To London and Back - Fat Quarterly Retreat 2013

Mostly, the Fat Quarterly Retreat is about the people. I had the best time - these are truly 'my people'. That picture is of Cindy's quilt from the Modern Stitching Bee, and includes some of my bee mates too. From left to right, Susan, Cindy, me, Nicky, Emily and Di.

I've been back almost a week, and still awake and sleeping at the wrong times, but it was so worth it. I got to see so many of my friends and meet many new ones that I only knew via the internet, and happily meet more that I had never met at all before. I did not take a lot of pictures during the retreat, I talked and laughed and learned and just had fun instead.



There was a wonderful bag of loot from fabulous sponsors.



Susan gave me that wonderful pouch with the embroidery on the side. For the sample swap, I received that beautiful mini quilt from Kris, the lovely zig zag pouch and round pincushion from Susan and the wonderful long skinny pincushion with tiny liberty hexagons from Justine. Thank you all, these are beautiful.



I had a great time with Krista, a long time Canadian internet friend who I finally met in person in London. She gave me that cute little Liberty print ring which I am wearing as I write this post. The Liberty print key fob was made by Hadley and the Comma pendant was Kerry's creation. The yarn is from the my Liberty shopping trip with Cindy and Marit, and a scarf was started on the plane ride home. The wallet is from my shopping trip to Cath Kidson with Shevvy and Krista.



There was a market too at the FQR. I bought this excellent hand printed fabric from Leanne Fanny. You can find it in her store here.



Here is the stack of Liberty scraps and strips I bought. Well, there are a few half yards at the bottom. I went to the Liberty store with Krista and again with Cindy and Marit. Krista and I also found a stack of scraps at Shaukat. (I might have also purchased some sample books there too, but those are for another day.)

Lest you think all I did was shop, I should mention that I also went to a real London play, which included heading out early to get the cheap same day tickets, popped into a couple of Museums, walked about Tralgar Square and Camden Gardens, and had several lovely meals with friends.



I took wonderful classes from excellent teachers. I made this improv mini in improv class with Lu and then I started the hand quilting in her hand quilting class. I also took photography with Judith who shared excellent tips, and paper piecing with the very talented Joanna and Julianna. I will share my typewriter as soon as I get it finished.



I came home with excellent books, by Lu Summers and Brioni Greenberg. They even autographed them for me, they are both such lovely women.



I stayed here, at the Radisson. It was so fun to return to the same hotel on the same street, to use the same subway station and get coffee at the same Starbucks and walk around the same neighbourhood. I do love London, and am already saving for next year.



Here are the trivets I made for the sample swap and Elisabeth's name tag (the "e" is from Diane's pattern which is here.)



I put the Octagonal Orb quilt in the hands of the Siblings Together folks. They loved it and told me they would aim to give it to a boy, as the Always Bee Learning women and I had planned. There were many other excellent quilts handed over that day too. You can see some of them here.



And I wore this fantastic name tag the whole time, made by the lovely Sarah - who I did get to meet as she was able to arrange things so that she could come.

So, that is my FQR 2013 recap post - you can read some other posts about the retreat by going here. It is hard to explain how much fun I had hanging out with my people - people who like to make things, especially quilts.

Thank you to the Fat Quarterly Team, the teachers, the sponsors, and especially to the participants. I expect I will be back next year.

Best,

Leanne