FOQ 2017

 I have the most wonderful chum who always sends the best cards and she sent me the one above many years ago. I see it every day. I cant moan about RA, I'm loosing a chum to pancreatic cancer. Just been told he has two months, thats brutal, i have nothing to complain about. So i am going to live every day.

But its been a strange old time! 6 years to the day, almost to the hour i sat in the same outpatients dept where i was told i had cancer and was told i had rheumatoid arthritis ... i went to the hospital shop to buy chocolate to cheer me up and was greeted by the consultant who had discharged me from oncology a mere six weeks ago ... life is bold sometimes very bold!  Six years ago i went to the FOQ a week after diagnosis and bought all the fabric. This year a week after diagnosis, history repeated itself!! So FOQ 2017 then! It was good, it was grand. I spent the night before on the phone to NHS24 as i had developed an allergic reaction to the drugs and  developed a really sore jaw ... it took till   Midnight to say ok i wasnt having a heart attack! Look what the Lovely Ruth made me!!! 

Look at my post for last year if you dont know the cineworld unlimited card story! So me and lovely Ruth set off on the red eye on friday morning. I couldnt buy too much as i was having to carry my bags a bit at night, the meds hadnt fully kicked in and i was still in a fair bit of pain.

Two talks on the friday, interesting and Jenny Rayment stripped off in hers .... highlight of the day was an instagram impromptu meet up with the lovely Mary, Di, Trudi and Hazel. Lots of catching up, lots of hugs then off to look at Trudis quilt.

And here is the woman herself giving us the low down on it. Totally gobsmacking quilt.

Saturday was a funny old day, i got an attack of the collywobbles and convinced myself i would have to give up quilting. Total nonsense and maybe down to the meds? I got so much love on instagram when i asked for advice on RA and sewing and i know i just have to be careful but i sat in the concourse with tears streaming down my face. What an eejit. I soon made up for it by going to japan crafts and buyjng ALL the fabric.

How flipping gorgeous is that! I may have gone back once or twice ... and Alice Caroline ..... there were classes too! Julia Gahagan mini Alpine Village.

Fun to make but too fiddly for my knobbly fingers! Then me and the lovely Ruth did a class with Catherin Nicholls i try to do one with Catherine every year, she is just so nice!

Dont kill me lovely Ruth but here she is in action.

And here is what we made, well my version.

Saturday night was spice buffet night!! Three heaped plates of the best buffet ever!

Last day was two more classes, Julia Gahagan again with beach huts, again fun but my wonky old hands couldnt do much of this.

Finishing off with handstitched notebook.

A few modest purchases were made along the way 😂😂😂

It was a good FOQ, different and a bit more reflective but good.

 

Reviewing, the situation

I have Rheumatoid arthritis, there I said it out loud. To be honest I've known for a while, so much pain, killing pain, but the confirmation just floored me. It also made me re think a whole load of 'stuff' I have a hugely demanding job, yet again I am a team member short for the start of term so I am covering that and implementing a huge project with tough KPIs .... So things have to give. I gave up the blogging for the Edinburgh Modern quilt guild, I loved doing that but it meant I couldn't blog here so much and I realised this is where I create my memories my happy things to look back on. And I need that now more than ever. I have given up the muckhart quilt group, lovely ladies but the travel and organisation was too much. I signed up for a whole load of retreats this year, which is good, I hope I can still carry that on next year but who knows, I'll make the most of it while I can.

So for now I am being more selfish, it's out with anything or anyone who sucks joy or happiness from me. I just don't have the head space for it. I have deleted Facebook, Twitter I need for work and Instagram is my happy place, that can stay.

I know this can be controlled but I also know I face a rough three to six months while they figure out which drugs do and don't work. I'm struggling so hard to come to terms with this. I do hope I look back on this post at about Christmas and smile and think I got through it, but change is inevitable and this is a biggie, even if the drugs work etc etc I know I can't do what I used to at the pace I used to so I'm just letting that settle in just now.

Right that's the last self pitying post!! I just needed to get that down and out of my head. 

