Tuesday, September 23, 2014

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


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,
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 morescenestreet, or what have you.

There is much more to tell but you will have to come back 
to hear about the rest!

3 comments:

  1. I keep thinking about attending this event, but always took late finding out about it for signing up and I have some fear about attending it by myself - why, I don't know. I guess I just have a lot of questions that I don't know who to ask. Going on the train sounds like a great idea! I am looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip. I did buy a home ticket and am awaiting my goody bag!

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  2. I am jealous of you actually doing paula nadelstern's tour! Lucky you!

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