FQ Retreat Day 2 - afternoon

At last it is time for the FQ Retreat Sunday afternoon to show & tell.  My final class was with the extraordinarily charismatic Katy - Channel 4 if you are listening, this lady needs her own show.  You need to tin Kirstie Allsopp, entertaining poppet though she may be, and launch Katy's TV career.  Your ratings will go through the roof!

Katy kindly did my name badge, which I haven't photographed yet, but I will.  Imagine, if you will, a needlework version of this:

... although not quite as big and my glasses are a bit less Timmy Mallett than that.  She also gave me a groovy little bag stuffed with goodies - including a petit fours (like a charm pack but teeny 2 1/2" squares) of Juggling Summer by Zen Chic fresh from Quilt Market in Kansas City (soooooo jealous!):

Katy's class was Frame Purses, a class that I was scared of, because I couldn't for the life of me see how on earth I would be attaching a fabric pouch to a metal frame.  Then I found out about this:

Thank you U-Handbag for this image of Gutermann HT2 seriously strong & whiffy fabric glue.  This is yet another technique that I am so glad that I did in a class.  If I had been following instructions on a page I am not sure whether I would have come out with a completed project, but when you have Ms Katy reassuring you "really ram the fabric up with your scissors, you can be more aggressive than that" - then this is what you can end up with:

I am so pleased with my purse!  It is a nice chunky one - the frame is 6" x 3" so it is much bigger than it might look here.  Check out this post on Katy's blog for a nice picture of all the purses in our class:

...mine conspicuous in its absence because I was too slow - I was still covered in glue at this point.

I then raced back down to the main room to see if I could catch the end of Lucie Summers' Portholes class but it was all but over.  Gutted.  Everyone raved about the "ah-ha!" moment in the technique and I can't guess what it is.  However I am hoping to go to the London Modern Quilt Guild's next meeting and Amy has kindly offered to give me a quick tutorial.

For those who haven't seen Lucie's award-winning Portholes quilt, here it is:

which I believe won best quilt at the Festival of Quilts 2010 (correct me if I'm wrong!).  It certainly deserved to!

Gertie xxx