Yesterday was a triple treat for me. I saw Trena, met up with college roommate, and experienced complete and total fabric nirvana.

While I was gone, Chelle from Necessary Chocolate emailed me to say that her mom, now a dedicated quilter, was looking to de-stash her amazing garment fabric collection. Carol lived just over an hour from me in the DC exurb of Leesburg. Chelle thought Trena and I could benefit from a visit (today’s Trena’s birthday too!).

I checked in with Trena and we decided to roadtrip Saturday morning since I was going to be in the area for the football game that afternoon.

Oh Chelle, you are my Fabric Gaurdian Angel and your mother is my Sewing Fairy Godmother. Folks, never have I aspired to a ‘sewing room’ until I saw Carol’s amazing creative space! But, I was so so gobsmacked over the sheer volume and beauty of the fabrics, that I didn’t get a good picture of the sewing room. Honestly, I got weak in the knees.

There was so much fabric that Carol kept pulling out that we could not resist that the haul spilled out of the trunk in to the back seat.

Why, why, why would someone voluntarily turn over amazing quality fabric to other women? Well, she said she hadn’t made clothes for herself in over 10 years and didn’t want to see the fabric wasted. Chelle told me that she makes more kids clothes (really adorable stuff, check her blog if you don’t believe me) and the fabrics from Pendleton, Chanel, Jones New York, Britex, New York’s Garment District, and G Street just didn’t fit her aesthetic.

I am not kidding you when I say I have no need to buy suiting for the next five years minimum. And not just any old fabric. Beautiful wools in every color and texture. Fabric that I would NEVER be able to afford in the quantities I now have. And fabric that if I bought, I would be too scared to sew with because it was my ‘good fabric’.

I am truly and completely overwhelmed by the kindness of Chelle and Carol. I actually have to rework the sewing room to fit it all in. In the meantime, I’ve got it spread out in the guestroom so I can just survey the awesomeness of it all.

Back in DC, Trena and I brought all the fabric up (four flights of stairs thank you very much) to her place and spread it out to see if there was anything the other wanted (we didn’t want to throw down in front of Carol).

I’m laying in the line of demarcation. Trust me, I resisted the urge to roll on the fabric like it was money and I just hit the jackpot in Vegas. Amazing, right?

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Shannone, NO!!! I just caught up on Project Runway and the BEST model ever is gone. Sigh.

Oh well. She still inspired me. I did get my hair colored while I was gone. Not a color that occurs in nature. But, colored. I generally hate the hold the camera out and take a picture photo because they make my forehead bigger than it is and give me a birds beak for a nose. But, you can see my hair in this one.

Can you believe there were over 49,000 people at the Maryland game? Who knew. I saw the cop yesterday before I left and he suggested that while my tunic was cute, I was going to see football, not golf, and should be a little more cas. Fine. I changed into a tee and jeans.

And, college roommate (who I hadn’t seen in seven years) looks just the same and has the prettiest children to boot.