Amazing Weekend with Dana at Whipstitch!

Positively AMAZING weekend with Dana from MADE last Friday and Saturday, y’all!  So, so much fun.

If we’re all being totally honest, when I dreamed up this whole event, I was being totally selfish: I find Dana’s blog so inspiring, and have enjoyed emailing her so much that I really just wanted an excuse to hang out with her!  But my mother raised me to share, and so the Dana Weekend was born.  Let’s just say: blistering success.

We started with a warm, casual meet-and-greet at the shop on Friday night.  So many lovely ladies showed up, and I had such a great time talking to them and seeing how much they enjoyed meeting Dana.  Seriously, at one point it was like lunchtime in high school, all the girls in a circle talking about everything you can imagine–awesome!

Saturday, Dana did two events for us: first, a demonstration of how she makes patterns using existing clothing.  She brought a ton of samples to share, and did a first-rate job of making all of us feel like we could run home and make a zillion patterns from what was already hanging in our closets.

The crowd for the free demo was standing room only, and more than once, Dana held up a sample she’d featured on her blog, and the group would “Awww” in a way that made me nearly tear up–bringing folks together and giving them a chance to get inspired by one another is so much the heart of what Whipstitch is, and this event was such a tangible example of that.

Later that day, after lunch at the Varsity, Dana held her Mystery Workshop: participants got a bag of goodies and a mystery task.  Turns out the focus of the workshop was ELASTIC THREAD, and even my own daughter was so enamored of what Dana was sharing that she insisted on being paid for her videotaping services in elastic thread.  Dana’s awesome.

Some of these fantastic ladies drove from as far away as Orlando and Nashville in order to be part of this weekend.  Can I get a WOW?  How awesome is that??  One of my favorite parts about the classes we host is that I have never, ever seen one where fast friendships failed to form.  At this one, ladies all exchanged emails and blog addresses so they could meet up later.  I’m thinking I see an Atlanta Craft Consortium on the horizon.

Amy from ModPodgeRocks was with us, and wearing the coolest tee.  Must get one of my own!

Jenny from the Southern Institute of Domestic Arts and Crafts joined us, too, all the way from Tennessee.  Very cool blog name, very cool lady–and one of the winners of the three prize bags!  Dana gave each participant a free copy of one of her patterns, plus a bag of goodies (including a Whipstitch gift certificate to spend as they chose–score!).

Group photo: required.  A zillion Canon digital cameras: check.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to ALL the folks who were part of this weekend, especially Dana, who is every inch as cool and warm and open and funny and welcoming and affirming and lovely in person as she is on her blog.  I’m thinking: annual event. Yessssss!

See more photos (with links to these ladies’ fine blogs) over on MADE (plus mmmcrafts, ModPodgeRocks, SIDAC, Simply Modern Mom, The Nesting Project, and Andrea Jane)–and we’ll see you next time!