Canoe Ridge Creations: sewing summit weekend [take 1]

as most of you know, this past weekend was the first annual Sewing Summit in SLC. the entire weekend buzzed by and i am having a hard time even describing how wonderful it really was. there were so many great things about the weekend, i think the best way is to start at the beginning...and in two parts.

THURSDAY:
i arrived in SLC early afternoon (and brought my parents along!) and check into the fabulous hotel, Little America. it was one of those picture perfect hotels, with chocolates, turn down service and cute bell boys. :) once we settled in, we decided to kick of our little vacation with a drink at the hotel sports bar. and after a casual twitter invite, our group kept multiplying as more and more sewing summit ladies came down to the sports bar. so fun!

later that night i officially met Erin and Amy! which was a surreal experience in itself. for months, the three of us have been swapping emails, google chatting, and tweeting back and forth and WE FINALLY MET! :)

FRIDAY:
this is when the real fun began! i helped out with registration, passed out fabulous swag bags, and there was a bus shop hop -- and LOTS of fabric purchases (more on that later). and then the official sewing summit meet and greet reception. :) just imagine 200 sewing and blogging women, in one room. the excitement was bursting at the seams.

i remember at one point looking over at the bartender who was working the event and wondering what he was thinking. i'm sure he was throughly confused about so many women, from all across the world, sitting and talking about fabric and sewing. and i'm pretty sure that confusion was aparent all weekend long. in fact at one point, an older man approached a group of us and asked "so do you all really sew." when we answered with a confident "yes" he responded, "the women i know that sew aren't as attractive as you all." thanks buddy. :)

later that night, i went for dinner with most of the ladies from my {sew} beautiful bee. SURREAL! we've all been in an online sewing bee together since January, we've chatted through countless flickr discussions, and we finally met! so, so cool!

{sew} beautiful!!, by emedoodle on flickr

then as if the hadn't already exceeded my expectations, i spent the rest of the night sewing we these fabulous ladies. the amount of crafty concentration was off the charts. love it!