Well many times you may have heard me mention Mandy on this blog. She lives in my village. She got me into quilting. She got me into blogging. She got me into Flickr and twitter. You have her to blame. She also runs the wonderful solids and pre-cuts online shop Simply Solids.
When we went to London for the Fat Quarterly retreat, we drove down together, shared a hotel room and she became part of the team running the event, helping move sewing machines, helping teaching in lessons and generally helping us keep a smooth-ish ship running. She kept me calm and sane in a weekend of complete chaos.
We chat at the school gate about new fabric lines, quilts in progress, plans to set up a quilting school and all sorts of other quilting related drivel. My kitchen quilt guild as we call it started with just Mandy and me and then grew to include, Justine, Katy, Brioni, Laura, Karen, Liz, Lucy and Trudi and will no doubt keep on growing. Some months some people come and not others but Mandy's always there. And last week I made her a little birthday gift. I decided it had to be made from my new favorite fabric line, Mama Said Sew, since you have to give your best things to your best friends and I even chose all my favourite prints from that line. And made her a little union jack bag. Happy Birthday Mandy.
When we went to London for the Fat Quarterly retreat, we drove down together, shared a hotel room and she became part of the team running the event, helping move sewing machines, helping teaching in lessons and generally helping us keep a smooth-ish ship running. She kept me calm and sane in a weekend of complete chaos.
We chat at the school gate about new fabric lines, quilts in progress, plans to set up a quilting school and all sorts of other quilting related drivel. My kitchen quilt guild as we call it started with just Mandy and me and then grew to include, Justine, Katy, Brioni, Laura, Karen, Liz, Lucy and Trudi and will no doubt keep on growing. Some months some people come and not others but Mandy's always there. And last week I made her a little birthday gift. I decided it had to be made from my new favorite fabric line, Mama Said Sew, since you have to give your best things to your best friends and I even chose all my favourite prints from that line. And made her a little union jack bag. Happy Birthday Mandy.
WOW what a fantastic gift - I'm sure she'll love it (I do)
ReplyDeleteWhat a kind generous friend you are ....
Happy Birthday Mandy!! Hope you have a great time, and what a fabulous bag Lynne! Love it !!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday, Mandy!!
ReplyDeleteYou must really love her!
ReplyDeleteDelicious bag, well deserved I think.I tried e few times to get on to simply solids but it came up "forbidden" has anyone else encountered this problem and if so how do I get round it.
ReplyDeleteThat bag was top of my things to swipe from Mandy if I'm ever in her neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteFabulous bag :-)
ReplyDeleteMandy is lovely isn't she and now she has a lovely bag!
ReplyDeleteThis is fab - lucky Mandy!
ReplyDeleteI hope I meet her next time I come up. Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous gift - and having met Mandy at FQ retreat - yes, she's a great right hand woman! (Actually she was helping Katy at the time!). The bag is lovely - bet she's thrilled!!!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Mandy
ReplyDeleteI cant get onto Simply Solids site at all atm. Is everything okay?
xxxx
We love Mandy too cause without her we wouldn't have you!! Divine bag Miss L and I still adore that fabric range! xo
ReplyDeleteThose fabrics look great in that bag and happy birthday to Mandy.
ReplyDelete😍🎂🎉🎈
ReplyDeleteSO darling!
ReplyDeleteAdorable. I love it!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great gift for a friend. I love how you say, "you have to give your best things to your best friends". That's how my mom raised me, saying for example when we had someone over to visit that we were to give them the best apple/seat/whatever. No wonder you get such "just because" beauty from others (refering to the LOL Perv quilt) when you give such beauty to others!
ReplyDeletegorgeous, aren't u a lovely friend :)
ReplyDeleteReally, really, really cute! I don't know what it is about the Union Jack that I love, especially since it looks somewhat similar to the Confederate flag which symbolizes the South before slavery was abolished.
ReplyDeleteA really special gift, for an obviously special friend.
ReplyDeleteuhm adorable!! And just wanted to let you know that my birthday is coming up. ;) July 2nd....just for inquiring minds.
ReplyDeleteThat's beautiful!!
ReplyDeleteLucky Mandy - you ladies really spoilt her, and rightly so xx
ReplyDeleteIt's fabulous - what a lovely friend you are!
ReplyDeleteLove the bag and your kitchen quilt guild sounds like so much fun!!!
ReplyDeleteHope Mandy gets her site up and running again after all the trouble :(
She sounds like an amazing best friend! Love the bag, such a great and thoughtful gift =D
ReplyDeleteWhat a cool looking back (as you can see, I dont care what your kids say - I still say cool ;-)
ReplyDeleteGood friends deserve each other... That's a great bag..
ReplyDeleteYay for Mandy. She was an excellent 'right hand' woman for you at FQR. Cool bag for a cool friend. Di x
ReplyDeleteFab friends deserve fab pressies!
ReplyDeleteI think it's high time you stop saying you don't make bags. Clearly you are a bag lady.
ReplyDeleteLooks like we have lots to thank for! Maybe we should all send her pressies or buy more fabric! Oops already done that!
ReplyDeleteYou probably deserve each other!
This is an amazing bag.
ReplyDelete