I really LOVED reading all of your comments from the giveaway yesterday, which you can still enter in by the way. There was a great mix of bag makers that like quilting cottons and decor fabrics, or others, but I find that the majority of you are like me and prefer to let the pattern, your mood, or your stash determine the fabric choice. I am thrilled to see that many of you will try new substrates. A lot of you started out with quilting cottons and want to try new materials, and that is how I started out.

Before I give you a giveaway, here are a few more pictures from my trip to NYC. These pictures are fitting because I got a large portion of this giveaway at the place I am about to show you.

As part of Quilter's Take Manhattan, I had signed up for a fabric tour in the Garment District on Fashion Ave in Manhattan. The first location we went to was the design company, Benartex. Paula Nadelstern was there, showing us her latest collection that is in the works, Fabricadabra, and we also got to pick from some FQ bundles of her previous collection, Fabrique-Istan. Those are for one of YOU!



After that we went to a really neat place where they make flowers for dresses and designers out of fabrics the designers bring in. They are GORGEOUS!  It was a bit like going back in time. This was REAL New York runway kinda stuff!  M & S Schmalberg  is a 4th generation business that has been around since 1916 and I didn't now I was going to love seeing this business much as I did.


From their press page:  "M&S Schmalberg flowers have been featured in countless magazines and on the runway all over the world.  In addition to magazine and newspaper spreads, Schmalberg Flowers have appeared on PBS, CNN, ABC News, All My Children, and Sex in the City. And did you see those fascinators in the royal wedding?

Flowers for the Robert Kaufman booth at Quilt Market 2014... shh! This was a relatively small factory and the father and son duo let us walk around and see all of the vintage tools and dies that they still use. It was amazing!

They let us go through all of the flower boxes all by ourselves and pick out any we wanted to buy and take home. In the beginning, we were a bit shy, but once 1 or 2 ladies started pulling out boxes, we all got into it.

Each set of 4 or 5 flowers here is a box that contains them. These are left overs from famous designers!

I didn't know where to start, so practical as I am, I tried to choose some that I would be able to use on a winter bag for myself.  I bought these two! Not Sharing!!


The wool blend herringbone fabrics  they are on came from our next stop, Mood Fabrics. The many floors in that shop were a bit overwhelming. I think you would  need to know what you were looking for before you went in. It's not really set up for browsing, but I loved seeing it. Oh and by the way, the wool fabric came in REALLY handy later. The girls and I decided to do another loop of our double-decker bus tour. We got rather cold in the open air on top of the bus, and without jackets, my friend Sheila and fashioned herringbone wool wraps with handmade designer flowers. :)  A nice warm way to drive by Central Park!


We also went to B&J Fabrics, and I will show you those pictures tomorrow. Oh have a look at this bar on Fashion Ave!  I would have loved a cosmopolitan there, but the tour wouldn't stop ;)

Click to enlarge!

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I am so proud of how my little business is developing and growing, and I am happy to share that you will be seeing many new projects and products coming in the next year. I will share more about that later, but first, some more details about the prizes!

As some of you know, I recently took my first trip across the continent to NYC last week for a small holiday, as well as to go to the wonderful event - Quilter's Take Manhattan 2014.  It was whirlwind 5 days for me and some highlights I will never forget were the city skyline, Grand Central Station, Top of the Rock, Central Park, and of course meeting Amy Butler, Alex Veronelli, and going to buy some gorgeous NYC quilting cottons from The City Quilter.

The Empire State Building, taken from The Top of the Rock at Rockefeller Center, NYC.

I loved my trip, it was a dream come true, and I recommend everyone see the loud and often crazy burg of Manhattan at least once in their life. It's a fun planet to visit, and... there are a few fabric stores on Fashion Ave!



I brought back some little bundles and charm packs of the NYC prints that the City Quilter designs and prints, as well as some of Paula Nadelsterns Fabrique-Istan FQs that I got while at Benartex. I've also dug into my stash and pulled out a few items that I will share with you throughout the week. At the end of the week, the Friday prize will be one not to miss! The Online Fabric Store has sponsored a very generous prize, but you will have to wait until Friday to see it.

The Online Fabric Store

I hope you love this upcoming week as much as I do. I wish to thank all of you for your continued support and patronage. I love all of my customers, you feel like friends to me, and l truly look forward to chatting with you all as much as possible. As Emmaline Bags grows and develops, I never want to lose my contact with you and I will continue to try and give you all the best customer service possible. Oh crap, I am going to cry. Shoot. Okay giving things away makes me smile, so here we go...!

Enter here:

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Today is the first day of school for most kids in Canada, and I sure am going to miss my little man. But.... I feel the need to celebrate my little bit of daily freedom, and of course, our wonderful education system with a "WHOOP! SCHOOL IS BACK!!" scream and a store credit giveaway along with it.


Enter below. Contest closes Friday, September 5th at 12:00 pm (MST).
Good luck!

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