Friday morning, very very early I traveled to London to attend the Fat Quarterly Retreat. My journey (car, plane, tube, walk) went exactly as planned and I arrived (somewhat tired) at my hotel at 9 in the morning! My room was actually a cupboard in the attic which they cleared especially for my arrival (just kidding, it was a single bed room in the Edwardian Radisson in Kensington) but I was quite happy with it. It was clean, quiet, had a good bed and an interesting view on a mew. Mew is also my new favourite English word. :)
I spent much of the afternoon with Carina and it was lovely to finally meet my &Stitches colleague in 'real life'. I found out she has the tiniest hands and apparently (according to Carina) I have a heavy Dutch accent when I speak English, haha. Carina gave me some lovely gifts (fabric, chocolate and ribbon) as well. I brought her some Dutch Stroopwafels. I treated myself to the cute Jubilee Cookie Tin you see pictured above.
Mid afternoon we thought we'd squeeze in a visit to the Museum of Natural History (that's me in front of it) but I was actually too tired by then to really enjoy it. So I must come back and visit it again properly because it is a beautiful museum.
In the evening there was a planned visit with some other Retreaters (is that a word?) to the very lovely Tikki Patchwork shop in Kew Gardens. Obviously I had to buy some fabric and I went for some 'classic' Kaffe Fasset fabrics (some grey Roman glass and Millesfleur) and a cute fat quarter of unknown origin. (photo in tomorrow's post)
I was up early on Saturday morning and after a not so wonderful breakfast in the hotel (slightly sad I missed out on a tasty full English Breakfast) it was time to go the Baden-Powell house (if I remember the name correctly). I was more than a little nervous about meeting some of the peeps there but as soon as I entered the building I was recognised (apparently my blog picture looks a lot like me) and warmly welcomed at the desk by the Fat Quarterly Team (which included hugs from John aka Quiltdad and Lynne from Lily's Quilts) so all was ok. I even received a stack of mini-charmpacks (petit fours) because it turned out I was the very first person to buy a Retreat ticket! Fear of missing out on an awesome event/impulsive buyer, moi? ;)
More tomorrow about the classes, stuff I made (and didn't finish) and the fabulous people I met!
I love your cookie tin. I have always wanted to go to Tikki Patchwork. My in-laws used to live about 45 minutes from the shop. I could never talk my husband into driving me up to visit it. It looks like such a wonderful shop.
ReplyDeleteIt's only a few minutes to walk from the Tube station if that helps? It really is a lovely shop and well worth a visit if you like modern quilt fabrics!
DeleteOh, what fun! Looking forward to hearing more about it. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks :) There was too much to tell to put in just one post (at least I thought so)
DeleteGreat travel post! From the picture of that cute tin to the tiny room and lovely welcome at the retreat, it was a breezy, fun read. Plus, I love looking at pics as I read along. I'm looking forward to more tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteoh thank you! I'm in the process of writing part 2 but I might need a part 3 as well ;)
DeleteHow exciting!! I can't wait to hear more and to see more pictures. I heard that hotels rooms in that side of the world are unusually small compare to US hotels. That's a lovely view!!
ReplyDeleteI guess the size of the room has to do with the building (old) and where it is (a good spot in a big city) and how much money you are prepared to pay for it! ;)
DeleteI can only imagine... BTW, your daughters and you look so alike, such beauties!!
Delete*blushes* x
DeleteTiniest hands. LOL! :-)
ReplyDeleteyes they were tiny! Smaller hands than me = tiny!
DeleteIt really was a fabulous weekend wasn't it? I think your Dutch accent sounded fabulous and not especially heavy at all. Your pic made me laugh bc I had a similar view but from slightly lower down.
ReplyDeleteIt was wonderful to meet you Trash. I just had a good laugh when I remembered the one lonely Converse with panther print you left in Katy's class yesterday. What was that all about?!? And your Scary Mary/Wonky Donky bag of course. You must come next year (assuming there will be a second FQ Retreat!)
DeleteMeeting you was amazing. I wish we had the whole weekend to sit and chat! Thank you for being the very first ticket person AND the first kinky party post!!!
