My husband travels a lot on business, and when I say a lot I mean a lot, sometimes I travel with him though it's not as wonderful as you might think - he's in conferences, business meetings, business dinners, etc, etc, from early morning till late at night and I get to spend a lot of time alone. Maybe you're thinking how much you'd love the opportunity for a bit of hotel time and pampering but once you've sat in one hotel room you've pretty much sat in them all and there's only so many days you can spend in a hotel spa, watching tv and eating room service before you start to prefer to stay home alone with your dogs and your sewing machine. So I've become pretty choosy about where I tag along to, joining him only for must-see destinations and I'm really good now at entertaining myself for days on end, site seeing alone and visiting fabric and yarn stores.
Back in May, he was heading out to Vancouver, Canada for a week and I knew straight away that I wanted to go too. A couple of weeks before we set off I tried something new, I felt a bit nervous doing it but I contact the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild (VMQG) on Facebook and posted a message about my visit and went to bed.
OMG!!!
By the time I woke up the ladies of the VMQG had replied with suggestions and invitations for me during my visit and before I knew it there were three days of activities planned. It's about time I shared some of it with you but I'd advise grabbing a cuppa, this is a very long and photo heavy post!
Monday
Yay, there was a VMQG meeting when I first arrived that they invited me to. A longstanding bloggy friend, Paula picked me up at my hotel, looked after me at the meeting then dropped me back again after, just too kind.
Here's Paula during Show and Tell - I totally forgot to get a photo of the two of us together. In fact, I've got hardly any photos of any of these wonderful ladies, over all the time I spent with them I was so busy talking I forgot all about photos.
The meeting was really inspiring and everyone was friendly and welcoming. I particularly loved Terry Aske's Round Robin quilt made as part of VMQG's round robin last year, you can read more about it here on Terry's blog.
I took a bundle of The City Quilter's NYC fabrics with me to donate as a door prize and Cathy, owner at The City Quilter, donated a bundle too - here are the winning ladies.
Tuesday
The next morning I was taken out and about on a day trip organised by the wonderful Stacey Day of Stacey in Stitches - here she is at the VMQG meeting sharing her Sunshowers Quilt - The MQG's May Pattern Of The Month - the pattern's currently available free for all MQG members on the here on the community forum and there's more info here on Stacey's blog about future availability to all.
We started our day out at Granville Island
where she introduced me to Duck Poutine at Edible Canada and I can highly highly recommend it, totally delish.
The waitress helped out taking this pic of me, Stacey and Arita
and here's Stacey's pic of me and Arita so at least we've got a couple of decent pics from the day!
Then Stacey and Arita took me to The Cloth Shop (see my previous post here) and around all the other craft and food vendors on GI, it was just perfect.
These pics are taken at the Silk Weaving Studio
and I couldn't resist buying the silk scarf in the centre woven by Cathy Joyce - it had my name written all over it.
Loving the GI view
and the food
and I bought these goodies for my Grandson, Oliver, in Wickaninnish Gallery.
Then we nipped into Maiwa Supply.
A last glimpse at Granville Island outdoors
then off to Trout Lake Beach for a sew out and here's a pic of I took of Michelle and Andie and Stacey. I'm really disappointed that I don't have more pics to share of the beautiful location and my new friends :(
Wednesday
The following day I met up with Michelle again and I did some hardcore notion shopping, btw loving my new books Make It, Take It by VMQG's own Krista Hennebury @Poppyprint and Paper Pieced Modern by Amy Garro of @13 Spools.
I also bought this gorgeous needle magnet from Michelle, isn't it perfect, they're sooooo useful and make the best gifts for sewy friends - if you want to get hold of one you can contact Michelle @Pastry Quilts here on Instagram.
Michelle gave me an extra needle minder to give as a door gift at the June meeting of my NYC Metro MOD Quilt Guild. I was super delighted when it was won by the wonderful Melly Testa who designs fabrics for Windham Fabrics,
you might remember my Remains Of The Day quilt made for Quilt Market last year using her Meadowlark fabric collection.
you might remember my Remains Of The Day quilt made for Quilt Market last year using her Meadowlark fabric collection.
So if you're travelling somewhere and don't know anyone, do what I did, just put a call out to the local quilting community and I'm pretty sure they'll be quick to respond positively. I had the best time, saw something of the real Vancouver outside of the usual tourist traps and made new friends too. I'm hoping I'll get to see some of them again if they visit NYC at some stage and then I can return the favour. Thanks, VMQG girls, I had the best time, you're all wonderful xxx
Have you ever contacted quilters in another area before visiting?
Read my other Exploring Vancouver posts, the first about Three Bags Full yarn store and my second about The Cloth Store and finally my Sea To Sky Highway post by clicking the images below:
If my four blog posts about Vancouver, BC aren't enough for you, Sewaholic has an extensive (and pretty comprehensive if you read the comments section also) list of fabric stores in Vancouver that you may find useful too!!!
For details of other fabric, yarn, trim and notion stores that I've visited around the world along with the NYC stores I love, exhibitions and events I've attended and wonderful people I've been lucky to meet click the links below or in my sidebar :D
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Disclaimer: This post is for informational purposes only, no payment or commission is received on click-throughs and opinions are my own.
Linky Parties
This post may be linked to some great Linky Parties, always a great source of inspiration too. If you click through to my 'Fave Linky Parties' page you can see where I like to share my work.
