Fat Quarterly Retreat mark 2

Just over a year ago I left my 3 children for the first time ever overnight and had the most splendid time in London at the very first Fat Quarterly retreat, so it wasn’t really a question whether or not I would go again this year.

Helped by the fact that my husband was away on a bit of a jolly in San Francisco when the tickets went on sale I bought one quick, as did my friend Jo whose husband had ‘dragged’ mine away – time for pay back  a nice weekend away for us!

We are travelling up on the Thursday with Emily (driving) and Susy, all staying with siblings across the capital, I’ll be with my superb brother in Brixton.

Ooops but who am I?  Mary, living in Exeter.

(Here I am modelling my first (and only so far) Washi top)

I’ve been sewing in my living room for the past 5 months which has also been the dining room and full of stuff while we have undergone major building works.  Soon, very soon we will have a kitchen again (this weekend we moved from dining in the living room to dining in the new bit of the house, if you’re really interested you can see photo’s here) and then I will also have a sewing space which will be so wonderful after sewing in chaos for too long.

I’m looking forward to meeting up with lovely people I met last year and new folk too.  I didn’t join in the name tag swap due to building related stress levels so hope to make my own (or find the one from last year), or I may be the only one without a badge, I guess that could be an ice breaker – ‘what is your name?’.

Classes I’m in are Read Between the Lines, stamp carving, flexi frames and bag charms, although I have done nothing yet about supplies so I might be the twit in the corner doing nothing!

I have an Etsy shop selling vintage sheet charm packs:

If you would like to order some and save on postage I’m more than happy to bring them to retreat, use code FQRLONDON at checkout. Alternatively if you’d like some vintage sheet FQ’s I can do this too, I don’t have any in the shop yet due to the chaos of building work but it’s a plan for later in the year.  Special offer for Retreat folks 1-9 FQ’s £1.80 each or 10 for £13.00.  Orders need to be placed by Wednesday 17th.

I also didn’t join in the swap groups as I didn’t want to be over committed and stressed but I do have some items for swap/purchase (£10 each):

A6 selvedge notebook covers (with notebook) I think most of the blue selvedge notebooks are spoken for but I have brown (Hadley quiet at the back please) and orange available; leave a comment on flickr if you’d like to reserve one.

Other than that enjoy the sun and I’ll see you in less than two weeks!