Memories

 How cute are these! I was rootling around for some ribbon and came across these fabric stamps, apparently they were from the stitch gathering 2017! 

They are too pretty to hide away so I've made them into cards.

Stitch gathering 2018

OK all these pictures are in a totally random order but that is probably fitting since this years Stitch gathering was very "random" (check me and my yoot vocab :-) ) and i mean that in a non critical way, the event itself was AHMAZING but me, well i was a bit random .... i hurt my shoulder and arm the week before and everything was totally up in the air. I had promised the beautiful Natalie could stay with me but my shoulder was so bad (i was on morphine peeps ....) that i was in no fit state to have anyone to stay OH THE CALAMITY!!!!! 

the house was a cowp (scottish for totally unhygenic and a complete midden ....) also i couldnt dress myself let alone drive, it was a nightmare, in all seriousness i cried so much. Never mind i got the lovely Natalie a hotel and just sucked up the fact that i couldnt go to the meal on the saturday night.

The brilliant scoobs said he would drive me there and back, he is just wonderful so i crossed my fingers and hoped it would all work out.

We all had to make a cat or dog block as our ticket. I managed to get a video of them all laid out.

First up was the great class from Lisa Dolson on embroidery. Poor Lisa was suffering from Labyrinthitis which i have had in the past and its HORRIBLE so well done Lisa for carrying on with the class. Lovely Sandra @rubylovesred gave a helping hand with demos. I loved the class even though my only ouutput was this rather lonesome spiderweb rose but hey, the day before i couldnt even get my knickers on without help so this was progress!

The added bonus was i got to sit next to @cuckooblue me and Poppy always have such a laugh at the gathering, what a lovely lady a pleasure to know.

So its fitting that my first lunchtime picture features Janice!!! yea for Janice, @marydon, another lovely lady who is Poppys neighbour, i cant think of tow nicer ladies to live next to each other, they are both so nice. Janice is showing and telling (with Jo Avery) one of the quilts made with blocks from last years tickets. Jo asked for house blocks, so this will be for siblings together.

Here is Janice again, this must be another of herr quilts for show and tell, to be honest i was doped up on painkillers and cant remember that much of who did what .... sorry!

 

I had to stand well up the back i was terrified someone would accidentally bump into my arm, it really was that sore still.

I didnt get this ladies name but she must have been at the same class as me last year, the Zen chic glass in Biggar, this is a stunning Globe quilt.

Part of the fun is catching up with chums, the lovely Jane and Tatyana were there.

A great selection of show and tells.

The Lovely Poppy with her amazing Avenue quilt

Cute!!

awwwww here is the lovely Quilty doings with her pixilated quilt of her mum and dad, not a dry eye in the house when she spoke about this.

During the lunch break we had to find our partner for the pincushion swap, looooook! my partner was my luffly chum Jo - @quiltydoings :-) i love my pincushion.

I didnt get any pictures of the afternoon class, i was doing improv EPP with Lucy Brennan, i learned loads but had really run out of steam by that point so didnt manage to do anything in it. Lucy was lovely and so inspirational.

So then that was it all over! wow, so I was waiting for Mark (who was driving me home and Natalie to the airport) to text me to say he had arrived. I was chatting to Natalie and suddenly she said "there's Marksgonewalking!!! (thats his instagram name) the brave wee soul had come into the venue to look for us! He walked into a room full of lovely ladies a lot of who recognised him from his #husbandsholdingquilts pictures on instagram 😊😊 look at him! he loved it, this was when Jo was giving her wrap up speech.

And here she is the woman herself. behind her the lovely helpers, Pauline Allie and Jane.

Phenomenal day as ever, hopefully next year ill be more able to join in, still i did manage to go which was the main thing.

Pfffffffft, silly me, forgot about the goody bag! i did the full sponsor thanks etc on instagram but no harm in thanking them twice! the goody bag is renowned and quite justifiably so, just look at all this!

so thanks to: Aurifil thread, sewmotion, nicolajdodd, lovequiltingmagazine, bethstudeley, duckeggthreads, rileyblakedesigns, mybearpaw, blendfabrics, lewisandirenefabrics, dashwoodstudio, beyond_measure. It was an epic goodybag as ever.

Ok we are not supposed to have favourites but duckeggthreads is a speshul chum and Mini Mini bud was sooooooo chuffed to find the scrap pack from the lovely Sarah in the goody bag.

He was even more excited to see the lovely present Natalie bought me! look at this wonderful liberty!!!

