My last afternoon in New York City was just for my pleasure.

After leaving The City Quilter quilt shop (see February 9 blog post)

I went to Timeless Treasures Fabrics and met with Emily Cohen

to see the new fabrics that will be coming out this spring and fall.

After a wonderful lunch with Emily I decide to walk back to my hotel so

I could stroll down one of my favorite streets in New York,

Bleecker Street.

I pass a fruit vendor.

And a flower vendor. Most little markets in New York have fabulous flowers.

  Bleecker Street is full of small specialty shops.

This shop is just dark chocolate.

Who doesn’t love a chocolate shop that is focused on adults?There are cute little boutiques.  

A shop for herbs and spices.

The famous Magnolia Bakery is on Bleecker.

Although they now have several locations.   The colors in this window caught my eye. Windows full of dreams. 

Murray’s Cheese shop is on Bleecker street.

Anyone who watches Martha Stewart has heard about Murray’s Cheese shop.

I certainly can not get this much variety in my home town.

Another source for one of my favorite things about the city.

Crusty crunchy beautiful bread.  Faicco’s Sausage store. 

Fresh fish shop. Bleecker street is what I imagine neighborhood shopping to be like in old New York.

A special shop for all your needs.    This is a funny sight for my eyes.

I hear all the guest chefs on Martha’s show talk about Whole Foods.

This is the Whole Foods store in New York (one of many locations). 

This is the Whole Foods store in Austin, Texas where it all started.

   I don’t think I mentioned that Martha’s studio and offices are located in Chelsea

and that is also the area where most of the wholesale flower stores are located.

This is just one of many shops with the freshest flowers in town ready for the retail merchants to buy and resell.

Don’t these Pussy Willows say spring?

I finally had to catch a cab to get to my hotel and on to the airport to catch a plane home.

Home is always good but 

I LOVE NEW YORK.

The Martha Stewart Dreamers Into Doers is planning a trip next year.

Visit the site and sign up to become a Doer, even if at this point you are only a Dreamer.

Ok, I am off to teach on a great Caribbean cruise sponsored by

Stitchin’ Heaven Quilt Shop in Quitman, Texas.

Watch for posts about the trip.

If you have been reading my blog you know that I recently

returned from a very exciting trip to New York City 

for a Martha Stewart Dreamers Into Doers event.

While at the event I met some remarkable women.

Some were very young and some were a little more advanced in age.

We were from all over the United States and all ethnicities.

As it turned out: age, where you were from or your family history did not enter into the equation in the least.

All were extremely creative and giving women.

I want you to meet some of these women so I have invited them to be guest bloggers on my site.

I hope you enjoy meeting them as much as I did.

Today is Peggy Gaffney from Kanine Knits Books and Patterns

Hello from Kanine Knits Books and Patterns.

My name is Peggy Gaffney and I want to thank my friend Debbie for inviting me to share my passion for knitting and dogs.

Though I quilt for fun, I really love knitting and have been doing it since I was a small child.

In 1995, I decided that what I wanted to do was to begin doing knitting designing professionally.

But I also wanted to do something different from what was already available on the market.

I have also had as a hobby the breeding and exhibiting of Samoyed show dogs since 1968.

With more than forty years competing at dog shows, I had gotten to know all the breeds well.

So, when it came to choosing what to design, the obvious choice was to do

portraits of all these showdogs I had seen over the years

and to create charted intarsia (picture) designs to be knit into sweaters, hats, scarves, afghans, etc.

I did this designing and knitting for dog fanciers owning some of the top dogs in the country.

This worked very well, however after knitting close to 800 sweaters I got tired of knitting for others and since so many knitters had asked for my patterns over the years, I decided that I would, instead, publish the patterns as charted knitting designs.

I called the patterns, Portraits of Dogs in Knitting and there are more than 100 breeds represented.

At the same time, I came up with the idea to share my dog expertise and create a unique series of books that would approach the knitting from the dog lover’s point of view.

In my Crafty Dog Knits series, I take a single breed, talk about all the things that make that breed unique,

create knitting charts showing the dogs doing all their favorite things and finally combine this

with directions for knitting sweaters, hats, mittens, scarves, afghans, pillows and even a Christmas stocking.

These patterns are sized to fit everyone from infant up to men’s 2X.

Each of these books is an encyclopedia of knitting for that specific breed of dog.

