I met Vanessa from Sew Filled to the Brim!

Hey hey!



Vanessa, me and our fabric purchases at Gail K Fabrics

I just returned from the ATL, where I met up with Vanessa from Sew Filled to the Brim.

We've been reading each other's blogs for a while now, and when I found out I'd be in Atlanta for a work conference, it was the perfect chance to meet Atlanta resident Vanessa.  (I wanted to also meet Faye  from Faye's Sewing Adventures but sadly she couldn't go.)

PatternReview.com is such a great resource--I looked up Atlanta fabric store reviews and three shops were consistently listed with positive reviews--Gail K, Atlanta Fabric, and Whipstitch.

So last Saturday Vanessa and her niece Whitney and I met at Gail K's Fabrics first.



It's a lot like a mini-version of Mood in NYC: floor to ceiling fabric-fabric-fabric and more fabric focused on fashion fabric, yes!
It's all on one floor and organized by type, but not labeled.
The aisles aren't as wide as they are at Mood. But they definitely have good stuff.   We spent quite a while there.

Here's Vanessa with her favorite fabric of all:

If I lived in Atlanta, Gail K is definitely a shop I would buy at frequently.

I would have bought the plum double knit but I needed to pace myself...

I was also glad we got there at 10am when it opened as we easily found parking spots. The store filled up quickly and when we left, people were waiting for spots.

Next we went to Atlanta Fabric, a very small shop, especially after Gail K's.  I purchased decorative underwear elastic.


Then it was on to Flip Burger Boutique, which was ultra cool. (it is co-owned by Richard Blais, winner of Top Chef All Stars.)  I wish I had taken some pix of the booths; they were unlike anything I had ever seen before!

Here's what I had, the Butcher's Cut burger.

It was excellent.  In continuing with my "year without fries" I had the broccolini instead.  I'm not eating a lot of red meat anymore, so when I do have it, I want it to be as good as that burger!

It turned out that Gigi's Cupcakes was in the parking lot of the Flip Burger so of course we stopped there!



But then it was time to say goodbye.  I was really glad I got to meet Vanessa--she was just as kind and sweet in person as she is on her blog.  I'm glad she met up even after her husband voiced concerns about her meeting someone she only knew from online.   Thank you Vanessa for meeting up--and to Whitney too for being such a good sport.

Then I headed over to Whipstitch fabrics which is in a very cool spot near midtown? downtown?  I don't know, it was near town.  :)

If you've been to Austin's Stitch Lab before, Whipstitch is a lot like it, but with lots more space. Fabric here is more on the crafty/novelty side, but they have a lot of garment patterns by new-to-me designers and companies.
 
Sign outside Whipstitch 

It was only me and one other shopper in the store the whole time I was there.  I spent quite a while looking at the patterns and fabric.

So here's what I bought in total:


The meetup and shopping was a really nice way to gently scrub away the memories of the day before.

I hiked Stone Mountain where I lost the key to the rental car. It was a situation that took 5.5 hours to correct, involving calling roadside assistance, having a car rental employee show up and then drive off without saying goodbye, waiting for the tow truck driver, watching the tow truck driver use a rod to unlock the door (after being told by the car rental company that the car could be electronically unlocked), towing the car back to the airport, getting a new rental car.... After discovering the key was missing at 4:30pm, how it all played out was better than many alternative scenarios.

The key is still somewhere on the mountain.
Top of Stone Mountain 

This reminded me of the 99 steps up Diamond Head:
 

Then it was on to my work conference, held at a swanky downtown hotel, the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.
I gave a talk which went really well, met up with new and old colleagues, and generally enjoyed the conference.





Now I'm off to Communiversity this year instead of Rutgers Day (why are they always on the same day???)

Be well and wishing you all wonderful moments!