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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