The Goodies

Sorry to make those who didn't attend the FQRetreat but the Liberty goodie bag on arrival was bursting.

It wasn't until I had some free time the next morning I starting having a good rummage and it was a bit like Mary Poppins carpet bag, it just kept giving.

Eventually I got them all out on the table - some of the new Aurifl floss, lots of habdash, some silk threads which I've never used before from http://www.silk-thread.com/, fabric from Moda, Makower and Riley Blake.

I got this great fat quarter from Eternal Maker

And then there was this lovely scrap bag from Pat Bravo. She is probably the first fabric designer I got obsessed with when I first started quilting and so when she commented on this picture on instagram I may just have squeaked with excitement.

 

At the quilt market on saturday night, I was relatively restrained until I hit the Oakshott stand armed with my discount voucher that was also in the goodie bag.

I left with some of the new impressions range http://www.oakshottfabrics.com/products/ImpressionsFat8thPack.aspx and a bundle with a silver shot that I can't find on their website. Its gorgeous though.

Next time I'll tell you about my classes - I've even finished something I started working on there as well.

Where to begin

So much has happened in the last week - its been so much fun I don't know where to begin.

On Wednesday I went to Hove to a workshop with Lisa Lam and a few members of the LMQG and made this little purse.

We also got to have lunch by the seaside in boiling hot weather and I didn't burn! Yippee.

Then on Thursday, the quilters arriving for the http://www.fatquarterly.com/retreat were hitting town.

I met up with Leanne and Krista for lunch and then in the evening met up with Helen, Claudia, Lizzie, Aylin and Sarah at a meal organised by Amy.

Friday was the first day of the retreat and it went on until Sunday. I'll post more about my classes and goodies next time, but I laughed so much at one point I couldn't breathe. Fun and laughter with the best sort of people (i.e. quilters) really truly is the best therapy. I could feel the tension just fading away.

The hotel bar in the evening was also hilarious, especially the face one of the male guests pulled when he saw we were there for the second night. I guess he had enough of us the first night!

One of my biggest treats for the whole weekend was meeting one of my oldest blogging friends Marg in the flesh. I don't mean she is old, I've just known her a long time. Please note, for all us in the UK we've been pronouncing her name wrong and its a hard g. She thought we were taking the piss at first!

I spent the day with her and her lovely daughter (not at all like she is portrayed on Marg's blog) yesterday.

We chatted and wandered around a bit and then met up with Susan and her girls.

It was yet again another roasting day, so we went for afternoon tea by the river and chatted a lot more. By the way, this was only some of the food - it wouldn't all fit on the table in one go!

It was the perfect end to a perfect week.

Even better, unlike some poor people, I'm still on holiday - until September! Yippee. My work contract ended. My first year of the course ended and my school for my volunteering is closed. So I am going to enjoy every bit of the next few weeks.

And I've done some sewing - happy days!

Q3 finish a long - please let me do better than Q2

As I totally failed in Quarter 2 to finish anything at all on my list, I’m just going to repeat it.

Scrappy tripalong no 2:

Not so Scrappy Tripalong:

 

Tufted Tweets top:



Scrappy hexagons: Made using my 2.5 inch scraps, still waiting to be made into a quilt.

 

I made this FMQ sampler last year and still don't know what to do with it.

 

Fragments top:

 

Loving the love top:

 

Timber top:

 

String quilt :

 

AMH top:

 

Girl on a swing:

 

EPP quilt:

 

Scrap fun

I decided it was time to start tackling the carnage that is my dining/sewing room. There was bits of fabric everywhere.

The first task was to tidy up all the scraps. As I've said before, I love saving my scraps and have all sorts of sizes organising but I realised I had just been stuffing them willy nilly into every corner I could find for the last year - whoops.

So I started sorted and the triangles in particular were so out of control I couldn't stuff them all into my container (old take away plastic box) so something had to happen with them.

I picked out my Oakshott cotton bits and sewed them together without any thought and had enough to make this mini. I used some Kona solid for the sashing and binding - also scraps along with bits of left over wadding so this is a true scrappy project. It finished up around 10x13 inches.

I quilted using my favourite Aurifil and here is the back to show the design more. Its one that I learned from Angela Walters Craftsy class.