FQ Retreat - Part 1

So my trip to the Fat Quarterly Retreat began with a 5 am start.  Anyone who knows me will know I don't do mornings, so I was not best impressed.  But boy was it worth it. 

I caught the 7.30am flight from Jersey and travelled on a very small plane into London City...

 

 

 

And took a cab across London with my heavy suitcase.  I travelled down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace, and for a brief moment imagined that I was Royalty as I avoided the crowds and heat of the underground. It was wonderful ;-)

 

 

After checking in to the hotel, I headed to Liberty, where I was lucky enough to attend a talk all about the history of their store and their fabrics.  I took just a few photos, but they did ask that they weren't published.  So I'll just show you this one, which is mainly of lovely ladies admiring the beautiful artwork on display.  I'm sure this one will be fine!

 

 

Following the talk, we all headed straight to Baden Powel house and I immediately spotted several blogging friends, including the wonderful Liz and her fabulous buddies Cerri and Nikki (You need a blog Nikki!!!) as well as the very dear Susan who I was thrilled to meet after reading her almost daily blog posts for well over a year.

 

Left to Right: Nikki, Liz, Sarah

My first class was with John, where we learnt the basics of embroidery, and I made a start on a sweet little bird.  (I will show it to you in a separate post).  And I had the pleasure to sit with the lovely Amy and Sarah  who arrived late due to being a teacher and having to work until mid afternoon. 

 

Left to Right: Sarah, Amy, Leila

After a wonderful evening of Show and Tell on the Friday night, with plenty of fun, laughter and half a bottle of Rose for good measure, it was soon morning, and I was in Kerry's Fabric Fantasy class.  Seeing this much fabric in one place and being able to touch it was just to die for!  

 

 

 

I also took the Free Motion Quilt Design Class with Trudy, which was very informative, and my goodness she is so talented!  But I just found it soooo difficult to replicate her wonderful patterns on paper.  I can't even bring myself to show you an example.  But I did meet the wonderful Jo and after the class we had a wonderful afternoon with Julie and Carol stitching, chatting and stitching some more.  I was in heaven! 

Carol, Julie and Jo
 

 Saturday night ended the way all Saturdays should end; with cocktails of course!  And we even managed to lure Mr Aurifil himself along!

So that's pretty much it for part 1.  I can't believe it's taken me nearly a week to sort my photos and write this post.  And I really can't believe it's all over.  I've had SUCH a ball.  If you didn't make it, then you simply must come next year.

Hoping to be back soon with Part 2!

Sarah x