To date, I have books for Samoyeds (my breed), Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers,

Bernese Mountain Dogs, Newfoundlands, Welsh Corgis (both Pembroke and Cardigan) and Poodles.

For example, when I did The Crafty Poodle Knits book, which is the newest,

I approached the breed from the hunting and field background of the Standard but included how and why the Miniature and Toy Varieties were developed. Though you won’t find many Toy Poodles diving into the water to retrieve a duck, they are still structurally the same, except for size, as the larger and stronger Standard Poodle variety. Therefore with my designs, I took all of these factors into account. When I do each book, I include 25 different charted designs which can then be knit into any of the patterns that are included. That means that you can combine the designs, have one on the front and a different one on the back of a sweater, take a small design and put it on a pocket or take the design and using the alphabet included work it into a scarf with you dog’s name worked in as well. The variations are endless. I also include about 75 photos of the breed in each book that have been sent to me by fanciers around the world. They love having a chance to showcase their “best friend” in such a way.

However, when you are a designer, you are always open to possibilities and when approached

by a group of cat fanciers declaring that they wanted “equal time” with these dogs,

I decided that, since I have always had cats as well as dogs, the next book from Kanine Knits would be

The Crafty Cat Knits. It will be coming out later this spring.

Of course when the word got out, the llama and alpaca breeders approached me pointing out that they

could use a book with designs of their animals to work all that beautiful yarn that these creatures supply.

So, later this year, there will be published The Crafty Llama & Alpaca Knits.

But, of course, dogs still rule around here and there will also be more dog books coming out later this year as well.

I hope that all of you who have a love of knitting as well as your love of quilting and who are also loved by a faithful dog,

will visit my Kanine Knits website, or my Kanine Knits Blog or

the blog where I talk about a single breed every day and show the design

I have created of that breed, the Portraits of Dogs in Knitting blog.

You might just find a pattern to knit that would show off your pride in your dog.

I want to thank Debbie for the chance to visit with you and

I invite you all to visit me, Peggy Gaffney, at Kanine Knits.

My final day in Manhattan started with a trip to the fabulous quilt shop

The City Quilter

It is located at 133 West 25th Street  between 6th and 7th Ave.

When you enter the shop you see a great floor cloth with New York images.

The wonderful owners of the shop are Cathy Izzo

and her husband Dale.

They have owned the shop since February 1997. The shop is absolutely jam packed with goodies.

Everywhere you look there is something to catch your eye and interest.

This is just one of the samples on the wall.

Cathy and Dale have numerous fabrics that are exclusive to their shop.

Below is Statue of Liberty exclusive to them by Hoffman Fabrics.

I love this black and white!

Fashion District retro New York.

This is subway maps in three color ways. 

They also have projects pertaining to Manhattan.

This is a perfect trip memory quilt.

I was told that almost all of the employees are multi talented.

One is an artist, one a costume designer,  and one is a model.

Think of all that creativity! 

These beautiful ladies are two of their employees.

This is an example of a wool project that is a kit. 

Little wool creatures.

Wool cake and cookies.

A pillow kit and a sample of another quilt to make.

Cute quilt with bicycle embroidery. 

This is more of Cathy and Dale’s exclusive fabrics.    

It has vintage New York postcards on it.

This is a quilt made with the post card fabric.

What a great memory of a trip to New York.

Another quilt example to use Photos or photo style fabric.

A great little pincushion book and sample. What do you think about the bacon and egg?

Cathy stocks unusual ribbons for embellishing.

And a stash of silk fabric to make scrumptious quilts and table runners.

They will be carrying my Fine Dining pattern that is great done in silk with ribbon embellishment.

This is the classroom.

They even supply the sewing machines so you can take a class while visiting the city  Cathy and and another employee in front of a wall of fabrics.

Check out the classes they are offering for this spring.

Paula Nadelstern will be teaching as well as Kaffe Fassett and Liza Lucy.

     Below are some class samples.

A wall of books and patterns.

This quilt is going to be a pattern someday. I love it.Another little niche of patterns and samples.  

More wool. The colors look good enough to eat.  I simply adored these story book panels. Kaffe Fassett fabrics to drool over.

Cathy and Dale are now Bernina dealers.

Cathy also cuts 2 1/2” strips for their City Strippers kits.

While I was in the shop taking pictures and talking to Cathy and Dale,

Three couples came into the shop.

This is Brian and Susanne from Denmark.

