Home again - Retreat run down part 1 - the haul

It's been an exhausting but awesome weekend! After 3 years of trying I finally got to Fat Quarterly Retreat. It was lovely to meet lots of bloggy friends in real life. I was completely useless at photographing any of them, I did get lots of photos of fabric though :) Look at this lot! This lot was in the goody bag from the FQR 2014 sponsors. So generous!

 Then I won this fab stack of fabric from Dashwood studios in the FQR raffle!

Following the sensible decision to join the pub quiz team that Hadley was part of (we won obviously!) I had the pleasure of winning this awesome pattern by Jen Kingwell!

Fat Quarterly Retreat market night yielded many fabulous fabric finds. This selection of remnants from Beyond Fabrics ticked a lot of boxes...

...and this selection of Cotton and Steel prints from Eternal Maker put a smile on my face...

...I couldn't resist a few basics from Fluffy Sheep Quilting either.

Then I had the great joy of taking part in the Sample Swap and came home with these fab goodies in exchange for my aprons:

Blue mug rug from Sue Blake, Purple mug rug from Tsoniki, Nested Churndash from Sue Bone and the orange hexie pincushion and key fobs from Corrine.

So after all that fabric indulgence I'm completely whacked. I intend to be back tomorrow with more retreat news. Catch you soon x

Prepping

Well it's been a very busy time in this neck of the woods. I've been secret sewing, blog updating and website building.I've added some new content over at www.nelliesniceties.com so if you haven't already visited it might be a good time to check it out. I'd love to know what you think of the facelift so far! I'm going to try migrating this blog over to the website in the next few days so apologies in advance for any disruption. If it doesn't work out I'll just leave it here and add new posts here and on the website; me and technology are not the greatest of friends.

In amongst all this business I remembered that I'd signed up for this year's Fat Quarterly Retreat Sample Swap. Given that retreat starts next Friday it really was about time for me to get cracking on making my samples! I've been procrastinating as I really didn't know what to make, then this afternoon I had a light-bulb moment when I decided to make reversible aprons :) I dug out some pretty fabrics and set to work. They go together really quickly and I'm a little bit delighted with them. This is the first one that I've finished, I've just got to add apron ties to 3 more tomorrow. Front...

and back...

There's another one in theses fabrics and then another 2 that are the grey version of this Flea Market fancy print with a Joel Dewberry Modern Meadow print. I'm hoping that they won't be too offensive for whoever is in my swap group. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get on with finishing the other 3 aprons after I've been to the hairdressers to tame my crazy hair for retreat. I'm not sharing a picture here of me until that mess is remedied! Catch you soon x

Belated

I've been a bit late to share with you all the lovely goodies I received from the Fat Quarterly Retreat Sample Swap. I sent my hoops along with Kerry, as I couldn't make it myself, and then waited in anticipation of what I'd get back :) Well, I'm delighted with  my goodies! Even more exciting for me was that 2 of the goodies are from my bloggy/ HipBee pals :) I got this fab purse/key fob and beautiful brooch from Jan.

 This gorgeous cushion cover from Catherine

 and this lovely mini quilt from Francine.

Thank you ladies, I love everything! :)
In other news, rather frustratingly my operation date has moved back by a month. I'm not very happy about that as I'm so blooming uncomfortable but I guess it gives me a bit more time for sewing when the mood takes me. It also means that I might manage to pop along to the Festival of Quilts to see Justine. The Sneaky Stars pattern has gone off for formatting and should be ready for selling in kits at the show.

It's almost time for the big reveal on another secret sewing project of mine. I had the great privilege of working with this gorgeous Liberty Stile fabric for a Fat Quarterly project! Issue 14 will be available next week :) Yvonne was slightly excited to see a little mention of yours truly on the Liberty blog (read, ridiculously over-the-top mother excited!!!) I can't wait to share the finished project with you, it's rather lovely even if I say so myself ;)

Finally, we turned three on 23rd July! It's amazing how quickly time flies by. A huge thank you to all you lovely folk who have stuck with us over the years. Tradition would suggest that we do a little giveaway to mark the occasion so I'm going to think on it over night and post a little giveaway post tomorrow :) Catch you soon x

Hoop, hoop, hoop

I was giggling to myself as I wrote that title. It reminds me of a very funny sketch from Horrible Histories (if the link doesn't work it was about Egyptian hieroglyphics). It has absolutely nothing to do with what I'm showing you today though so I'd better get on with it :) I'm also slightly distracted by Wimbledon so this will be a short post. I've made up some scrappy hoops for the Fat Quarterly Retreat Sample Swap.

 I love making scrappy hoops, it's a fab way to use up some pretty scraps. I added some embroidery in the centre to commemorate Fat Quarterly Retreat 2013. The back of the hoops are very simple but contain my fancy labels from Karen. I'm hoping that whoever receives these at Retreat will be happy with them. Unfortunately I won't get to see their reactions for myself as I won't be going. I'm feeling way too uncomfortable to be gallivanting off to London for the weekend, much to my despair. I'll be keeping everything crossed that I'm able to go next year! 

Oooo, Murray has just won the match! Result :) Hope you all have a good weekend. Catch you soon x