Only in New York

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.

I say 'pooh-pooh' to those people.

The highest form of flattery is ... stalking. Indeed.

Ladies and Gentleman of the sewing world, I am tucked safely away in Melbourne, Australia after a fabulous two weeks in the beautiful crazy city that is New York.

I filled my time rubbing fabric up against my face (in the creepiest possible way) in any number of fabric stores. Thanks to all your marvellous suggestions on where to buy fabric in New York, I made my self a map, put on some comfortable runners (you know sh$% is serious when I swap nice shoes for runners) and spent my life savings on fabric.

I'm not even joking when I say that it got emotional in those stores. Standing inside Mood and thinking, 'Holy H, I'm really here' was all a bit much for me and my jet-lagged, over-dramatic self.

Here's a few pieces of fabric goodness that I purchased.

My husband Robin and I went to see the Schiaparelli and Prada exhibition over at the MET which was absolutely stunning and oodles inspiring.

I did a lot of 'window' shopping down 5th avenue, and spent a not so small amount in SOHO and the fashion district.

Robin and I went a little bit nuts and saw lots of Broadway productions. Five in fact. We saw the Lion King, Mary Poppins, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and ... Spider Man the Musical - I kid you not.

A staple part of our diet in New York was pizza and holy heck was it huge. Deliciously huge. My ass started expanding just looking at it. The M&M's didn't help much either ...

We went to our first ever Baseball game, Go Yankees! and Robin purchased his Yankee hat for the occasion. We made a lot of random friends thanks to Robin wearing that hat!

The highlight of my trip had to be meeting the fabulous Gretchen from Gertie's New Blog for Better Sewing hence my stalking comment at the start of this blog.
I was lucky enough to have a two hour private lesson with his sewing Goddess and I tried so hard not to have a 'watermelon moment'. You know in the movie Dirty Dancing, where baby is carrying a watermelon to the cool kids cool party and she meets the totally hot Patrick Swayze and he's all like 'What's she doing here?' and baby, overwhelmed by his hotness says 'I carried a watermelon.' Awkward.

Gretchen was however super nice and friendly and the two hours went by like it was two minutes. I was also more than a little bit pleased to discover that we both turned up wearing yellow dresses that we made! Oh we are going to be best friends for EVER! (she doesn't know this yet).

Now I'm back in Melbourne and trying to psyche myself up for my first day back at work tomorrow morning. That's why God invented coffee.
I am also super keen to get back into my sewing adventures after being ridiculously inspired in New York.

Thanks a million to Tessuti Fabrics for this fabulous opportunity, I still can't believe that it happened to me! You can check out the dress I made for last years Tessuti Awards here

Speaking of Tessuti Awards, have you seen the competition for this year! The theme is Spots and Stripes and this year the competition is open to entrants world wide! The prize is a $5000 travel voucher to a destination of your choice! Any one thinking of entering?