewing a skirt for myself.  Kay is working on her second book and I know it will be amazing, too!

Lastly, while at market, I took a sit-and-sew class from Missy Billingsly who works with Martha Pullen.  She is a doll and a wonderful teacher.  These 2-hour classes are great!  They provide Babylock machines and sergers and everything you need to make your project.  

 

Last year I made the heirloom baby bonnet by serger and this year I made a zippered purse on the serger.  I don't do much on my serger other than three or four thread overlock or rolled hem, so this encouraged me to branch out a little!  We even put in a zipper using the serger.  See how cute it is!

Too bad my five year old has already claimed it.  Looks like Barbie's got a brand new bag!

Okay, so that is just part of the fun.  I'll have to fill you in on the rest of it in a day or two.  Thanks for stopping by and see you soon.  Stay cool!

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