The Best Crabcakes, Evah!

I'm going to start this post off with an apology to my friends in Washington DC and Baltimore. I was down there this past weekend and I didn't have a chance to contact anyone. Renee? Allyn? Next time I'll call you before I come down and we'll all get together. Promise.

Okay, so on to business. Monday, I attended the retirement ceremony for one of my oldest friends. He's a captain in the US Navy, and he's the smartest guy I know, period. Norbes and I have known each other since we were teenagers. I went to all of his graduations (USNA, MIT for his masters and MIT for his PhD). He attended our wedding; DH was one of his groomsmen and I sang at his wedding. And Monday, he was relieved of duty in one of the nicest, most moving ceremonies I've ever been to. The Navy knows how to do it right. The ceremony was at the Naval Museum at the Shipyard in Washington. He got more awards than you can count. We were teasing him back at his house later. He has a wall full of awards that I was calling his "Mister Incredible Wall". Here he is with the admiral receiving his discharge papers.
Needless to say, the party was a lot of fun in the typical Naval style!

The weekend in Washington was beautiful, weather-wise. When we got in Saturday, DH and I headed to Bethesda for crabcakes. I'm not generally a big crab fan, since I'm from Boston, where lobster rolls are the order of the day. But I do love a good crab cake, and the Bethesda Crab House has the best crab cakes I've ever had. If you get down there, check them out. You can also go for the full smash-them-with-a-hammer crab boil. Call ahead and they'll have them waiting for you when you arrive. Oh, and their cole slaw is the best I've tasted in a very long time!

Needless to say, I didn't get any sewing done, but it was a very busy weekend. Yesterday, the continuation of the lovely summer weather we've been having here in Boston kept us grounded at BWI all day. Thank god for broadband modems. Plus, Leslie moved Gorgeous Fabrics to a new host, so you should see a marked improvement in performance. If you were trying to get on there yesterday and had troubles, it should be all fixed now. Thank you Leslie!!!

Back to work. I need some more shorts, so I'll probably get those sewn up tonight.
Happy sewing!

We Have Winners!

Yay! Three people guessed the reason behind the 21%. They are Diane D., Marcia H., and Linda T. Congratulations to all three! They each received $10 gift certificates. Enjoy them ladies!

Now, the reason for 21% is because the US was founded in 1776. Playing the numerology game, 1+7+7+6 adds up to 21, and there you have it!

Honorable mention does go to Karla K., who's guess was

My guess: the 21% discount reflects the age or waist circumference of the owner of Gorgeous Fabrics.

Did I win? Did I win? ;-) -Karla

Oh, that was a good one. If only - thanks Karla! The sale runs through Sunday, so have fun and have a very happy 4th!

One More Shameless Plug and then I'm Done for the Day

As long as I'm plugging away, I just saw an email that came across my desk last night. My friends at HotPatterns are running a 4th of July sale too! So you can buy your patterns from them, your interfacing from Pam, and your fabrics from me and you'll be ready to rock and roll!

Here's my all-time favorite, the Cosmopolitan Dress:


Which would look fabulous in our Flowers in Showers jersey


I'm just sayin...

Big Sale at Gorgeous Fabrics, and a Shameless Plug

Hello my dears! This weekend is July 4th, which is a big holiday here in the US. And to celebrate said big holiday, we're putting almost every fabric on sale at Gorgeous Fabrics for a whopping 21% off, including all the new fabrics that I've been putting up, like this fabulous extra-wide cotton jersey!
Normally this baby is $14/yard, but through Sunday, it's on sale for $11.06/yard!

Click Here to Shop the Sale

Why 21%, you say? Well, that's the question of the day! And in fact, the first three people who send me an email with the correct reason that we chose 21% will get a $10 gift certificate to Gorgeous Fabrics! Here's a hint - it's not because it's one more than 20%, though that's a good reason too. Send your emails to Ann "at" gorgeousfabrics "dot" com. I'll post the winners here as soon as I have them. Good luck!

Another Shameless Plug
I'm not the only one running a great sale right now. My friend Pam at Fashion Sewing Supply has put all of her interfacings on sale. I use her interfacings exclusively, and in fact I just put an order in for 10 yards each of black and white Pro-Weft, so I can heartily and knowledgeably endorse her products. NAYY aside from being a very happy customer and a friend.

So what are you waiting for? Get shopping and have fun!

