VA/DC/MD Meetup - Part 1

Sewing meetups have become commonplace in places like New York, Scotland, and England. However, reading about a recent one in Birmingham gave me a sudden idea. How many sewists exist in my particular part of the world? Starting with the few that I already knew of in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, I started checking blogrolls and About Me pages. I was amazed at how many I was able to find; a cursory search came up with eighteen!

Would they be interested in meeting in person? I sent out a post on October 16 and most of them were interested. Among these women, it was a diverse group of ethnicities, ages, skill levels, length of time sewing, and also a variety of projects that they devoted their time to creating.

I'm sure I'm not the only one that received strange looks when they told people, "I'm going to meet with a group of women I met on the Internet." I know I did. However, it was more like a meeting of pen pals than complete strangers. As bloggers we communicate through our blogs and know each other from what we share there. We may have followed people through career changes, relationships, child rearing, and the steady development of our sewing skills. Some have collaborated or assisted on projects (by email, phone, or in person), enabled serious $$$ fabric shopping, and became friends in real life.  During our meetup two separate pairs of women found out they were neighbors!

To say I'm happy that this worked out would be a huge understatement. However, without the gracious and generous offer of Robin D. to open up her beautiful home as a comfortable and cosy space for us to meet this might have just been a trip to G Street with far fewer people. You see, more wanted to meet than to actually shop. I know. Shocking.


BeeBee, Lisette, Cidell, Lauren, Sue, Paula, Trena,
Audrey, Robin, me, Allison, Sophie, Elaine



Fabric sorted by fabric/fiber type

Pattern table with window seat overflow



More patterns! I myself contributed about 65 of them.

Elaine, Alison, Lauren, Cidell, Sue

Lisette, Anna, Sophie, Mary*, Trena, Audrey

Audrey, BeeBee, Paula

Robin (our hostess), Cidell, Sue, my haul*

Thank you everyone for coming, it was a pleasure and honor to meet you all!! We must do this again!

*Thank you so much for bringing that huge box of 1990s Vogue Designer patterns!

*Yes, that's my huge takeaway pile on the couch next to Sue. Details forthcoming...

Images: Top photo is c/o of A Little Sewing, all other grainy cell phone pictures are by me.