The lowdown....

Urban dictionary defines lowdown as..

"The details and relevant information on a giventopic or issue."

So, as I said yesterday, 

I would tell you more about my trip to Quilters Take Manhattan 2014.

Let's start with Day 1, Friday...

Firstly, I had Nature Boy drive me to the train station about an hour south of home.

My train left at 5:55 and I wanted to be there a little early.

Do the math. 

I am an early riser.

But Nature Boy .. not so much.

The beauty of taking the train to NYC is

that the tracks follow the Hudson River most of the way to the city

and so I watched the scenery and the sun rise...

and I was at Penn Station by 8:15 AM!!!

After stowing my stuff and hanging out with friends at their apartment,

I headed to my first day of activities...

a tour of Benartex and the garment district of Manhattan

with Paula Nadelstern. 

A group of us learned about the inspiration behind Paula's latest fabric collection..

due to be seen at Quilt Market

and the process of creating a fabric line out of ideas from her photos.

Then we headed out to the shops!!!

The first place we visited was M & S Schmalberg ,

the last company of its kind in NYC

that hasn't sent production overseas.

They create the most beautiful artificial flowers (silk, leather, cotton, etc)..

They sell here in their showroom and online.

It was a fascinating tour!

After the fabrics are starched and layered,

the shapes are cut out with the assistance of punches (pounded down by a machine), 

many of the punches are very old...

This gentleman, who has worked here for 30 years,

showed us how the petals are shaped with heat and molds,

all by hand,...

This is some leftover material after the petals have been punched...

This gentleman is the 3rd generation owner

who related an amazing story of how his father (the 2nd generation) was reunited 

with his uncle (the founder of the business)

in NYC after being liberated from a concentration camp, 

having already lost his family in the Holocaust.

We all scoured the boxes and boxes of beautiful flowers 

and I picked out a gorgeous hot pink and orange hand dyed silk flower

and a black and white (of course!) flower!

Don't see it here, huh?!

Neither do I...

I discovered later that I had lost them somewhere along the rest of the tour (boohoo!)

If you are at Mood and happen upon a paper bag containing 2 beautiful flowers 

they are mine!!!

Though I was too busy looking around to take more photos that afternoon,

we visited Mood Fabrics, M&J Trimming and Toho Shoji

and I managed to go home with some loot...

Well those are the deetz ..

Slang for details. To be used when asking for "the details" seems presumptuous and too muchlike something your mother would ask. 
When used with a "z" at the end instead of an "s" (see deets) it undoubtedly makes you morescene, street, or what have you.

(from Urban Dictionary)

There is much more to tell but you will have to come back 

to hear about the rest!