   Maria and Elmer from Brazil.

I was unable to get names for this couple from Japan.

This is definitely an international store!

I loved this quilt that looks like a kaleidoscope of the Empire State building.

One section of the store is dedicated to fabrics from Japan.

I love it when the employees are happy and smiling even first thing in the morning.     

Dale took me to the basement to show me what was down there.

One thing was his desk with the first quilt he ever made. I think he did a great job. 

They have a long arm quilting machine and offer custom quilting.

More fabrics!

There is storage that goes all the way under the store.     There is also an appliqué group called the Appliqué Support group that meets in the basement.

All of the New York fabrics can be purchased online at The City Quilter.

I has so much fun at The City Quilter, I wanted to stay all day.

I did have to leave to go to Timeless Treasures Fabrics to see Emily Cohen.

She gave me a tour of their new space and I got to see what is new for spring

and a hint of what will be new for fall.

After our fabulous tour of the offices we head for the studio.

There is already a line when we get to the studio.

You can see that sign from way back.

I decide to pose with the sign in the picture. 

I have my ticket to get in.

Once we get into the inside waiting area we are given a form to sign about having our photos taken

and they also give us a luggage tag to fill out. We wonder what that is about.

The walls are covered with beautiful posters.

GiGi Page and I pose under the Martha poster.

Carolina Martin, Alexis Tirado & Kim McCool are sitting under the plate waiting for the next step.

They start to call us in by groups.

I get a shot with me and Joey Kola the master of warm up men.

He was so funny.

Once we get into the studio it is like eye candy. Something to see in every direction.

The set is absolutely beautiful.

  The staff is getting everything in order. Joey is getting the audience in order.    

Here are a few Dreamers , we had great seats.          The special people seated down on the floor have a wonderful view.

We never figured out how they got to sit there.     Time for the show is getting near.  

Michelle Biondolillo takes a crazy picture of me to send by phone to my husband David. 

This is Kim McCool one of the Dreamers.

Her company is Spirit of the Heart Designs. She painted a wonderful painting for the Safe Horizons Shelter. 

Carolina Martin from the back. She owns Art on Wheels.

Me with Michelle Biondolillo of Schuylark.

Terry Grahl of Enchanted Makeovers. More shots of the set.  

The show was about travel so there were suitcases and travel items on the tables.

Still wondering about the luggage tags we filled out.

The studio starts here with a couch and the double doors that sometimes open for Martha and others to come in.

On the other side of the doors you can see into the kitchen.

Do you recognize the stairs? How many stars have you seen come down those to meet Martha?

Then comes the kitchen area.

A little more of the kitchen view and a wall that separates it from the craft area.

This is the craft area.

To the far right is the greenhouse section.

Joey Kola was great at warming up the audience.

It was neat to see what was going on in the monitors.

Finally Martha and the guests of the day came in.

No photos allowed now.

The guests were:

Susan Orlean, author of The Orchid Thief with a new book about travel

Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of Jacque Cousteau talking about her Mt. Kilimanjaro climb to bring

awareness to the importance of conservation and sustainable management of water resources

One of the co founders of Flight 001, a travel store in New York

and Joe Diaz one of the founders of Afar travel magazine.

It was definitely a travel show.

During the first segment Martha talked about some travel and showed us the new Kindle book reader.

Then she announced that EVERYONE in the audience was receiving a Kindle!

Soon after she pulled out one of the luggage tags.

She told us during the show people would be winning trips.

What fabulous trips they turned out to be.

A trip to the Sandals Resorts, a trip to Aruba, a trip to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a trip to Las Vegas, a trip to the Galapagos Islands and

our Brenda Foehrkolb in the turquoise shirt, won a Culinary trip to Singapore!!

As we watched the show we were told that the entire audience would receive

a year subscription to Afar magazine and we all received a great travel pouch from Flight 001.

When the taping was over Joey Kola called all the Dreamers Into Doers down to have our picture taken with Martha.

That is me peeking over her right shoulder. Such a thrill.

The studio empties out.

Everyone in the audience gets a goodie bag.

EVERYONE GOT A KINDLE BOOK READER!

Martha and the dogs say good bye.

  After the taping of the show we were treated to a wonderful dinner at Martha’s favorite pizza restaurant CO.

That is short for Company.

My new friend Karen Keller-Eyer sat beside me and we ate scrumptious pizza and visited.

Alexis talked a little.

