radio silence

just thought I'd pop in a wee post to apologise to all of you who have commented on my recent blogposts and haven't received a reply.  I'm not normally that rude.  It's just that real life things have happened which has taken my attention. 

I have debated with myself for the last few days whether to share this but I feel that I'd like to. My mum passed away this week - she was diagnosed with end stage lung cancer back in the new year and put up a valiant fight, bless her.  As some of you know, I'm from Scotland but live in England, around a 6-7 hour drive away (depending on whether the wee man is with me!) so haven't been able to spend as much time with my mum and the rest of the family as I would have liked to over the past few months.  That has been hard, especially this past week. The funeral is next week so I'll probably be quiet for another week or so.

My mum used to make bread whenever anyone died - she said it made her feel better. So I'm off to knead some dough....

amazeballs

..... it's the only word to describe my weekend at the FQ Retreat in London.  Everything was just amazeballs - Baden Powell House AKA the Scout Hut was a brilliant venue, we managed to get a late booking at a great hotel within walking distance, the people were just beyond brilliant, the classes were so well run - not teachy teachy, very supportive and encouraging, pitched just right - I wish I had been able to do them all!  I didn't take ANY photos at all (partly because I'm rubbish at it and partly because I just forgot!) so here are a few of the things that I made....

 No "show and tell" from Kerry's class. Although it was brilliant and has sparked off many an idea, it was my first class on Saturday and we'd arrived just in time and well to be honest, I was really slow and my work was pretty rubbish BUT it's all about practice and positive thought :)

zips hold no fear now!

Who knew that zipper pouches could be so easy?!  Well the lovely Claudia for one and she made a lot of people very happy and it looks like this may be a popular chrimbo gift this year!

absolutely LOVED this class

This is as far as I got with my machine pieced placemat, made with Brioni, who is one of the nicest people I have ever met.  I am going to finish this up next week when the wee man starts his nursery induction days - something nice to keep my mind off of it!

frame purses with Katy - a hoot!

My guilty secret is that I've made frame purses before but I really wanted to be in one of Katy's classes.  Even then, I was too nervous to talk to her properly! I found out some great tips though.  This purse is about to wing its way to someone really nice, just because.

Maybe next year there will be a class on how to photograph your makes - I'd defo sign up for that one!

If I hadn't have gone with my lovely MIL Carol, I'd have seriously chickened out of going I think so I am sooooo grateful to her for chumming me along, even though it was out of her comfort zone too.  And thank you to everyone for making us feel so welcome. A great weekend, filled with great people, doing great things.... it's like a big warm hug just thinking about it.