Chez Budsmam: Gartmore January 2019

Well its our three year anniversary. Three years since we rocked up at the door of this old mansion house. The first year was BALTIC, freezing but there was just something about Gartmore which made us come back, again and again and again.
Thankfully the heating is now fixed and a lot of work has been done. But somethings never change :-)

ADELE!!!!!! c'mon sing along you know you want too :-)
There was our usual mini challenge, this year it was fussy cutting. I did a mini porthole quilt with the three windows from playschool on it. I wanted to put the arched window in the middle because it was my favourite. I didnt win but lovely Ruth won and she's my chum so thats allright :-) well they are
all my chums, so i dont mind not winning.

Ruths winning entry

There was also a group of indigo dyers visiting too, so there was some nice fibrous talk over breakfast and lunch.

As per usual i went for my wee joggette first thing, just to get the blood pumping and build up an appetite for the full scottish.

Aye well i got a bit drookit as they say!

I was working on a multitude of things. Lovely Ruth and I decided not to do the same paper piecing thing, Ruth had a lot to finish off and she made great headway with getting stuff done.

Love this pouch she made.

I took along a few things to work on. Last year I made good progress and finished off some long term projects - Farmers wife!!!! so what better to do than start some new ones! yea for new projects.

First up my Tea for two on acid :-) ive been itching to start this one ever since I got the idea for the fabric for it. The pattern is a BOM from todays quilter by the lovely Jo Avery. I wanted something vibrant and the lime green with the Japanese metalics is certainly not shy!

I also wanted to start another pattern by Jo, her New York Beauty, this will be a very special quilt. I bought the Tilda fabric with a voucher which was a leaving present from my last job. This quilt will be a special memory of that.

Ahhhhhhh my Neptune and the maiden quilt! the fabric is actually called Neptune and the Mermaid but for some reason I always call it Maiden instead of mermaid.

I got a luffly noo chum. He was in a display case in the foyer just begging to come home to be with his cousin Gertie the sheep who came home with me last time. Liberty scarf expertly tied by the lovely Ruth.

Lucy made and quilted a WHOLE quilt! how lovely is this.

Ahhhhhhhhh yes the quiz night …… each round interspersed with a guess the gin round ….. who says quilting is for meek and mild old laydeez :-)
There were other rounds but who can remember them after all that blooming (gorgeous) gin!

This is looking into the Cayzer room which is where we sew, whenever I drive up I look to see who is in the room. The lights are on, folks pootling about inside, happy and having fun.

One of the nice things the Gartmore staff do is to give us the same rooms each year. I pass this vase on the way to my bedroom. Isnt it beautiful.

I always love these tiles in the main lobby.

Margaret looking contemplative on the balcony.

Who made this?? was it Janice?

Janice definitely made this one! well we all had a little hand in it. Last June retreat she brought along some light sensitive fabric. We all made a block by putting objects, flowers stitching things on a squre. Janice put them all together.

Have you been following the #amakershands on IG? very powerful stories there. I suggested we do one for our Gartmore retreat. I do love this rather a lot.