chicken foot packman ghost

*warning:  this is a bit of a blether so you may need a cuppa or to skip to the end!*

Well, I think I've finally stopped spinning!  I had THE BEST time in Barcelona (if anyone wants to know that best place in Barca to have cava, I'm your girl!).  Of course I forgot to take any photos #idiot. Then it a quick turnaround and off to London for the FQ Retreat.  So quick in fact that I left half of the stuff I needed in neat piles on my bed, including the lovely tag that Ann made me and my sewing kit and caboodle #idiot.

Loads of people have blogged about the Retreat already.  There was much more chatting than sewing for most of us I think.  Especially me.  I am a little embarrassed to show you my "makes" but I'm all about full disclosure so here goes:

PJ class with Kerry
OK, so I'm not ready to for the Big Reveal on this one yet.  I did learn lots in this class tough...including...

Sitting next to the lovely Shevvy is not always conducive to accurate sewing.  She's too funny.  And we just laughed at and then copied each other's mistakes.  I had to borrow her spare seam ripper for the entire duration!  Of course, she ended up with a pair of almost finished and beautifully constructed PJs for her mum.  Where as I realised that making an XL size of a unisex pattern when your 5' 4" maybe wasn't my cleverest move.  I could leave them as they are, put a hula hoop in the waist band, add braces and fill them with balloons and I have very passable clown troosers.  But I will finish them and reveal at a later date #onefortheWIPpile.

FMQ with Trudi
Another great class that I was terrible in.  I broke two needles and had eyelash quilting until Jane took pity on my patheticness and sorted things out for me (wrong make of bobbin for the Pfaff machine).  Whilst all around me were doing fabulous work, I managed a few interesting moves:

I perhaps should have taken more sandwiches!

I've not got the smoothness in my swirls yet but it's all about practice (poo).  I'm liking the squares though.  I intend to FMQ the wee man's bee quilt so I need to get my practice head on!  Great class though and such amazing quilting being performed.

Trapunto
Ok, I had no idea what this class was about but I knew that Ruth was selling the kits so my lack of pre-organisation wasn't too troublesome in this class.  I learnt that this is another craft that I am useless at!  This was in no way anything to do with the instruction - pure user incompetence.  I was hoping to make a tulip but it morphed into a chicken foot/pacman ghost instead:

I like the back of it better, apart from the ruddy big scar across it:

Laughing Boy was less than impressed that I went to London for the weekend and a chicken foot pacman ghost was all I "finished".  Yup! #worthit

Hand quilting with Lu
My final class on Sunday morning was with Lucie Summers and it was a real giggle. It was hand quilting and (I'm sure you can sense a theme) I didn't have anything useful prepared so used a quilt sandwich I had originally brought for Trudi's class.  I like the look of the front stitches:

small stitches are hard!

 But the back needs work!

Lu was kind but I can do better!

Sample Swap
I was in a fab group for the sample swap. Sara (who was one of my clients many moons ago), Kath and Aylin made such lovely things....

my booty!

 

And lovely Di took a photo of us...

 

height order unintentional!

Which brings me to the only real downside to the whole weekend..... I've seen myself in other peoples photos a few times now and I'm having to readjust my mental image #fatterthanIthought.   I decided that urgent action needed to be taken on my way to South Kensington tube station, via Hummingbird Bakery to get some cupcakes for the journey home #obviously.

 

I'm seriously thinking about Couch to 5K, despite the scatological side affects experienced by Lu and Emily!  And Laughing Boy is up for some healthy eating, only after we get back from our hols #obvs. I'm thinking of rewarding any progress with fabric!

 

So the outcome of the weekend was pure joy at meeting up and spending time with friends (old, new and now not so virtual), pure amazement (but not surprise) at the gorgeousness of everyone's makes, pure lust over handmade bags, clothes and sundries (such inspiration), an unexpected reaction to air con (aaaa-tchoooo - sorry class mates), a re-energising of my sewing mojo, a sense of pride that I spent £0 at quilt market (tinged with sadness of course!) and a real desire to lose a few lbs.  That was worth it, I think.

Linking up with Clare's Brit Sewing Linky Party: it's a Thursday thing!

Hang the DJ...

Panic on the streets of Nottingham.... I'm running to catch up with pretty much everything.  I finally sent off the FQR 2013 name tag I made for my partner, who I am around 98.72% sure does not read this blog so here's what she will be signing for tomorrow morning...

