fabric & flowers: What a fabulous weekend #FQR2014 was!

Hello everybody! I can't believe it's been over a fortnight since retreat already, time really has flown!!! I came back very happy, very tired and smack bang into the summer holidays, a birthday party and a four day camping trip. It's been hectic!

So, Retreat!!! It was the best weekend: lots of fun meeting up with old and new friends, uninterrupted sewing time and learning lots of new skills. First up we received a fabulous goody bag filled with Aurifil, Moda Mini Charm Packs, Robert Kaufman, Makower, Soak, a voucher for Duckegg Threads and some fabulous notions from Korabond. Pretty good!

My first class was with Brioni where we were learning to do petals. I'd been debating what to do with my class samples and I decided early on that these blocks would be perfect for making a new sewing-machine cover (I had one of those soft ones with mine and it's ~~pretty~~ very tatty now and barely doing it's job). I've got Brioni's book and had always admired her petals quilt but having cut out my 32 petals I have even more respect for the quilt (and the knowledge that I will probably never make it, I don't think I have that much patience!!!!). And I even got to play with a new machine as Janome were sponsoring the weekend. So much fun!

I think Friday night was my favourite part - sitting out on the terrace chatting with Lynne, Mandy and Jo and then moving inside to chat with the lovely Jen Kingwell. You've probably heard already from others how lovely Jen was, but she really really was! There may have been some pawing of her Green Tea & Sweet Beans and Gypsy Wife quilts......oh my, they are beautiful. I think I was probably the silly one stood there holding the quilt with my mouth open going 'wow' a lot. And the stories behind some of the quilts were so interesting too. An amazing night!

Saturday morning saw me learning about how to get patterns in to print with the lovely Jen from Love Patchwork & Quilting and then going on to embroidery with Jo. I learnt so many new tips and tricks, I can't wait to get my sampler finished when I get some time.

Saturday afternoon was a lesson with Jen Kingwell for applique and hand-stitching GTSB quilt. See, Jen is such a lovely person that she even made us all a little finger pin-cushion which got handed out with a copy of the pattern. I got to sit next to Hadley during this class (who may have laughed at how poorly organised I was!) but aside from the mick-taking it was really great to spend time with her as I'd not really had a chance last year. It took me ages to trace the templates and cut them all out, and I still haven't finished my starter blocks but I am so going to make this quilt one day. I said to Jen that GTSB is a quilt that I've always said I'm going to do when I'm a grown-up (!) but I now have the confidence to make a start on it.

Saturday night was great fun. After some more chatting on the terrace with Kerry, Jo, MalmesburyJen and some others there was a little bit of shopping at the market night before we settled down for the quiz night. I was on Team Butler with Hadley, Jo, Thomas Knauer and many others and I don't think I've laughed so much in a long time. And did I mention that we won? Another Jen Kingwell pattern - Stardust this time. My bucket list may be starting to look a little silly now!!!!!

Sunday morning saw me learning tips & tricks on Touchdraw with Lynne which was brilliant and then modern knots with Thomas: a really fun class with lots more laughter and chatting. And this is pretty much the only sample that I've actually managed to finish so far - just some binding to go.

So there you go, a pretty long summary of my weekend. It doesn't cover sharing a room with Trash and Margerite (who were fabulous roomies!) As you've probably gathered from my witterings it really was lovely!!!! There was lots of laughter. Lots of fun and I so want to go again next year if I can clear a weekend pass with the hubby. A big thank you to Lynne, Brioni, Tasha, the Two Jacks and many others who I've probably forgotten to mention.