And panda socks! my one sadness was that i couldnt spend the time with Natalie as we had planned. Never mind there is always next year!

Stitch gathering 2017

It all started so innocently ... with a Prosecco party  😊 lovely new addition to the Stitch gathering festivities! 

 

Look at Robins face, says it all! The now traditional pre gathering meal at Jamies Italian. Sitting across from me were these two lovelies, Lucy and Sandra, much laughter.

My name tag from lovely Jenny @patchworkmummy, it even had a cute wee needle minder in it, liberty capel as well! Cant beat liberty capel.

My lovely postcard from Catherine @knottedcotton poor Catherine was unwell and didnt manage on the day, hope youre feeling better now, i love my postcard.

 All of the postcards were amazing.

 My morning class, sewing mat with Julie Rutter @blackisleyarns

Lunchtime my minis from @bettistitches had a meet up with the lovely George Clooney pig who loves with @cat_haggart

Afternoon class with the ever fabulous Trudi Wood

And the best bit?? Meeting up with this gorgeous lady @lovenatalieuk as gorgeous in person as she is on instagram 😊 

Lastly but not least a HUGE shout out to the sponsors who always make this the goody bag capital of sewing retreats.

Thank you SO much - Aurifil, Nairns oatcakes, Dear Stella, Todays Quilt and Love patchwork, DMC, Duck egg threads, Michael Miller, Cloud 9 fabric, Blend fabric, Free spirit fabric, Lewis and Irene fabric, sewing quarter, and Dashwood studio. But most of all thank you Jo Avery - Mybearpaw, the stitch gathering is always the highlight of my quilty calendar.

Stitch gathering house quilt! Another FAL Q4 finish!

We are storming through the FALQ4 list!! This one went on the FALQ4 list LQ4 list because I really wanted to get it done and sent off to Siblings together. I was delighted when Jo asked me to take away some of the fabulous ticket 'house' blocks made for this years Stitchgathering.   

There was a lot of green in the house blocks so I bought some plain green fabric for sashing. A nice sunny yellow for corner stones and off we go!

 

Right that it's done and dusted ready to send off to siblings together and ticked off the FALQ4 list!

Stitchgathering 2016

There are events which punctuate my quilting year. The festival of quilts has become an annual semi colon along with the Cullen quilt retreat. The Edinburgh Modern quilt guild jaunt to Gartmore house looks to become a staple too. And then there is the stitchgathering! Wow what an amazing event. Organised by the lovely Jo Avery of Mybearpaw this has become the sewing event of the year in Scotland! Every year I don't think Jo could make it any better but it just keeps on getting more and more sooper awesome! A meal out on the Saturday night is now a regular occurance. A pre event to break the ice and have a few laughs.    

Above is the gorgeous Pam who made have led me astray on the old alcohol front .... Not that I need much leading astray mind next to her is the gorgeous Lucy from Skinnymalinky fabrics. 

Below is the sooper Nicky Eglinton and the lovely Mrs Moog who had a stinking cold poor soul. That did not stop her having a huge laugh though! Great night.

There were swaps !! This is the stunning badge I got from @cuckooblue the lovely Poppy how ace is this!

            This is the potholed I made for @theoriginaltrash I loved making it.    

                                    There was a badge swap! I got a boob full of badges 😊😊 thanks to @gingerscribble for organising that one.  

     This was my badge, me and my lovely boy Bud.

Morning class was with Julie Rutter @forestpoppy we were making bucket totes. Great pattern really good instructions.

 There was a show and tell at lunchtime where I got to show off the silk quilt which was finished the day before!

The afternoon was spent with the amazing Trudi Wood attempting to master Free motion quilting won't say it's mastered yet but I am feeling way more confident now after Trudis expert advice!!

The ticket this year was a house block, this is mine.

 I took away 20 of the blocks to put together for a siblings together quilt. Watch this space for progress on that!

 There was a tombola at lunchtime! Look what I got a Threadhouse pattern from Lynn Goldsworthy!

 And of course there was the goody bag!! Every year I think Jo can't make it any better but she does. Huge thanks to the sponsors.

Huge huge thanks to the sponsors, goodness the goody bag just gets better and better every year!! So many thanks to:

Aurifil thread nairns oatcakes my bearpaw dearstella  lovepatchwork and quilting magazine DMC duck egg threads Michael Miller fabric cloud nine fabric blend fabric  windham fabric  Lewis and Irene fabric