Fat Quarterly Retreat London 2013 (2)

English Paper Piecing with Katy

(Find part one of my Fat Quarterly Retreat recap here)

On Saturday I first attended a stamp carving class with Tacha. I had no idea I had so little talent for this particular craft. I'm not sure if I can blame my headache (which sadly lasted all day) but the result (a wonky owl with one eye) was not great to say the least... Maybe I will try stamp carving again in the privacy of my own home ;)

In the afternoon I had an English Paper Piecing class called Triangle City with Katy. There was lots of chatting and giggling during that session. I forgot to bring paper templates and after the one and half hour session only managed to sew a rectangle on a hexagon.  I have made some more progress in the past few days though! When it's finished it should look something like this.

In the evening there was a 'Quilt Market', where attendees and professional shops had stalls with handmade goodies and fabric. It was hard to restrain myself from buying lots, especially from the fabulous selection of the Eternal Maker! I bought some Liberty Fat Quarters (check out how they folded it in a star shape) from Fabrics Galore and Echino and Melody Miller from the Eternal Maker. Later that evening there was a raffle but unfortunately I didn't win.

After a good night's sleep (and a fabulous cappucino and brioche from nearby bakery Paul) I went to Brioni's Cathedral Windows Class. The great thing about Cathedral Windows is (once you know how to ingeniously fold your fabric and sew it together) that you end up with a finished quilt!

Brioni's awesome Cathedral Window Quilt

Not sure if there is a whole Cathedrals Window Quilt in my future but surely I can manage a cushion cover or a wallhanging or something? Again I was quite slow but was happy to have learned a new technique. Brioni was very patient with me and a great teacher. I'm looking forward to her book (about using pre-cuts like jelly rolls etc) that is out soon!

In the afternoon, Carina and I met up with Sami and Julie and the four of us embroidered and chatted together in the garden of the Victoria & Albert Museum. That was such a lovely get together that I'm a little sad I don't live closer to these ladies so we can do this on a regular basis...

I almost forgot to mention the lovely goodie bag (thank you sponsors!) we received at the start of the Retreat! It was a Liberty bag filled with lovely goodies like fabric, thread and haberdashery and you will find a nice overview here. Over the weekend I received some more treats: a cool Irish themed headband from John (Quiltdad) for when I'm out running, yummy candy from Carina and lovely Hedgehog socks from Julie! Thank you all so much!

Another lovely surprise was this embroidery that Ann brought to the Retreat to show me. It's from my Apple Tree pattern and I think she did a great job and I got all teary eyed when I saw it. :)

Fat Quarterly Retreat London 2013 (1)

                                                    Confusion at Liberty photo by Catrin of I'd Rather Sew

I arrived at London City Airport early Friday morning for this year's edition of the Fat Quarterly Retreat. I was very thankful that I could get into my hotel room early because the 45 minute Tube journey was warm to say the least. So after cooling down a bit I then met up with Carina and we headed to  Liberty  to attend a talk about Liberty Fabrics! There was *some* confusion about where the room was where we were supposed to be so the whole group of 30 (?) women climbed stairs, descended stairs, went outside, went inside again, saw the Liberty Mail room, climbed some more stairs, you get the idea... I think the photo, where you see me on the back at the delivery entrance, says it all. But we got there in the end. :)

The Liberty talk was fabulous. We heard about where the inspiration for the collections of the past years came from and a bit about the history of Liberty fabrics too. Obviously things are well recorded now but about some of the fabrics and designers in the late 19th and early 20th century not all details are clear. Nowadays Liberty regularly works with established artists, like Grayson Perry and Lauren Child, but also with talented art students on their fabric collections.

I loved the many examples of how old Liberty motifs are cleverly transformed into new and fresh designs. I also learned that the name Tana (from the famous Liberty Tana Lawn) came from a lake in Africa. After the talk had ended we got to see a few of the original artworks and sketches that some of the fabric designs had been based on. We weren't allowed to put all of what we had seen on our blogs but I did take some photos for personal reference/inspiration.

Because we arrived a little early at Liberty, Carina and I had a look around in the store. The whole store is lovely but we obviously were mainly interested in the craft department. There were Liberty Fabrics of course, and a generous choice of Kaffe Fassett too. I spotted lots of What Delilah Did cross stitch kits as well (yay Sophie!). Well worth a visit if you are in London!

After a quick stop at the wonderful Wholefoods store for lunch (all yummy healthy and organic stuff, expensive too!) we headed back to the hotel to prepare for our afternoon Retreat Class. I wish I could say I made some PJ trousers in Kerry's three hour class but I didn't managed to finish them. Even with a great deal of help from both Kerry and Trudi. I now have two separate legs, which is a good start! :)

In the evening I started working on my Bird the Squirrel embroidery and continued to do so between classes the other day. People who saw him said they didn't realise these embroideries were so tiny, so I put a ruler next to him in the photo to show his true size, which is a little over an inch :)

Find part two of my Retreat recap here!

