PR Montreal- the final installment

When I last left you, Kay and I were unwinding and sipping wine in the 9th floor common room of Les Studios Hotel, a residence hotel at the University of Montreal.  I highly recommend it for inexpensive tourist accomodations by the way.  Clean, neat with optional breakfast included, the only downfalls would be shared bathrooms (I think the duo rooms have private) and the low wattage light bulbs.  It is close to the Metro and Mount Royal and BiXi’s are right beside it. 

At 8:30am on Saturday, we all congregated to board the big yellow school bus to explore St Hubert Street. Some thought that early am was an ungodly time to start shopping, but as they say- the early bird catches the worm.  I had been up since 6 anyways and got a short run in and triedto find a geocache, so I was more than ready for fabric.

Kay and I, after some discussion, decided that we would be twins for a day… It just made it easier for people to find us!…

Here is a collage that spans the day from Madelaine Soie et Laine, Kelly taking a photo of Deepika’s  rear end back of her skirt so that she could remember the pattern, various street and shop pics, the latest fashion in rain head wear on Lynelle,  crepes in the market, and a random dress that I had to take a photo of (after assuring subject that I would not include her head)

click to see larger image

One of the highlights for me was in Madelaine’s when the owner(?)  who had been snapping photo’s of us, left, then came back….with an accordion player to serenade us!  How cute is that?!  I was speaking with one of the other owners, and she said that it had always been a dream of hers to have a busload of women who loved fabric come in and shop.  Quite honestly I know why it is a favorite place for Anne -Marie.  The selection is amazing, the quality outstanding, the prices reasonable and the staff are personable.  What else could you ask for?  Except they need to be in London!

I could go on all day about the stores we visited and the laughs we had.  We were a true “amoeba ” group- everyone was comfortable with shopping with anyone.  You might start off with a few fellow shoppers and two stores later, be a part of another group.  True comaradarie that!
We ended up in front of Couture Elle to catch the bus back at 5:30pm!  Even I didn’t think we could fabric shop for that long, but we did!  It was nice for the people who got tired that the Metro was close by and (if you weren’t a country bumpkin) you could just scoot back early.

We scooted back for another whirlwind preparation for dinner.  Those of you who were in Philly and looked at the “Rocky” stairs and didn’t attempt them would have been amazed to see the women in Montreal walk up the equivalent of 7 storey’s worth of stairs laden down with fabric to show and fabric to share! 
After a night of pizza, wine, fabric show and tell, pattern and fabric exchanging, pin cushion making and talking, everyone collapsed into bed. 

Everyone of course except for some of us who, once again needed to talk some more in the common room!

And on the seventh day they rested.  Only we didn’t !  Anne-Marie thoughtfully arranged a visit to the McCord Museum where we were lucky enough to see a large assortment of vintage garments up close and personal, as well as a amazing Cirque de Soleil exhibit.  Unfortunately, my camera said “batteries exhausted” !  As were we all! 

Sad goodbye’s and promises to visit each other were exchanged- boy it felt like we just said hello!- and Ivana, Sue and I were on our way home. 

Whew. 

Hey- want to do it again next weekend??!!…….

Till later,

Connie