Since we only had a few days in New York, I knew there would oly be time to check out a few places. The guides and reviews from Liesl and Manda (start with that post and work backwards) were really helpful in figurig out what not to miss. There were plenty of places mentioned by of them that I didn't make it to, but that's probably good for the credit card... Amisha was also really sweet and helpful when I contacted her, and sort of reinforced my choices.

I spent a couple of hours in the tiny Purl Patchwork, making piles of bolts until I ended up with this combination of 1800s reproduction, modern, and Japanese prints. The shop is small but crammed with wonderful stuff.
They have a basket of these books of scraps by the door for $5 each. I think it's a great idea to put remnants together into these sewn groupings, and a hard time settling on one.
They also have a nice selection of wool felt. I plan to use these to cover barrettes.
This other pile of wool felt in brighter colors came from Brooklyn General.
Books, mostly from the new Bryant Park location of Kinokuniya. One of those titles is from the evening we spent at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. All of the others are about modern Egyptian society, from Kinokuniya. I seriously almost cried there when I found these. The new location has expanded its focus way WAY beyond Japan, and now encompasses most of the world. There is of course still an entire floor with books in Japanese (like the ones I posted about from the Rockefeller Center location), but I was reall excited to find books in English about most of the countries of the world. Not only did they have a section on the Middle East, but it was broken down further by nation. I've never seen that before; usually i have to dig through all the titles o the off chance that I might fid something on Egypt (and not Palestine, Israel, Afghanistan, Iran, or Iraq, the current most popular subjects). There were 2 entire shelves of books on Egypt, with a lot of titles put out by AUC Press in Cairo. About half of them were on modern society (as opposed to Ancient Egypt.... books about Ancient Egypt are plentiful and easy to find, and I'm completely over them... not what I'm interested in). It was overwhelming and awesome, and I could easily have sent another $300 to get all the books I wanted.
Finally, the pile of linen from Grayline. Loved that place, and got a color card so I can order more when this runs out. This pile is destined for the 2008 purses. $7/yard for 100% linen is awesome!
I also went into Mood Fabrics while I was in the Garment District. It was awesome, overwhelming, over my head, and out of my budget. I want to go back some day when I have real garment sewing experience.