Hello!

Hello fellow Fat Quarterly Retreaters! I'm very much looking forward to meeting you all in London in a couple of weeks time. My name is Nicole & I look like this (on a good day):

I live in Rotterdam (the Netherlands) with my husband, 2 daughters and 2 cats. Come say hi if you see me at the Retreat, I am very shy but love to talk to fellow crafters. I'm hoping to have some time between classes to sit down with a little embroidery project or something and chat about fabric and floss or books (find me on Goodreads!) It's possible I have met quite a few of you at last year's retreat but for some reason I am not very good at remembering names and faces. Or sometimes I know your blog's name or Twitter alias but not your real name etc etc. I apologize in advance!


During school hours and in the evening I make and sell embroideries and embroidery and craft patterns under the name 'Follow the White Bunny'.  I especially like to stitch furry (mostly woodland) creatures like this Tiny Sailor Fox.

Or this Tap dancing Polar Bear:

Feel free to ask me about my embroidery techniques or something if you this is something that interests you!

Besides embroidering I also like to sew (clothes, bags, pillows etc) and quilt. I started sewing 6 years ago and although my sewing, piecing and quilting skills have dramatically improved over the years I still consider myself a 'beginner'.

At the Retreat I will be attending Kerry's 'PJ pants' class. Apparently it's a class about making your own PJ pants, not sitting around in your PJ pants (something I'm very good at!) Still need to buy fabric for that class.

For Brioni's Cathedral windows class I selected these fabrics:

I will also be carving stamps with Tacha and hopefully improving my EPP skills in Katy's Triangle City class!

Last year I had such a great time at the retreat and I'm very excited to be there again this year. :)

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012 (Part 2)

(This is my second post about the Retreat find my first post here)

It wasn't just hugs and a name sticker I received at the beginning of the retreat, there was an awesome goodie bag as well. It included some fab Robert Kaufman London themed fabrics, a Moda Petit Fours and various other sewing related goodies too (hello Aurifil Thread!). Also in the photo above some of the fabrics Carina gave me (she designed them herself, available at Spoonflower) and fabric I bought at the Tikki Patchwork shop on Friday. Sue Bone gave me the adorable pincushion. I won an American Jane Charm pack at the Raffle and (see yesterday's post) I also received a stack of Moda Petit Fours.

Ok..back to the Retreat. In order to 'break the ice' we did a kind of name bingo game. This involved a lot of staring at unfamiliar bosoms as most women were wearing their tag at that height. ;) After that it was time to get stitching!

Except for the fabrics and supplies I was told to bring to the Retreat (which varied depending on the classes you signed up for) I wasn't prepared at all for my classes. I had a vague idea that I would probably be ok with the Wonky Log Cabin Block class and the Purse class but I was a bit unsure about the Paper Piecing Classes. As it turned out I loved all the classes I did.

Believe it or not, this took about 3 hours to make. Obviously it's not finished yet!

Tacha (she was so lovely, I could have chatted with her for hours) taught me English Paper Piecing and I think I'm a convert now. It's a slow and precise process and perfect to take with you while you're on the go. I even did some on the Tube and plane home! It's kind of therapeutic too and I think it's something that some of you embroiderers will really enjoy. Tacha has a book out soon called Hexa-go-go you can find it for pre-order here.

My next class was with John and was all about making a Wonky Log Cabin Block. John is a wonderful friendly guy and it was great to have finally met him in person. I was too shy to have a 'fan picture' taken of the both of us though, maybe next time ;) During the class I also got to have a peek in his Pretty in Patchwork Holidays book (I think it's out in August) which was especially nice because I have two projects in the book as well.

I was a bit worried about using a sewing machine other than my own (I couldn't bring my own obviously) but I needn't have worried. The Pffaf Ambition 1.5 machines that were available to use at the Retreat were super easy to use and sewed like a dream.

My Wonky Log Cabin Block came together quite nicely. I mixed some new fabrics (Kate Spain's Good Fortune) with some older fabrics from my stash (Heather Ross Mendocino and Tula Pink Parisville) John talked us through the process which is really 'design as you go along' and involves very little measuring (yay!) and as much wonkiness as you like. One thing I know for sure now is that I need a 12.5' square ruler which makes squaring up the blocks a breeze.

Between classes I also got to a have a short chat with the very lovely Aneela Hoey. She was there to teach embroidery and I was glad to see that so many ladies attended her class. In the evening I went out for (fancy) burger and a well deserved (?) glass of wine with some lovely ladies from the retreat. Back at the venue we had a pub quiz but I think my team ended up in last place!

