Only 6 more sleeps to go!

And then lots of us will be meeting up at the Fat Quarterly Retreat.

It seems like I have been looking forward to it forever, as soon as I knew it was being held in London I was committed to going. I am in awe of how far some people are travelling to come to it, I'm not sure I would have gone the other way.

I'm not feeling in the least bit nervous, just very excited. This year I've been involved in the London Modern Quilt Guild and those meetings are so much fun and its so easy to talk to everyone I imagine the weekend will be like that only bigger.

My only worry is not getting time to talk to everyone I want to meet. I know I have an advantage as a lot of our guild members are going who I already know in real life and I have met Lucie and Aneela as well thanks to the guild.

So, a bit about me. I have been quilting for 3 years although I have been interested in it a lot longer. I love all sorts of other crafts as well but the quilting and fabric stashing has become my obsession.

I am 42 (yuck) and some days I feel 62, others I can't believe I'm out of my 20s! How did time pass me by this quickly?

I am single and I have never had kids. Sort of by choice, sort of because I lacked the other half of the biological material needed to make one.

For a living I work contracting in IT managing the testing of systems to go into depots. I can straddle the line between real tech geeks and hairy arsed knuckle dragging warehousemen. Trust me there is a line - I once got a call at 1am from a depot bloke as he couldn't understand what the woman on system support was telling him about his problem!

In total contrast to all that I am also a part time student as I finally decided what I wanted to do with my life at the age of 40 so I am halfway through a counselling course (hopefully halfway anyway if the coursework I hand in on Tuesday passes!)

I can be shy, stroppy or giggly - sometimes all at once. But I think next weekend I will mostly be happy.

And like quite a few others, I hate photos of myself but I took this a few minutes ago,

and this one to show just what I think of the first one (well truthfully it wasn't the first one, I took about 10 and that was the least offensive!)

Bad bad blogger!

Me I mean, not the application I use for blogging with.

I don't know why it has been so long since I last blogged, especially as there has been loads to say. Firstly I want to show off my fabulous name tag for the Fat Quarterly retreat next month.

The lovely Dianna at http://quiltova.blogspot.co.uk/ made it for me and I was blown away by how clever it was. I wish I was this imaginative. Its is stunning. If you look really close at the post mark you can see the date and FQR 2012.

And how fab is Queenie on the stamp? Its nearly to scale as well. Even using red for the envelope is a stroke of genius. Not only is the retreat going to be a red letter day for those of us who are squealing in excitement about going but it is the colour of the post boxes and the UK postal service.

The next bit of big news is that the London Modern Quilt Guild is having an exhibition - already! During the month of June starting on wed 6th at the John Lewis Oxford Street Bistro we have a selection of mini quilts on the theme "What modern quilting means to me".

I made my first mini, but it didn't quite work for me so I started again. I'm still not 100% happy with it but couldn't face doing it a 3rd time.

To me, modern quilting means using solids, neutrals and all the colours of the rainbow. It means being free form and wonky. It means doing what you want to do in a way that works for you without worrying about someone else's rules. It means playing with both the piecing and the quilting. It means having fun.

One day, I'm going to turn this into a full size quilt with a few tweaks.

I've also gone back to work - boo! So my sewing time has been drastically reduced. However, because I knew I was going to be earning I've been on a shopping binge for new fabric. I'll show you it all in another post.

I've also finally given in and got a smart phone. I'm still playing with it and what I can do with photos but I've also joined twitter - @ShevvyLondon. Probably not a great idea as it is just another way to waste time, but there you go!

Fav things friday

One of my favourite things is how much generosity there is within the quilting community on-line.

The amount of giveaways is truly astonishing and if you tried to tell someone who wasn't part of the quilting world they probably would not believe it.

As well as the giveaways, there is so much information and free tutorials. I've made so much use of these since I started quilting and I am so grateful to all the wonderful bloggers who share these.

The London Modern Quilt Guild has a giveaway for a lovely fat quarter pack at the moment, for details go http://londonmqg.wordpress.com/2012/05/02/laura-gunn-fq-giveaway/.

For lots of other favourite things, go visit Mrs P at http://fairybreadmusings.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/favourite-things-friday.html

Workshops and exams

This week started off brilliantly with a workshop with the lovely and talented Lucie Summers http://blu-shed.blogspot.co.uk/ who invited members from the London Modern Quilt Guild for a workshop on screen printing quilt labels.

We could either design our own, or adapt one of Lucies designs. I had a total blank on trying my own, so was very happy to use the one Lucie designed. After all, that makes it a designer label!

We had great fun all day. Not only did we get to use our quilt label screen, but Lucie also let us play with some of her "friendlier" screens. Who knew that screens for printing had such different characters?

She also gave us some dye to take home with us and the label screen so we can make more at home. These are some of the goodies I made on the day, having all these labels might encourage me to put them on my quilts finally!

We also had a big exam on our course this week, so that created some anxiety - and drama. I was happy with how it went and was finished in time but didn't really take much notice of the duration. I was in the zone for two hours. However when we left the room, some of the other students felt that the invigilator had messed up the timings and finished 10 minutes earlier than she should so they didn't get all their questions answered.

I don't know what is going to happen - all I know is I don't want to have to sit it again!