The caveats: Sale pricing is effective through Sunday, July 5, 2009. Sale prices do not apply to muslin, swatches, gift certificates or EMc2 for Sewing Hope fabrics. Sale prices may not be applied to prior sales. Sale prices can not be combined with other discounts.

Whoof!

That's not a dog barking, that's exhaustion rearing its head. I took a bunch of students and colleagues to New York yesterday for a "field trip". It was a great time! We had a couple of adventures, but more than that, I think everyone had fun. And we were able to meet up with Carolyn and Lindsay T at the end of the day for dinner. As an aside, Jack's Restaurant on 40th looks like a pub grub place, but in fact, has great tapas!

We started at Mood and did the rounds. I'll let them tell you which stores were their favorites. Here's the group at Paron's at the end of the day:

Photo courtesy of LindsayT

Not the best picture, but it was the end of a long day of fabric shopping, and the heavens had just opened and it was pouring out. Today I'm tired!

The other thing that happened yesterday is that my latest library acquisition arrived! Can I tell you how psyched I am to have this book? I'll be reading it every free moment I have. Stay tuned for a review soon!
I'm way behind on work, so I'm off to catch up.

Happy (couture!) sewing!!!!!

Work in Progress and Monday Miscellany

I got a bunch done on the dress today but I forgot to bring my camera so, alas, no pictures. I do want to say, I'm impressed with this pattern. It's a Palmer Pletsch pattern that has all the fitting information you could need to make it work for you. They use their fitting guidelines from Fit for Real People. I don't have that book, but everyone who does seems to love it. And as I say, I'm impressed by the thoroughness of the fitting instructions. So far, I give this one a big thumbs up. I wish I had gotten it further along, because I'd like to take it to ...

New York with my students tomorrow!

Yes, I'm mother ducking a bunch of my students and a couple of my ASDP colleagues around the garment district tomorrow for some fun and fabric. We're going to meet up with Carolyn and Lindsay T. I can't wait to see them both again! I wish we could spend an overnight, but schedules didn't permit this time.

Back to my dress, I have a confession to make. A friend of mine pointed me to a lively, some might say heated, discussion about sewing over pins. See me raising my hand? Guilty. I don't necessarily recommend it, but when people look all aghast at me, I just shrug. I have been sewing since I was 12. I've sewn over countless pins countless times and I have never once damaged my machine, nor have I put my eye out. I have bent pins and broken needles, which isn't a good thing. But I see more damage caused by folks who neglect to change needles between projects. That one gets me going!

Speaking of going, Gorgeous Fabrics warehouse is going to be closed on Friday, July 3 for the holiday weekend. We'll be processing orders, but any orders that come in over the long weekend will ship on Monday or Tuesday.

FB Peeps, check out the Gorgeous Fabrics Facebook page starting Wednesday. And until I get back from NYC, happy sewing!

The Fabric, the Haul

Here's the fabric I'm using for my McCall's shirtdress:
It is a lightweight cotton with metallic embroidery all over its face. It's pushing the envelope for this pattern just a little, because it's lighter weight than I think is generally recommended, but I really like it and I think it will work up well.

On a sadder note, one of my students sent me a note that Charrette, a local art-supply dealer, is going out of business. Today is their last day, and everything was 60% off their lowest price. I have always recommended their tracing paper to my students, so they will be sorely missed. I stocked up on a couple of things, including cream and yellow tracing paper (they had sold out of the white trace). I also got a french curve, a flexi-curve and a compass. It will be great for making circular ruffles.
I guess I'll have to buy my tracing paper online. Here's a hint for you. Forget the tracing paper they sell at fabric stores. It's way overpriced! You can buy 36 inch wide, 50 yard rolls at most art supply stores (including Blick Art Supply, nayy) for much, much less. And the rolls come in all different sizes.

Parting Shot: Sunflowers
I took advantage of the weather to transplant my poor sunflowers. I had three of them in a pot. They were doing okay, but they were starting to get rootbound. So I planted them next to the garden. They are usually covered with little bees gathering pollen.
Happy sewing!

Next Up, a Summer Shirtdress

I am in the mood for a summer dress. I think I'll make view B, the short sleeved version. I have a metallic accented cotton floral that has been aging in my stash for about 3 or 4 years. I don't have my camera with me, but I'll post a picture of it later.

The sun made an appearance yesterday, but today it's playing hide and seek. We were awakened to Bahamian style thunderboomers this morning, and they are expecting more later today. My tomatoes are, surprisingly, loving this weather. The sunflowers? Mmm, not so much. And of course, the hibiscus is happy as a clam in mud.

Happy sewing!