Me with my 1/4 Union Jack looking dreadful, Saint Lynne looking like Beyonce is standing behind me

After a night full of weird dreams about quilts and pub quizzes I arrived at the Baden-Powell house quite early, for my first class of the day, Paper Piecing with Lynne, started at 9. Lynne is a saint, she was so patient with me. I was totally confused about the whole process and kept on stalking her in class for about 2 and a half hours. Before the Retreat I thought I would be going home with a Union Jack pillow.  After three hours I only had a quarter of a Union Jack Pillow but learned lots.

Half finished purse with glue still stuck to the frame

My last class of the day was making a Purse with a frame with Katy. Somehow Katy and I didn't get to chat at all during those two days but I knew she was a wonderful person already and got to stare at her for a bit (she is really pretty) so all was well. Due to rescheduling me and two other Dutch peeps I was hanging out with (Linda and Muriel) missed about half of the class. I also knew I needed to get to the airport soon after so it was probably my least relaxed workshop of the retreat.  But...I'm now totally convinced I can make these purses at home too. With a lot of help I managed to leave the Retreat with a nearly finished purse.

In the pouring rain me and my suitcase made it to the Tube station and I arrived on the airport well in time before my flight was scheduled. While I was waiting at the airport I read (saw) on Instagram that the team that I was part of in the Iron Man challenge had won with this quilt top! Woot!

I had a FANTASTIC weekend in London and loved every bit of it. I was a little nervous before the retreat about meeting all the people and traveling alone but it all went so well. I find it amazing that a large group of people with so many different personalities, different ages, different levels of sewing skills etc etc got along so brilliantly. We all shared our tools/machines and knowledge and clearly everyone was so happy to be there. So a big THANK YOU to the Fat Quarterly team and their helpers! It's impossible to mention all the people I met, chatted to, shared lunches and dinners and cutting mats with but you know who you are: thanks to all of you too and hopefully see you all again next year!

Preparing for the retreat

Only a couple of days to go before I'm off to the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat in London. I'm not fully prepared yet but I think I have most of the stuff I need for the classes sorted now!

In the background photo there are the strips I cut for the Wonky Log Cabin class. I had bought a Jelly Roll over three weeks ago for the occasion (because I'm a bit lazy) but sadly it hasn't arrived yet so I cut strips from a Moda Scrap Bag.  The Bag held scraps (end of bolt) from Kate Spain's new line Good Fortune. The fabrics are lovely but there were a lot of selvedges I had to cut off and most strips ended up no wider than 2.5" and often much thinner than that. Anyhoo....I added some Tula Pink and Mendocino strips too because I like to mix my fabrics. :)

The other photos (clockwise, start in the left hand corner) are: fabrics for my Paper Piecing class (I think the particular pillow I choose is called Snowball so I chose some Christmassy fabrics), some of my tools and stuff, and fabrics for the Frame Purse class and the English Paper Piecing class (I'm going to make the  Union Jack pillow).

In the next few days I will start packing my suitcase. I have only put an old cutting mat in it for now (the one I always use was way too big to bring) and I will be adding mostly comfortable and practical clothing to it. First I must find out what the weather will be like in London next weekend. Can't wait to meet all the others attending the Retreat.  If you see me (I look something like this) come and say hi! Me in a nutshell: I'm 41, mum of two, wife to one. And while sewing is not my greatest talent I do enjoy it a lot. You can recognise me by my Dutch accent. That is if I feel brave enough to open my mouth. :)

I'm also excited to meet up with Carina (my &Stitches colleague) who I will meet in person for the first time this Friday, a day before the retreat.

Tag & Scraps

In less than a months time I will be attending the Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat in London and I'm very much looking forward to it. And I'm a bit anxious too about going all by myself and not having actually met anyone else who will be there, even though  I 'know' people from Twitter and Blogland. :) Anyway, I will be attending classes about English Paper piecing, Wonky Log Cabin Block making and Frame Purses. I have absolutely no experience in either of these so I'm sure I will learn lots.

Earlier this year I signed up for a Name Tag Swap for the Retreat and after many hours spent on failed attempts I finally came up with the hooped tag you see pictured above. You may recognize it as a variation of the pattern I did for the Pretty in Patchwork Holidays book.  I still have to receive my name tag and I'm very curious what my (secret) swap partner came up with!

I have also been 'busy' sorting through my fabric stash this week and was amazed by the amount of scrap fabrics I had hidden in there. I have ordered this book, partly because it deals with scrap sorting and storage! I have been cutting some of the smaller scraps into 2.5' squares, planning to make another Scrap Vomit Quilt some day. I'm thinking of sending out some Scrap Vomit Starter Packages (with 49 different squares to make one block) if anyone is interested!?! I will write another post about that so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled for that. :)

P.S. before I forget: I'm a bit late to the party but I'm also on Instagram these days. You can find me under the name Followbunny