Fat Quarterly Retreat Day 2

I am missing the Fat Quarterly folks already.  Apologies to the Queen if I remember the Jubilee weekend for the FQ Retreat rather than the boats or Stevie Wonder.  I haven't even seen whatever crazy stuff Grace Jones was supposed to have done, but I should Google it because there have been lots of internet comments about her shenanigans.

My computer is a bit temperamental at the minute so I thought I should get some pictures up before it wheezes to a stop again.  So here are some snaps from FQR Day 2:

My first lesson was Paper Pieced Pillows with the very charming Lynne Goldsworthy of Lily's Quilts.  Lynne had possibly the coolest of all the name tags, made for her by a lady called Jo:

Soooo funky - and topical for the Jubilee!

Lynne graciously did not mind when I stumbled into her class an hour late, having completely slept through my 07.00 wake up call in the hotel (sorry, people next door) and woken up at 09.30.  I had been feeling smug that I had woken up before my alarm, but I heard voices in the corridor that sounded far too awake for it to be 06:anything.  My plan to get showered, dressed and breakfasted in a leisurely fashion evaporated in an instant, so I resorted to a "shower in a can" and legged it as fast as I could to Baden Powell House.  Apologies again, Lynne.

We had 3 choices of pillows to make: Postcards from Paris (square in a square), Circle of Flying Geese, or Union Jack.  What with it being Jubilee weekend, it was no contest for me - Union Jack all the way.

The way that Paper Piecing works is the opposite way round to how my brain works, so my first seam was a total mess and had to be unpicked unceremoniously while Lynne explained to me what I did wrong.  As soon as she explained it, it clicked.  Alakazam!  It was a real lightbulb moment.  I soon put the rest of the first quarter block together and no doubt would have managed 2 if I hadn't been asleep in my hotel room for the first half of the lesson.

So, here is the quarter block I did in class:

I enjoyed this technique so much that I have now made 3 out of the 4 quarters and I can't wait to put it all together.

One rather zippy quilter in our midst managed just that, within the single lesson (impressive!) - hats off to Tracey (I think) who did this London-themed Union Jack:

Hmmm tried to post this photo twice now and it keeps coming out on its side! 

I am so glad that I tried paper piecing in a lesson, because I think if I had tried this alone at home I might well have got frustrated and given up.  But with the right guidance it is very easy and gives very good results for odd shapes and angles.

This post was longer than I intended - I will do the final class (Frame Purses) on my next post.

Gertie xxx