Last night Laura Ann and I went to Stitch Fest at Martha Stewart’s headquarters, a launch party for her new Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts. We had such a good time, and it was great to see demonstrations and displays of projects from the book. Plus, we met Martha herself. I wasn’t sure she would be there, but she was incredibly gracious. I won’t lie, though. I completely geeked out. Here are some photos.

A display of her new book.

Some of the displays of sections from the book.

They had a make-your-own tomato pin cushion setup, I only worked on the 1st step.

Because this was the crowd waiting for the 2nd step. But I’ll definitely finish mine at home.

I love this photo of Laura Ann because that’s her “I’m Ready!” pose.

This is the point when I began making a complete example of myself. I was ridiculously excited to meet Ms. Stewart.

She really was incredibly nice about taking photos with fans, even though I could tell she was very busy and trying to get back to her office. She came in and out of the party taking photos and chatting throughout. I said something brilliant to her along the lines of: “I’m from Nutley, too! Would you mind posing with me?” This was the highlight of the evening for me. Thanks for taking this, LA!

I also really loved the printing table.

And one last photo of Laura Ann and me before we got our swag bags and headed for Thai food at Spice on 8th Ave. Such a great night! And the swag bags were excellent: a copy of the book, loads of magazines, thread, needles, scissors, coupons, color guides. So much fun!