It was a wonderful finish to a fabulous trip. 

I know I will see these women again in person and in magazines and newspapers.

They are all true entrepreneurs. After getting very full on pizza and what they call toast on the menu, we went to Times Square.        

It was pretty chilly outside so we went to a little neighborhood cafe for coffee and dessert.

We shared a dessert sampler that was pretty darn good.

A taxi ride back to the hotel and short good byes to new friends we hope to see again.

Tomorrow I will tell you about my visit to The City Quilter quilt shop.

Great expectations of what the offices would be like comes to fruition.

This morning was more fun than I could have imagined.

Group B met at the reception area to sign in and wait for our tour guide.

This is me in front of the official door once again.

Do I look happy or what 

Here is that famous logo once again with guess who is beside it.     The entire wall is covered with quotes and inspirational words.   Group B really hit the jackpot with our tour guide Hannah Milman.

Hannah is the Editorial Director of Crafts and is very passionate about her work. She took us to her office to store our coats and purses.

While we were there she shared some of her recent projects.

This is a wreath made from glittered acorns and leaves that she made to hang in

the Blair House in Washington, D. C. for Christmas.This bird is a decoration made using a copy of a bird in the wallpaper that was blown up,

glued to stiff paper board, and then glitter and gold paint was added. 

It was beautiful to see in person.

Hannah loves working with and glittering shells. (Actually I think she would glitter anything.)

This shell was glittered to make an ornament.

As we started our tour we met Lucinda Scala Quinn and Sarah Carey in the hallway.

Lucinda is the Editorial Director, Food & Entertaining

Sarah is Deputy Food Editor Martha Stewart Living. 

If you watch Everyday Food on PBS you know them very well already.

They were so kind to us, just talked to us like we were neighbors.

Lucinda has a great blog called Mad Hungry Feeding Men and Boys.   From there we went to the test kitchens. In this kitchen they were testing recipes for Everyday Food.Some of the things they were testing were - Feed your family of four for $10, healthy snacks, etc. 

      From the test kitchen went to a room called the cake room.

If you read Martha Stewart Living, Weddings, or the Wedding Cakes book, then you have seen these cakes. This  is another huge test kitchen. Wouldn’t you love to cook here? 

I am not sure what they were testing here but you can be sure it was good. These are cabinets in the hallway full of cookbooks. 

We then went to the Prop Room or ROOMS!

The beautiful ladies below run the prop room, and what a job it must be.

Please bear with me on the amount of pictures. You just can not imagine how much stuff is here.

 

   Stools & Chairs

  Candlesticks

Tables, stools, chandeliers 

Dishes and more dishes!!

Cutting boards

Linens

More dishes

Cake stands

Vases

Wall boards and floor tiles.  They sometimes create a whole room.

This is Fritz Karch. He is the editorial director of collecting.

He told us his office is Martha’s nightmare!  

This is the view of the river out of one of the windows.

We also got to meet Emeril Lagasse    He has a new television show starting in March.

Half of our tour was on the side of the offices housing the magazines where we met

Gael Towey.

Gael is the Creative Chief Officer. She was very friendly also and talked with us for a long time.

She talked about helping with the first Martha Stewart Living magazine. She has been with Martha for 20 years.

Gael also told us they are anticipating the arrival of the new Apple Notebook or iPad as we now know it.

All magazines are checking out alternative delivery methods.

Maybe someday we will be reading Martha Stewart Living on our iPad.

By the way Gael’s husband is Stephen Doyle. He designed the logo we love so much.

When you have a little time check out this video about Gael and Stephen’s collaboration on logos for Martha.

We could not take any pictures while we were in this area because they were working on future magazines.

The April issue of Living was spread out on boards. I was great fun to see what no one else has seen yet.

Hannah then took us to see the marketing area for furniture, out door items, linens, all things Martha.

On to the craft supply area. Oh my gosh!!

Glitter of every kind, color and size. Punches, punches, punches and more punches. Paper goods and tools.

I have never seen so many wonderful craft items.

We also got to see the corporate offices but those are private sanctuaries and so no pictures here.

Alas, after 1 1/2 wonderful hours we had to leave to go to the studios for the taping of a show.

It was a great joy to tour offices and meet wonderful, friendly and happy people.

Everyone seemed to love their job.

THANK YOU HANNAH!!!!!!

Check back tomorrow to read about the taping of the show.