One week to go.....

OK so I'm a little giddy already.  This time next week, I'll have made a fool of myself several times and may have passed out with over excitement.  Yep, the FQ Retreat is 7 sleeps away.  And, I'm linking up with the FQ Retreat linky party thingy

My name is Moira and I am a fabricaholic.  An exiled Scot, I live in Nottingham with my husband Laughing Boy, my gorgeous 8 1/2 month old son, the wee man, and Jamie-Lee the cat (oh and some fish but that's Laughing Boy's thang, I don't really get involved, not since the big vicious one mauled my favourite one to death *quiet sob*).  I'm just about to finish my maternity leave and head back to lecturing students in how to study (erm.. maybe taking notes at lectures might help? - that kind of thing) so next weekend is my last hurrah......until the Festival of Quilts obviously ;-)

Here's the photo I usually use:

not much help.....

In my wildest dreams I look like this:

if only!

Last year I looked like this:

my wedding day with Laughing Boy and the wee man!

How did I get involved in this quilting malarkey?  Well,  about 6 years ago I used to work with this lady who was very nice but had done anything any one else had done before they had done it, if you catch my drift.  I decided to take up knitting again and oh, she had been doing that for years and then started bringing it in to do in front of us at lunch and telling us exactly where we were going wrong.  One of my friends took up beading but hold on, she had been doing that for years etc etc.  It became a bit of a running joke that we would make up interests to see if we could catch her out - looking back, it sounds a little trite *embarrassed blush* - anyway, one day I mentioned that I was thinking of taking up quilting. This stopped her in her tracks so I thought I'd better investigate this strange hobby a little more just to see whether I was talking nonsense - I only found some very traditional quilting websites (not my bag really) so parked the idea to fester in the darkest recesses of my brain.

Then a couple of years ago, and somewhat surprising myself!, I asked for a sewing machine for my  birthday and started to google quilting again.  One look at Oh Fransson! and I was hooked.  Bought my first book:

...and was off.  I went on hiatus for most of last year cos I found pregnancy and sewing didn't mix for me but am back with a vengeance.  LOVING the totally groovy and supportive blogging community too. And the fabric - who knew!?!?!  So really I have my old work colleague to thank for this great, exciting, fulfilling and slightly obsessive addition to my life.

I'm coming to the Retreat with my lovely MIL, Carol, who is extremely excited but really nervous that she will be the oldest there.  She is such a sweetie and will end up having a whale of a time.