Pattern Review Weekend 2018 Stratford, Ontario, Canada

 I arrived at Stratford early Wednesday afternoon and since no one else had arrived yet I decided to take a walk into town (about a mile walk). I enjoyed the neighborhood I walked through, beautiful gardens and then I got to the river where I captured the view above.

I was looking for the Shakespeare Gardens which I found and while they were small there was another pretty view of the river (below)

 I then walked towards the main street where all the shops and restaurants are. I found the pretty fountain below.

Back at the hotel later I met up with Karin (who came all the way from Sweden!) and we walked back to town where we had a very nice dinner.

All through Thursday people started to arrive. Karin and I made plans with Markita to do some extra shopping in some out of town shops. We had a great time, including a delicious lunch.

Karin, Me, Spool and Spindle shop owner and Markita
Selfie by Markita

Enjoying lunch at Marbles, Waterloo, Ontario

Later in the hotel lounge we said hello to old friends and got to know new ones.

With Jacki and Sherril

Friday is the official start of the weekend and some of the members were still arriving. This was the day for presentations and some other fun activities. First thing we took a tour of the Strtaford Shakespeare Festival Costume Warehouse. I was in heaven! And in the end we got to play with costumes.

After the tour we went to the venue, a church in town (Knox Presbyterian Church), for presentations and other activities. We heard from Deepika, Gillian (Crafting a rainbow blog), Jalie Patterns and BraMakers Supply. Connie did a demonstration of a favorite technique and some of us helped others take those measurements that are almost impossible to take on our own. We also had a chance to apply the tips that Gillian was giving us on how to take better pictures, including selfies. Below are my attempts.

We had fun!

After a break we returned to the church and had the wonderful surprise of live entertainment by Connie's ukelele band!

The rest of the evening the multiple contests were judged and we had a wonderful dinner.


Saturday was all about shopping and somehow I did not manage to take a single picture. You can see what everyone was up to here (Deepika's story of the weekend) Below is my modest stash after the day was all done.

I had one more dinner with friends in beautiful downtown Stratford.

The next morning those of us that were still around got together at Romeo's for brunch and one last group picture.

So happy to have spent a long weekend in such a wonderful place and in company of so many friends! Looking forward to Portland, Oregon!

Pattern Review Austin Weekend

On May 1 I flew to Austin to join old friends and new, to socialize, fabric shop and sightsee. To tell you the truth I didn't do much sightseeing except when going shopping. It was a really busy three and a half days and socializing was my number one goal.

El primero de mayo fuí a Austin, Texas para reunirme con viejas y nuevas amigas para divertirme comprando telas, conociendo una nueva ciudad y andar de fiestas. No ví mucho de Austin en verdad. Fueron 3 días y medio bien ocupados y el pasar tiempo con mis amistades era lo más importante.

It was great to get to see Kyle!

¡Qué bien volver a ver a Kyle!

I had known Sharon through her blog and we became fabric sisters, every fabric she loved I had to have and viceversa.

Conocía a Sharon a través de su blog y nos convertimos en "hermanas de telas", toda tela que ha ella le gustaba yo la quería y al revés.



Austin is a very fun city, on Friday I did quite a bit of walking to accompany some to do boot shopping. Along the way we checked out vintage and yarn shops.

Austin es una ciudad muy distinta y divertida. El viernes caminé muchísimo acompañando a varias a comprar botas de vaquero. En el camino vimos tiendas de "vintage"y de hilos para tejer.

Our hotel in downtown Austin

On Sunday Jeanette (LadyBeGood in PR) and I had the opportunity to take a walk to a neighborhood not far from the hotel where the homes (all beautiful old homes) had been turned into bars where live music could be heard. It was a very young crowd and so fun.


El domingo Jeanette(LadyBeGood en PR) y yo nos fuimos a caminar a un vecindario que han convertido casas viejas y muy bonitas en bars donde tienen bandas tocando todo tipo de música. Estábamos rodeadas de gente joven divertiéndose.

An Elvis look alike pedicab driver

This was a bike carrier

We had fashion shows

Atendimos pasarelas

 Photo courtesy of Couturesmith, ConnieBJ(PR), aka one of my roomies ;-)

dinners

Cenas

Photo courtesy of Beanchor

 Above I'm with Andrea, one of my roomies, and I  met Beanchor (PR name)  who does beautiful embroidery work

pattern exchange

intercambio de patrones

a talk with Daniel Esquivel from Project Runway fame

una charla con Daniel Esquivel famoso por  Project Runway

our own runway show

nuestra pasarela

 a shoe cam

documentamos nuestros zapatos

Mine are at the top right

a delicious brunch

un desayuno/almuerzo delicioso

 Photo courtesy of ReBecca (PR)

a street festival, Pecan (street) Festival


una feria

 All four roomies ended up with similar jewelry, it was Andrea's fault! :-) She had the necklace already and we found a vendor that had them and bracelets. Claire (Claire in Montreal in PR) bought a necklace, above Connie and I show off our new bracelets.


Las cuatro que compartimos el cuarto en el hotel nos compramos prendas iguales. Andrea tenía ya un collar, Claire (Claire in Montreal en PR) se compró uno y Connie y yo los pulsos.

and best of all, time to see old friends and make new ones.

y lo mejor, la oportunidad de pasar tiempo con amigas ya conocidas y hacer nuevas amistades.

Consider attending the Los Angeles weekend next year, you won't regret it!

***Pictures I neglected to give the proper credit to are either my own or Pattern Review's. For more pictures visit the official site *******