 

Sew together bags

First tick off the Q3 FAL list!! Number 6 a sewtogether bag made with leftover Japanese fabric scraps. I love making sewtogether bags. 

I love making them so much I made two! I have a sooper luffly chum who does so much for charity, free motion quilting for Grenfell quilts, linus quilts. She broke my heart at the Zen chic class we did together when she looked at everyone setting up their tables and said wistfully that she never made small things or did swaps so she didn't have a sewtogether bag.

She does now though!! And she loved it, Liberty no less 😊😊

 

Life is ball

Ive been looking after my floofy pal this weekend,  his mantra is "life is ball" a good mantra to live by.

Zen chic

You know when you have one of those utterly fantastic weekends when all the planets align and the moon is in aquarius? yep one of those. I have adored Zen Chic fabric for years, the text, the colours, just everything really. So I was sooper sooper excited to hear that Brigitte was coming to Biggar for a weekend, trunk show on the Saturday night and class on the Sunday. How utterly fabulous!  

 

I had never done anything with Biggar Stitches before so was excited to see how they set up the event. I wont say that there weren't some communication issues in the run up to the event, or lack of communication issues. But I know Kim took all feedback on board and boy did she more than make up for any inconvenience! I would not hesitate to go back to another event run by her! The weekend started off with Kim giving us a lovely lucky dip discount on all purchases, but im a member of the quilt guild so I get a whopping 205 discount anyway! Bargain! What a lovely shop, great selection of precuts and lovely bright fresh fabrics, well I had to buy some, would have been rude not too! The main event on the Saturday was the dinner and talk in the evening by Brigitte. This was all in the municipal town hall in biggar, great location for the event. Brigitte and Kim had it set up so that they would sit on one of our tables for either the starter the main or the dessert. Lovely food, all gluten free so I was happy! Kim had told Aurifil about it and we all had a spool of thread on our table for us! Much nicer than place names!! I met so many lovely ladies from the Borders modern quilt guild, Lesley and Charlie and Charlies mother. The lovely Angela Stockton gave me her hotel room as she couldn't use it and we were all sharing the same hotel! Great fun. There was plenty wine and then there was the star of the show – Brigitte.

 

 

 

What a lovely lady. I have been at a few other events where major quilting *stars* have been a lot less gracious. Brigitte was open she was funny and then there were the quilts … drop dead gorgeous, go to her website to see them, please don't let my rubbish photography put you off! And what a great story to tell! Single mother of three, took to quilting later in life, when she was fifty she did the sums and took the plunge to give up the day job and launch her collection at quilt market. By the end of quilt market she had three offers from major fabric companies and the rest is history. One or two wee (rather large) glasses of wine later we retired to bed! Up bright and breezy the next day for the MAIN AND BESTEST EVENT EVER!!!! Yep I was sooper sooper excited. Doing the globe class with Brigitte Heitland???? Who wouldn't be.

And lunch was provided! What a super class, all round fabulous, Brigitte is a brilliant teacher, the pattern is challenging but once you get it, it does come together smoothly. The main thing is the fabric choice, I went for my usual solution of “throw more colour and pattern at it …. I adore the result.

 

 

And more free thread from Aurifil! Plus enough 80/20 wadding from Kim to make the whole top as way of making up for any communications issues. How flipping generous was that!

I came away totally exhausted but determined to finish off my quilt top which I did! Just got to quilt and bind it so I can show off at tomorrows modern quilt guild im nothing if not over ambitious.

Orkney - the Italian chapel

I'm on my holibobs .... And not before time too! Might be a lettel bit burned out! Any hoo, me and Scoobs are in Orkney! After a mammoth 7 hour drive and one hour ferry trip we arrived in our cute wee chalets. We can see the sea and the Italian Chapel from our window! The chapel was the first place we visited, oh my goodness, it's not often I'm lost for words but this took my breath away. Beautiful story, Italian prisoners of war built it from two Nissan huts. Look it up on Wikipedia but don't tell my library chums I told you so 😉  

 

Bye bye Rumpy dog

And another twitter chum has gone to visit Bud in his tent. Say hello from me Rumpy dog,  you were a fabulous friend to Jen and June buggy. Run free.