It Pays To Be A Member......

....of the Smocking Arts Guild of America (SAGA)!!!! I mentioned the other day that I had an exciting evening ahead of me. Well the name tag above says it all. My SAGA chapter was invited to attend an event at Martha Pullen's School to represent SAGA. We had two tables where we had SAGA brochures, wee care gowns on display, and a garment rack full of our own personal creations*. Plus we shared our love and knowledge of smocking, pleating, embroidery, etc. with all the wonderful ladies (and a couple men....husbands I think) that were attending Martha's school.

All of that was great....but it gets better. The president of our chapter is amazing and aside from being a repeat contributor to Sew Beautiful magazine she KNOWS all the wonderful designers that were also in the same room with us. SO.....she says to me...."Want to go meet some people?" I, of course, almost fell over while trying to jump to my feet while saying "YES, yes!!!" So we started off with the table across from us.....Lezette Thomason - the mastermind of Children's Corner patterns!!! She was so sweet. She creates adorable patterns and is the queen of pattern construction. She showed me two more sweet patterns she is working on and they will go up to a size 10. Excellent.

Next, on my personal tour....I was introduced to Kari Mecca of Kari Me Away. She is an expert of bullions and just embellishments in general. Her work is stunning. And not only is she friendly...she has a lot of energy. Where do I get some of that??? The current cover of Sew Beautiful features one of her adorable creations.

Next up was none other than Wendy Schoen of Wendy Schoen Design. She is the master of embroidery. I watched the Martha Pullen PBS show today....and who was on??? Wendy Schoen, of course. Her work is so meticulous and gorgeous. In addition, she was very nice.

All the designers there had racks full of clothes you could see, touch, drool over, etc. What fun. I also met a wonderful lady from Australia named Lynn Holyoake. She was so charming and lovely to chat with. And her garments she had with her......incredible. Plus her husband was right there to help her the entire time. Precious!!!

I also saw Beverly Sheldrick, also from Australia and on Martha's show often. Plus I saw Debbie Glenn and Dody Baker. There may have been one or two others...but I can't think of them now. Plus there were many different sewing machine dealers in attendance.

And since I've been saving up my birthday and Christmas money for something fun like this.....here is a peek at my purchases from Martha's retail store there. They had the most delicate and precious fabrics....but I opted for the books, patterns and back issues of Sew Beautiful instead. Oh, and a lace shaping board. It has a grid on one side that will be great for blocking smocked inserts and the other side of the board has a bishop neck shaping guide. The kids made the drive with me when we went to do the shopping and right as we were walking in the shopping area who walked by but Martha herself. She smiled really big and waved to us. What a sweet lady.

Ethan carried the lace shaping board to the car for me which humored everyone there since the board is as big as he is. And strangely, I think he felt like it was his, because the next morning he tracked it down and carefully placed his dishes on it and proceeded to eat his breakfast.

* I am not referring to my retro bishop dress here. That dress was located in one of the retail shops for the entire week of the Martha Pullen school. The articles of clothing I took this particular evening were other miscellanous items I have made. Including the latest baby dress that I will talk about next time, I hope.