Fat Quarterly Retreat - Part Three

Sunday morning and I was going to a class which I was both dreading and looking forward to. Precision Piecing taught by Lynne from Lily's Quilts. I was woefully ill prepared, bringing both cutting mat and rulers in centimetres. To a quilting class. Quilting usually means measuring in inches. Duh.

Luckily, quilters are nice people and gracious enough to not laugh (out loud) at me. ;-) Seriously, they could not have been nicer - letting me borrow ruler and cutting mat so I could cut my fabric squares. And asking me "how are you getting on?"

It took me some time to get the squares cut (it felt like it took atleast an hour!), but after that was done, I got on pretty well. I actually finished the block! I think it's called a 4 square 9 square?

This was definitely a learning curve! And I learnt a lot! About how to measure and cut fabric. How to press the seams and such. My wonky quilt days are definitely not over, but they will probably be slightly less wonky. And I might even try shapes other than plain squares. :-)

Yay for learning new things!

After the Retreat finished at midday, Nicole and I went back to the hotel with my sewing machine. We bought some lunch to eat in the park by the Natural History Museum, before heading over to the V&A. Here we met up with Julie and Sami and sat in the lovely shade in the courtyard, chatting and stitching. I was working on my Tree of Life design printed on fabric - I still love that pattern SO much! Julie showed us how to make paper pieced hexagons and I've become slightly obsessed with these. I'm going to start making hexies myself. Soon!

This was such a lovely afternoon! It was a pleasure to meet Sami and hang out with my &Stitches buddies. I hope we can do it again some time! :-)

The Retreat was fun, exciting, challenging and slightly overwhelming. I knew it would be - especially the latter two. As an introvert, being around lots of people does tend to drain quite a lot of energy. So I was glad I had a nice hotel room where I could spend quiet time and recharge. Ready for having more fun! And I'm really glad I left my comfy comfort zone and went out and met actual people. ;-)

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