It's about exploring and sharing my creative adventures (mostly sewing these days) ~
~those activities that sometimes obsess, usually inspire, occasionally frustrate
~and always provide a delightful maze to wander through.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Bloggers! Show and Tell! Chat and Laughter! Cañada College!

I managed to leave my camera at home when I took my body to the Fabulously Fun Cañada College Blogger Gathering last night, but there are pictures galore on shams' post about the event, so I'll scoot you on over there for the visuals.

(side note:  I finally learned how to do the en-yay over the ñ in Cañada!!!  I'm slow sometimes, but I learn eventually.  In case you don't know yet, on a Mac you just hold down the Alt key, then press n twice)

Back to the good stuff - I've never yet taken an actual sewing class, but I get so motivated when I see the gorgeous work that comes from people like Ronda Chaney, Wayne Wichern, and Lynda Maynard, Educators Extraordinaire at Cañada - at times like this I want to be independently wealthy...at least enough to take classes and workshops wherever and whenever!   Wayne showed some of his gorgeous hat creations, and I would join a workshop with him tomorrow if I could!  I jumped all over Lynda's book, "The Dressmaker's Handbook of Couture Sewing Techniques"

Don't let the "Couture" in the title dissuade you - this book is CHOCK FULL of valuable finishing tips and techniques, the pictures are abundant, the explanations are clear - this is a must-have for anyone who wants to step up their skill level!

Seeing blogger/sewing friends I already know is always a delight: shams, of courseRose from needles, pins, thornsBeth of sunnygalstudio, and Jean of jkaoridesigns and I loved meeting the people behind a few of the blogs I've already been following and enjoying: Amy of Sew Well, and Cindy of Cation Designs, which, I was happy to finally find out, is pronounced cat (as in our purr-babies) eye-on - apparently this is a scientific geeky term, which Cindy has promised to explain....I'll be watching for it....;-).  And I got to meet some totally new-to-me bloggers, Jenny of JennyRinn DesignsSonia of Sew With Sonia, and Katy of KatyRenee, who also works at Cañada <~~please note that en-yay again - sometimes the simplest little things can please me ever so much...;-D

There's just something about a group of like-minded sewists who gather together - I think we're extraordinarily delightful people in general, and this was a particularly fun and talented batch, as evidenced by never-ending chat and laughter, and some truly inspirational sharing in a show-and-tell session.

When Ronda asked if they should do this again, the answer was a resounding "YES!", so I hope it does happen, and some more local bloggers extraordinaire can attend :)

And to top it off, we all went home with a wonderful gift bag:
 - the bag itself is fabulously made (but of course), and it contained some really wonderful gifties inside, including a pass to the Must-Not-Miss-Event, Artistry In Fashion, to be held at Cañada (there's that en-yay again....) on September 29 - I do hope to meet some more of you there this year!   Here is my blog post about my experience there last year - truly this is not to be missed!

I am so blessed - thank you to everyone who was there, and helped make my evening such a delightful one. :)

14 comments:

glorm said...

Sounds like it was fun. I'll head over to Shams' blog to read more.

Good to know that Lynda's book has great finishing techniques and tips. ;)

shams said...

It was great to see you again, my friend!

Mary said...

That sounds like it was a wonderful time-glad you could share some of it with us...and refer us to shams for the photos! :-)

Margy said...

All right, I'm officially GREEN with envy...hope to be there if it's done again...after all, 350 miles is local, no?

Jillybejoyful said...

I'm delighted with Lynda's book...and I've only scratched the surface!

Jillybejoyful said...

Always a pleasure! :)

Jillybejoyful said...

I had my camera charged and ready to go....sometimes you just need to get out from behind the lens ;)

Jillybejoyful said...

I don't know how you do it, but you manage to look smashing in ANY color...even green! ;-)

KC said...

It souñds like a woñderful eveñt! Añd I'm so glad you taught me how to do this eñ-yay thiñgy too! Thañks!

Jillybejoyful said...

And oñce again, you totally crack me up! :D

Andrea said...

Sounds like fun! We need one in the Sunshine State!

Thanks for the heads up on the book. It looks like good bedtime reading!

The quirks of the English language: vacation, but 'cat' 'ion', as opposed to 'cay-shun". Wierd, huh?

Amy said...

It was great to meet you last night. And, what a wonderful group, right? We'll have to have another meet up again soon. Enjoy your book - I've gotten a lot of use out of it myself.

Cation Designs said...

I really enjoyed meeting you and talking to you and oohing and aahing over your awesome steampunk bustle and cool-pockets-dress! And I, too, wish I were independently wealthy so I could learn the "official" way to sew. I guess the first step is Lynda's book!

And here's the explanation of cation: http://cationdesigns.blogspot.com/p/infrequently-asked-questions.html

Jane M said...

I can hardly wait to get to meet you and others at Cañada College....and thanks for the MAc tip.