Tuesday 23 July 2013

Back to Porridge!

Actually my porridge this morning with fresh raspberries and blueberries was delicious!  In fact, do you want to see the first wee harvest from my garden?

First harvest '13

Well my weekend away at the Fat Quarterly Retreat in London was brill!

It's very hard to cover a whole weekend of activity and inspiration in one or two posts, but I'll try and give you the highlights!

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Retreat is a packed weekend of chatting, workshops, shopping, chatting, eating and more chatting!!  (This year there was also a lot of sweating - eughhh!)

When you arrive at the Baden Powel Conference Centre you get a gorgeous goody bag filled with fabrics, threads and lots of other useful stuff.  Here is a pic of the fabrics that were in my bag.

FQR13 Goodies

I was straight into my first workshop - PJ pants with Kerry.  Alas I got side-tracked chatting with a friend and didn't get my pjs finished, but I will post you a pic when I do. 

Friday evening on the terrace was 'Show and Tell' and also the Siblings Together quilts were handed over en masse! Here is just a few I managed to photograph.

FQR13 Show & Tell & Siblings Together quilts

Here is Sarah handing over the Bee Blessed donated quilts to Delma from Siblings Together.

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On Friday night we enjoyed a meal out with lots of bloggy friends, but it was sooooooo hot and sticky.  We all flaked out back at our hotel room afterwards!

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Sarah and Rachel drooling browsing!
On Saturday I got the chance to visit a shop that sells Liberty fabrics and offcuts! What a feast for the eyes!  I bought some smaller pieces and also a metre of Liberty needle-cord to transform into a winter skirt (one day!).

FQR13 Purchases

And then on the Saturday evening, there was Quilt Market - where traders and quilters got the opportunity to set up their stall and sell their wares!  I bought some fqs (see above right).

Sunday I was meant to be making a flex frame pouch, but not enough sewing machines meant I got to drink coffee and chat some more with mates and catch up amidst all the flurry of creative activity!

I even got time to nip across the road to the V&A Museum shop!  Wow!  This was a first for me and having a day to go around the museum proper is definitely on my bucket list!

V&A Museum '13
Glass sculpture at the V&A shop!
As always the main highlight for me was meeting up with friends, old and new, who I have had the privilege of getting to know via this amazing online quilting community.

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I think that's enough photos to keep you going! But if you want to see more, go to my flickr page here.

Thank you to everyone who spoiled me rotten over the weekend, and made it a really special time for me. And thank you Fat Quarterly Team for another brilliant retreat!

I've still to show you my secret sewing project no.4 which was handed over at the weekend!  But I'll leave that for another day!

Jxo

19 comments:

  1. This looks brill! :) Just wondering if you know of any charities / bloggers that donate quilts for patients with cancer?

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  2. It was so lovely to finally meet you. Shame about the sewing machine as I didn't need mine on Sat afternoon or Sunday! Your pics are great. So glad to see you're enjoying your camera. I almost went to the V&A Sat afternoon but I was too hot and tired. It's a great place. I may have to organise a tripette to London again soon!

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  3. so glad you had a good time .. the berries are making my mouth water x

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  4. Lovely to see you again, but what a whirlwind of a weekend!

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  5. Glad you enjojed yourself. Can't wait to see your lovely Liberty needlecord.

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  6. Just just not long enough! I wanted to spend more time chatting x

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  7. You are the best. So glad you had a fab time. I'm importing you to my house next time so I get more chat time.

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  8. Phew! We sure did pack a lot in, didn't we? Thanks for being my travel buddy too!

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  9. Wasn't it a great weekend. Roll on next year

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  10. Phew - I thought for a moment you'd been thrown in the clink! Great photos and thanks once again for finishing the quilt and taking it to FQR :)

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  11. Looks like you had a great time Judith! The retreat sounds wonderful. Loving the fabrics. The quilts are beautiful and it is so wonderful to see them handed over for such a worthy cause. Marie x

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  12. It was so fab to see you Judith, and the V&A is one of my favourite places in the world ever! Perfect spot for a Brit Bee meet up...

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  13. Glad you had fun, you deserved it :o) Lovely to see you again

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  14. I love the berries and all those wonderful pictures of the retreat. It was so nice to see you and spend a little time visiting.

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  15. It looks like a great weekend!
    And yummy harvest! xxx

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  16. Dear Judith, it was so nice of you to come over to me and say Hello. So Sorry i was a bit confused as i am so Bad with names and i could not bring you together with you blog. Soooo Sorry for that. Now I know, who you are and it would be wonderful to Talk more with the next time. I e
    Was a bit overwhelmed with these Lots of People and the foreign Language and Dialekts as well. It was fantastic!!!

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  17. Woot woot my daughter's on your blog ;-)

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  18. Love reading about the retreat here and elsewhere... Looks like so much fun!

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Thank you for taking the time to leave me a comment. I really appreciate it & I will always reply. (If you don't get a reply from me it is because you are a 'no reply comment' blogger. You might want to change your blog settings to make sure folks can reply to your comments more easily.) Jxo