Stitch gathering

Well what a day, I am still winding down from this incredible event organised by the wonderful Jo from Avery Homestore. I wasn't originally going to go to this event. It came about at the time I was booking for all the workshops at the festival of quilts so money was a bit tight. A few months later though a tweet came up that one poor lady couldn't make it and a ticket was up for grabs. By this time I had done a class with Jo and knew what an utterly fabulous lady she is so with no hesitation I scooped up my 'golden ticket'
The classes I was down for were bibs with the lovely Julie and folded embellishments with the lovely Jo. I wasn't sure what to expect so was very happy when I saw Nikki was looking for a car share, hurrah!! Someone to chum along with and help me get over those, 'I don't know anyone here' nerves.

There were many touches of genius to the whole event, we had a printed fabric ticket which many of us embellished in some way, Jo is going to make these into a quilt.

We all had a name tag partner who we had to make a name tag for. Mine was Carol and look at the fab lanyard she made for me!!

Here is the one I made for her

We were up bright and breezy to make the 9 am start, the venue was great, Napier University, Merchiston Campus not far from Avery Homestore. The vibe about the place was warm and fun right from the start. Jos husband said such a sweet thing about the day, he loved being in such a large group of women, he couldn't believe how warm and friendly it was with everyone made to feel welcome and included. He was so right.
First up was bibs, I so enjoyed this, everyone made such different bibs, the lovely Julie made us cookies to keep us going and I think we all managed to finish off our bibs.

Lunch was great, plenty of food and cakes, I particularly loved the fact there was plenty bottled water on the go, something a lot of training/workshop events forget, another lovely touch by the organisers.
There was a lucky dip where I got a beautiful needle case made by Jo. A fat quarter swap followed by a show and tell. Lots of fun and laughter too.

My afternoon class was Japanese folded embellishments with Jo, I will hold my hands up to not being the best with small fiddly things but this class may just have converted me.

And it didnt end there!! Back to the shop for bubbly, canapés and the final of the quilt exhibition which Jo had on for the festival.
Followed by a chill out meal at the nearby pizza express. Does it get any better than this?? Well yes it does .... I haven't even got to the goody bag yet, look at THIS!

Can you believe it? It was huge, there were at least 8 fat quarters (yep 8, I have just refolded them to my own specifications so I have counted them ;-) a massive box of thread, liberty bag (mmmmm liberty) more thread from Coats, a thread cutter, cute tin (am feeling like I'm on the generation game!) Liberty tana lawn from Very Berry (more liberty-faints!) needles, aurifil thread, the cutest hexie kit from Dolores, frixon pen, Milward pen.
Gosh if I have missed out anything it is simply because the bag was so HUGE.
Amazing, am still processing it all, roll on the next one.

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FOQ 2013

Was a blast, as usual. I love the festival of quilts, in Birmingham, I have been going for about 7 years now. Irene and I have it down to a fine art. Planned with military precision each year.
This year was no different, flights and accommodation booked in 2012, classes booked as soon as they came out in April.
I love this show, I know some comment on lack of more modern quilts, which is fair comment. It is getting better though and more and more shops are selling more modern fabrics, seeing shops like the Eternal Maker I the flesh is great.
As ever I signed up to too many classes. That's fine though I thoroughly enjoyed them all. I did two with Julie Bull because you can never have enuff pincushions?

I did two with Jennie Rayment, she is such a lovely lady and a hoot to boot. This is an extremely bad picture of a Christmas decoration I did with her.

Sheesh my photography has hit an all time low there ...

Moving swiftly on, I did heirloom sac with Pam Neave

Hmm actually that could be one of my worst pics ever ...
I also dipped my toes n the waters of FMQing with the apple a day class with the lovely Catherine Nichols. What a super lady, she gave us a screen printed panel, from one of her own drawings to work on. Her work using FMQ to write the backgrounds to her quilts is stunning.

I need to get my photography skills improved, hey ho, I am still winding down after yesterday's Stitch Gathering, altogether an amazing day too, that can wait till tomorrow.
Oh yes I bought a sizzix, emmmm and a bolt of wadding :-)

Getting curvy, or the quilt that almost broke me

Here she goes! I am pretty happy with this little one, done from the winding ways pattern from Heather Hasthorpe. It did almost brake me though, all those curved pieces, bias edges etc. The fact I wasn't overly careful with the template cutting didnt help either :-) It's done though and I love it, I think there are at least 4 charm packs in here, good job I stocked up on some more at the festival of quilts ....

 

 

 

 

 

Fussy

I have joined the fussy cut Flickr swap from Amanda I am totally totally addicted to these wee things, I just love finding new centers for them.

This one above is my personal favourite.

Cathedral windows cushion

I have been meaning for ages to blog about this. I had ever such a lovely day at Bearpaw craft learning from the lovey Jo how to make a cathedral windows cushion cover. I have done cathedral windows before but not anything bigger than a pincushion. I am so in love with this cover.

For the back I used two reject blocks from the scrappy trip along

I'm loving it I think.

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The mindfulness of it all

Ok I'll brush the dust off the blog, but hey a week is not too much of a gap ... I've been on holiday the last two weeks and again have been reminded of the mindful nature of patchwork. We had a totally disastrous holiday, the hotel was Fawltyesque in it's awfulness, and we paid a lot of money for it. So Mr Budsmam and me came home feeling a bit deflated and a bit down. So what better than a day or two of sewing to set the mind to rest? Honestly I don't know anyone who does any kind of craft who does not refer to it as their 'therapy' and it is. It's difficult to be raging furious mad with something when you are wrangling with elmers glue and a 'flange' what a wonderful word 'flange'is. So here are the results of my mindful sewing fest: Et voila, two blocks for the pile o fabric skill builder block of the month: The above complete with several flanges The below with lots of curves: So now I am chilled and the memory of hideous, nasty smelly hotel is distant thanks to the healing powers of thread and needle.