ReplyDeleteIt was lovely meeting you too. Somehow there just wasn't time to sit & chat! There will be another opportunity for us to do that I'm sure! x
DeleteLooks like a wonderful weekend! Thanks for sharing the pics!
ReplyDeleteIt was wonderful. Wish I had taken more photos of my classes, the quilts and everyone else at the event!
DeleteI didn't get to meet you:-( :I was only there on the Saturday and it just wasn't long enough!!
ReplyDeleteI know, time just went so quickly didn't it? And with about 100 attendees it's nearly impossible to meet (and remember) all the people there. :)
DeleteI think the rooms were small as they were singles. The doubles I saw through open doors were much bigger. I would like to see your stack of petit fours.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to post a pic in tomorrows post of several goodies. Including your AWESOME pincushion! It was a pleasure meeting you and you did a wonderful job leading our Iron Man team to victory! :)
DeleteIt was so lovely to meet you Nicole after tweeting for the past few months.
ReplyDeleteSame here! I definitely want to attend a second Fq retreat. I just loved being there, meeting like-minded people and learning a few new skills too!
Deleteyou were fantastic even if you can't actually cut diamonds....lololol, keep in touch :)
ReplyDeletehaha I *can* cut accurate diamonds, just not through 3 zillion layers of paper with Ikea scissors and the example the wrong side up! Was great meeting you (even though you didn't listen to me during Pub Quiz...) ;)
DeleteIt looks like it was a lovely weekend!! And that tin is just too cute :)
ReplyDeleteIt was wonderful, everyone is sad it has ended!
DeleteI bought that very same tin on ebay a couple of days ago!!! I thought it would be perfect for little sewing bits and bobs. :-)
ReplyDeleteI loved seeing everyone's instagram pics of the FQ retreat...they did make me very jealous though. ;-)
Exactly what I thought when I saw the tin! First have to eat the shortbread cookies though... ;) It would be great if you could attend a next retreat, I mean there were peeps from Australia present this year... :)
DeleteI got slightly distracted after Stroopwafels.. Looking forward to your next post on the retreat!
ReplyDeletehaha, already working on post no.2!
DeleteLovely to meet you Nicole xxx
ReplyDeleteSame here! Somehow I had not noticed you had injured your arm :( Hope everything will be ok eventually! x
DeleteA Fat Quarterly retreat sounds divine. Hope it was as inspiring as it sounds!
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Can't wait for the next one! :)
DeleteOoohhh...i bought that tine on my way down to London!!!
ReplyDelete:D mine got a bit dented while traveling back to Holland but it's still cute!
DeleteNicole, I never got the chance to day hello at the Retreat! It was such a lovely busy weekend. Love your tin :)
ReplyDeleteI know! I missed out on saying hi to many peeps too (including you). It's hard to talk to 100 people in just 2 days and do classes too! :) Maybe next year?
DeleteSo nice to meet you! I failed to locate Carina who I also wanted to meet... maybe next year. Lovely pics.
ReplyDeleteSame here! I finally know now who Rafael is ;) Carina wasn't at the Retreat. I only met up with her on Friday. She lives near London and came down to see me. :)
DeleteYou must have been very quick to book to have been the first one!
ReplyDeleteJust read the comments and laughed about trash's shoe left in the class. It's all those little memories than made it such a special weekend.
I thought I'd better buy a ticket before I changed my mind. I had to travel a bit you know! Didn't know I was *that* quick though :) Trash's shoe is making me giggle again..
DeleteHoi, eindelijk weet ik nu welk gezicht bij welk blog hoort! Het was leuk je te ontmoeten ook al hebben we niet uitgebreid gekletst. Wie weet volgend jaar? Of eerder? De wereld is maar klein.
ReplyDeletegroeten uit 't Noorden!
Ik geloof dat London voor mij dichterbij is dan het Hoge Noorden haha. Als het lukt ben ik er volgend jaar zeker bij! Moet ik dan een tshirt aan waar heel groot NICOLE op staat? ;)
DeleteI got that tin too! Can't believe you haven't met Carina before! It is the first time the 5 of us were together too.
ReplyDeleteHurray for the FQ team finally meeting too! Has your tin 'survived' the trip back to Berlin?? I think I'm going to keep my EPP stuff in it I think. Btw we already ate all the shortbread in the tin haha
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