This past weekend I had a fabulous few days in Ottawa and Montreal – and of course, there was fabric!
I drove up to Ottawa on Thursday (7 hours, by myself – thanks to all of you who told me driving stories on IG!). I stayed with my 96 year old Granny in her retirement home, which is always fun. She is amazingly sharp and loves a good debate. I heard lots of funny stories from her – evidently I’m now old enough for the more salacious ones! 😉
On Saturday, I drove a few hours further east to Montreal. I can’t believe I’ve never been there before – especially as I realised that I spent my childhood regularly visiting my Great-Aunt just 30 minutes from the city! I’d been a bit worried about the long hours in the car alone and the city driving in particular… but I’m glad to say that apart from some truly incompetent parallel parking by yours truly, it was fine!
(This angle is our tribute to Oona!)
The goal of the weekend was to meet up with fabulous sewists from all over: Clare from Sew Dixie Lou, who cleverly married and Canadian and so visits often from the UK; Sonja from GingerMakes, with Blake and pugs in tow; fellow Torontonian/teacher Andrea and her *tailor* fiance Ian; and Heather from Closet Case Files, who was our local tour guide! We were hoping that Sara (who left our Toronto circle and moved to Boston last year) could join us too, but her back protested too much!
It was really fun to meet new people, and hang out with old friends. We hashed through lots of sewing talk on Saturday, and by Sunday afternoon we had *for once* moved on to other topics! We had beautiful weather, good food, with cute dogs, cats and a baby to keep everyone happy!
I’m loving the small meet-ups lately – few enough people that you get to hang out with everyone. I”m meeting some “local” sewing “friends” tomorrow (local as in they live at least 2 hours away, friends as in I read their blogs but haven’t met most of them yet!) We’re going bra supply shopping in Hamilton! I don’t make it to many get-together during the school year, so it’s nice to make the most of summer vacation while it lasts.
I’ll be back soon with more about the Montreal fabric shopping scene, and a fabric haul video (or two!) In the mean time: If you could plan a dream trip to meet Sewcialists right now, where would you go and who would you meet?
Crafting A Rainbow 
Looks like you had a great time with your granny and then in Montréal – nice pics! I would readily go to a sewing meet-up in Paris or London, or anywhere in Italy. There are so many great places for the sewing bees!
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Oh man, those would be great places to visit! London would be fun because I read so many British blogs… Paris would be cool because I really don’t know the blogging scene at all!
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I didn’t realize it was your first time in Montreal! Now I wish I had dragged you to more places….
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Don’t you worry, I’ll be back! 😉 Maybe I’ll do some proper sightseeing next time… or maybe I’ll just find more fabric!! Thanks for being a great hostess in the city!
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i’m so jealous – your meet-up sounds and looks like it was a hoot!
my number one choice for dream meet-up/fabric shopping would be the uk (it’s small enough to a canadian that we could easily visit all the hotspots 😉 ). i MUST meet ‘the man outside sainsbury’s’. and buy all of his fabulous fabric! and oogle everything at liberty. and stop at every wee haberdashery. so many treasures to be found!
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YESSSS! The man outside Sainsbury is legend. Why don’t we have fabric sold outside Zehrs or Food Basics?
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Great post! Little local meetups are great. I’d love to meet Nakisha (Sew Crafty Chemist) and Bike (Cocozini) out in Minneapolis — I’ve heard so many good things about the city, weather excepted of course. There’s also one or two Montreal bloggers I’d like to meet. 🙂
And thanks for the heads up on another Boston blogger, I’m eager to meet people in my area! Looks like you had a great time, and this has been a really cool geography lesson.
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I don’t know either of those bloggers – I’m going to go check them out!!!
I hope you get to meet Sara in Chicago sometime – she’s really chill, smart and fun. I miss having her in Toronto!
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Where not to go and who not to meet would be an easier question, LOL. I think NYC would be fun…I’ve always wanted to go to Mood for a lark…meeting the New York makers and checking out those specialty stores I read about. And there’s Sewing Princess Sylvia and potentially a future Italian sewing get together. Who cares that I don’t speak Italian….I speak Fabric! Meeting Stir and Stitch in London would be epic, and don’t you wonder why.
I’m up for a Canadian sewing meet up one day too. I look forward to meeting you and Heather and others in Montreal.
Two blogging friends and I recently hosted a bloggers meet-up in Vancouver. Not specifically makers, but there were four of us that blog about sewing etc….what great fun it was to be with kindred spirits.
A Colourful Canvas: 40+ Blogger Meet-Up 2015 Vancouver Canada
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Your 40+ blogger meet-up looked really fun! It’s so nice to build community and feel like there are other like-minded people out there.
Meetups in NYC always seem like a marathon – so many bloggers and so many fabric stores! It would be seriously fun though. Now hanging out in Italy with Sylvia, that seems like it would involve lots of food and wine at a more leisurely pace!
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This sounds like so much fun! Some day I hope to meet all you wonderful people!!!
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Do you ever come east? I’d love to meet up someday!
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I just came across your comment when I clicked on the little conversation bubble in the corner of the wordpress page…a new discovery for me…sorry for mot answering! I live in Nova Scotia so Quebec and Ontario wouldn’t be a huge stretch for me!
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eeeepiiiiiiiic. and i love that you started the adventure with your grandmother! i wish mine could have seen me acting crazy in me-mades.
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When my Granny was growing up they had a treadle machine, but she never learned to use it because there was a paid sewing lady who came in to the house to make whatever they wanted! That’s what I need – a sewing servant!
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Grandma’s salacious stories? 😀 Sounds like an amazing trip. 🙂 I’d love to get the chance to meet up with you Canadians. Or visit Walthamstow market with the London crowd. 😀
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She mentioned how strippers used to come for free to parties the military held – can you imagine my prim granny at wild parties in 1940’s Montreal? All she said was “I learned a lot from them!” 😛
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bahahaha! yessss, granny! that is hilarious!
Sad that we missed each other! I WILL be coming back to Toronto though. I really loved it. (very clean lol)
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Looks like everyone had fun!
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It was a good meet-up! Surprisingly relaxing with all those big personalities – everyone was just lovely! : )
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Oh, so much fun. Someday, I’ll get back to Montreal–such a great city, and I went there before I was really into sewing. I’d love to have a reason to go to New York. LA and SF are pretty easy for me to end up in since my husband has family on either ends of CA. I just got back from SF and was able to stock up on a host of great fabrics rife with possibility.
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Oooh, that sounds fabulous!!!! I can’t wait to see what you make with your new haul!
(And isn’t that always the way? I visited all the cool fabric shopping cities before I sewed clothes: London, Paris, Tokyo, New York… why didn’t past me skip the tourism and find fabric? ;P)
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This looks/looked like so much fun! So cool that it all worked out for you guys to meet up!
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How nice to combine a trip to your Granny with a meet-up. It looked like great fun. I have never been to one here but would like to go to one someday. I don’t know many people that sew, most are knitters and they just don’t have the same obsession with fabric as we all do. 🙂 I would love to visit the NY Garment District or Goldhawk Road again. I have never been to Walthamstow Market either. One day I will make a pilgrimage to TMOS. 🙂 Xx
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