I tried to match the font in the header of Kelly's blog

It's double sided cos I think that lanyard tags tend to have a mind of their own and usually show the "other" side.

I am really upset with this side because I had a little iron incident which removed a tiny bit of the K and I almost cried.  but given this was like my 900th attempt at making this tag, it had to go with a huge apology to Kelly. #ihateironing.

I received my name tag from lovely Ann in Denmark.  Ann and I are part of the FQR Kinky Bee that was born out of the envy some of us felt at last year's Retreat when seeing the piles of loveliness that the Brit Bee guys had made. There were enough of us to have two groups in the Bee but this meant that Ann was a Honey and I was a Bumblie so we haven't made anything for each other until this thing of beauty arrived on Saturday....

adjustable lanyard - genius!

And so during the hottest weekend of the year ever, it was onto finishing the sample swap items....

from underneath

what's the collective noun for a pile of iron cosies?  a glide? 

Yep, in sweatshop conditions, I made iron cosies for my group!  I dearly hope they travel with hot irons :-/.  A friend of mine said that I must have too much time on my hands to make a cosy for my iron - if only that were true.  But I've found mine useful for guild meetings (well, that one where I took it!) and wanted to do something that no-one else would make.  I hope to make bags for them to go into before the end of tomorrow cos that's where my time goes haywire.

I'm off to Barcelona on Wednesday for the night to catch up with a dear friend who is visiting Europe from New Zealand.  She is an extremely talented writer as well as quite simply the loveliest person and I am super excited about seeing her again - it's been about 9 years or so I think.  Anyhow, I'm back on Thursday in time to unpack and repack to head to London on Friday morning for the Retreat.  I still have to pull all my class prep together.  I have washed and pressed my fabric for the PJ making class with Kerry....

Philadelphia in Downtown by Jay McCarroll [image from fabricworm]

I cleared out the Village Haberdashery of their entire stock in Annie's 50% off sale stuff day so 2.5 metres only cost me a tenner!  I have printed off the pattern but need to sort it all out tomorrow.

I still have to pull together everything for Trudi's FMQ for the terrified workshop, Lucie's hand quilting session and Ruth's Trapunto session ( but I think I'll just buy her kit on the day) #shedloadstodo

I'm linking up with Catherine's slow blogger linky party - it's over at Martha's this month - and then off for a lie down!  Thank goodness Tuesday is a half day workwise for me!  I'll leave you with this cracking tune....

plugging back in

Hello there. I snuck in at the back, I hope you don't mind.  Not sure where June went but am pretty sure it wasn't consumed in a sewing frenzy! The last couple of weeks I've kind of been off grid - what with the tennis and then the wee man catching chicken pox the day after my sister and niece arrived for a week's holiday.  All three events conspired against any interweb interaction and the sewing machines had to be packed away to accommodate everyone.  It was fab to have time with our visitors - just a shame we couldn't join in more but the pox will out!  I have missed my virtual world though and am itching to get sewing which is fortunate.....

Of course it's nearly the middle of July now and it's all about preparation for the Fat Quarterly Retreat.  I'm half way through the name tag, which WILL be posted tomorrow #pinkyswear.  I'm also half way through my sample swap items - more supplies are needed though before I can get one with that. I might even finish hemming my Schoolhouse tunic in time.

I guess I should introduce myself a little for those finding me through the FQR linky party. 



my favourite shoes...excuse the pregnancy fat feet

I'm Moira, an exiled Scot (with a sore voice after much celebratory shouting for Andy Murray yesterday) living in Nottingham with the ever patient Laughing Boy and our completely adorable son (the wee man).  A random selection of things I love: Melody Miller, a big glass of red wine, jangly indie guitar music, cardigans, using hashtags (#allthetime), talking about sewing stuff, sitting in the shade, stroking fabric, squaring off quilts and hand sewing the binding down.  I was at the Retreat last year so feel slightly less nervous about going this year.  It was such a whirlwind so I'm hoping to soak it up a bit more this time round. 

This might be a little more helpful if you want to tap me on the shoulder and say hello :)

a wee while ago but you get the idea

Oh one more thing...I'm currently the President of the East Midlands Modern Quilt Guild - if you are in the area and are interested in joining us, have a word or drop me an email.

Now where did I tidy away that foot pedal......?