#fqr2014

And so the Fat Quarterly London Quilting Retreat weekend is over for another year.  This was my favourite year so far and the highlights for me were:




The attendees - so many talented quilters all under one roof, so much inspiration, so much to see and talk about and, most of all, so nice to just sit and chat to quilters all day long.  And, as Jo Avery said to me, so many LOVELY people.


My students who joined me for Quilt Maths and Touchdraw for iPad.  As in every other year, I love the fact that I come out of my lessons having learned a whole load of new tricks and tips from them in the classes I'm teaching.  Thank you especially to Kelly for the tip of making backing fabric go further and Sonia for the tip on defining line length in Touchdraw!


The teachers - we really lucked out this year with a group of teachers who not only taught wonderful classes but who really joined in with the whole spirit of the retreat and just hung out with everyone all weekend.  An extra special mention has to go to those who joined us for the Saturday night quiz when they could have been home tucked up in bed!


Trash who was our social secretary for this year and made is her mission to smile, laugh, chat and entertain everyone during the whole weekend.  Generous with her time, laughs, hugs and brownies, she really created a wonderful atmosphere for us to work in.


All the sponsors who support the event, who provide goodies for the bags and who come to the Saturday night quilt market but especially Janome for providing us with fifty sewing machines for this year's retreat which enabled us to create this most dorky of photo opportunities as we carried the machines back out to the courier can at the end of the weekend.


Sandy, Brioni's husband, who took on the role of social media co-ordinator for the weekend and snapped and tweeted and posted and shared all weekend - go look for the hashtag #fqr2014 if you want to see more of what we did over the weekend.  He also took on a secondary - and perhaps more important role - of talking to the Jacks in their own language, rather than quiltspeak which the rest of us were using.


Mandy - my BFF who lives in my village, got me into quilting in the first place and who has supported me and looked after me for all three retreats now - I'd be lost without her there.  She hugs me when I get anxious and tells me it will all be fine.


Tacha and Brioni - as frantic as we always are during the whole weekend, I have so much fun working with these two all year round and especially during the retreat where we actually get to hang out together and chat for a whole weekend.  With all the stress of the many many things that go wrong and get difficult in the preparation for retreat, we had decided this would be our last.  But during retreat we loved it so much, we vowed to do it all again next year!


And last but by no means least, the Jacks (my son Jack and his mate Jack) who will next year have their own hashtag #jackquarterly. They carried machines upstairs, set machines up, packed them away at the end, changed sewing machine feet, set up ironing boards and irons, carried suitcases and boxes full of fabric, held up quilts on stage, flirted with all the cougars and generally ran around after us all weekend with smiles on their faces.

 

For those of you who were there this weekend, thank you so much for coming, we loved having you and you made the weekend such fun for us and a great reward for al the work and anxiety that goes on behind the scenes in the run-up.  I'm going to set up a linky party on the Fat Quarterly blog and we would really really love to hear all about the weekend from your perspective.  The post will also contain a link to an online survey and we'd love to hear any feedback you have so that we can make any changes needed for next year.  For those of you that didn't come, maybe next year?!

Comments

  1. Your post has made me all teary again!!! Especially when you said you wasn't going to do another!!
    Best weekend and thanks to you all for your hard work, (especially the Jacks) it was an amazing few days!! I think they have a future on QVC!!

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  2. This really looked to be the best one ever. Sorry to have missed it!

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  3. what a lovely post and so funny too - "flirting with the cougars" ha! Love that photo of Dolores looking goofy and the fact you quoted me and I was in a photo!! But also, as you know, I totally agree with everything you said. It was wonderful - thank you Lynne!

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    1. I'm with Jo - "flirting with the cougars" made me laugh out loud. It was an ace weekend, meeting everybody and discovering *another* Twinnie, learning stuff, sleeping with Marg *and* Sonia, sharing tales, tips and ice and generally have a fabliss time. Thanks to the acest organisers and teachers EVER?

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    2. great post Lynne, thanks for everything (not being as eloquent as either Jo or Trash but you are both so right). lol Trash. Still trying to adjust again. It was amazing !

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  4. I'm so glad you enjoyed it and there's going to be another one...you're not allowed to stop holding them until I've been to one ;o) I think that the three of you do an amazing job organising the whole retreat between you, I dread to think how much work is involved!

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    1. What Archie Said! ^^ You have to keep having the retreat at least until I can get there. Next year? Yes, maybe next year! I'll start working on it!!

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  5. Honestly the best ever, and you know I am not one for the bullshit!
    Loved every second and am trying to work out how to get Jen Kingwell to adopt me without my mum and dad getting offended ;)

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  6. It looks like you all had such a wonderful time, and I'm so glad to hear you'll be doing it again next year, fingers crossed I might be able to make it! Rx

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  7. I am still coming down from it and haven't unpacked my goodies yet. I loved it and echo the others, so glad you will be doing it again next year. I can't imagine how much stress it creates to organise.
    As for the Jacks, the stars of the show. Maybe they would better on Create and Craft rather than QVC as they know howto deal with crazy fabric people!

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  8. Sounds good!! (That last sentence!)

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  9. It was the best weekend ever! And the picture of the two Jacks is just fabulous and sums up the whole weekend. Hope I can get a pass for next year too :) Sx

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  10. Looks like you had an amazing time! I had so much fun last year and I'm looking forward to 2015, so don't be canceling on me!! :)

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  11. It was a truly awesome weekend Lynne! You guys did such a grand job :) Thank you, thank you, thank you xx

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  12. I can only imagine what the Jacks had to put up with from all the Cougars! Please have another. I bought a ticket two years ago and got sick so couldn't make it. I think 2015 could be the year :-)

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  13. So sad I couldn't make it this year! Looks like you all had a blast! Big pat on the back L for another successful retreat! Jxo

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  14. Glad I picked the right year to come!

    You guys were just brilliant...I can only imagine the stress before hand...thanks for having me! x

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  15. I'm so sorry to have missed and I will be booking into next year for sure. Please do a save the date as early as you can.

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  16. I Ummed & I Aaahed & in the end I Ummed Too long & I missed it. Der :-(
    Next year for sure :-)

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  17. I am so mad at myself for not going this year, so I am glad you didn't decide to make it the last one because I'm already looking forward to the next one! If you had said it was the last I'd have moved my wedding back a year and gone this year, yes seriously.

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  18. Oh, thank goodness you guys are planning on another year! If you need volunteers to help out, you would only have to ask and I'd come running - whatever you need to make another retreat work! :) This was my first year and I had such a wonderful time - I'm already plotting next year, seriously!

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  19. Congratulations, so gutted to have to miss it this year, watching from the sidelines was so hard. Now trying to work out how I can make it next year.

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  20. It all sounds absolutely wonderful. x

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  21. I was part of a team that organised a weekend long blogger get together for people from all over New Zealand. As such can totally relate to how much work and stress is involved in setting up an event like this. From everything that I've seen and read it sounds as if you did an awesome job. well done! I still need to work out how to coordinate a trip to the UK to attend next year -unfortunately I don't think its going to happen any time soon though :-(

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  22. Looks like it was so much fun and another successful retreat! Well done! :)

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  23. It looked fab, hopefully the end of term next year won't be quite as busy!

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  24. Aww. Well done to the FQ team (Jacks included.) Thanks again for having me. SO many lovely people all in one place! Everyone I met was just wonderful.

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  25. I was my first retreat (even if I only came for one day) but I thoroughly enjoyed my day. Thanks for organising it. I have just blogged about my lovely day

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  26. It sounds like this was the place to be.

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