We Gathered, We Stitched

I've been!

Yes,  the eagerly anticipated Stitch Gathering has taken place - it was yesterday (Sunday) in glorious Edinburgh which basked in beautiful sunshine.
I travelled in an Ayrshire party of four - thanks Christelle - and we arrived at our venue, Napier College, at 9am.
As folks arrived we chatted, had coffee, and were treated to the most humungous Goody Bag. The bags themselves were made of Liberty baby needle cord & filled to overflowing with goodies too numerous to mention But a special thank you to Ali from Very Berry Handmade for generously providing us with little Liberty Scrap Packs.
We swapped name tags..........mine came a wee bit later as it was made by Sarah who endured a horrendous journey from Shetland, so glad she made it safely.

We then moved on upstairs to our classrooms - we were on the 6th floor and we had stunning views of the City.

Despite teaching for 9yrs now, I was strangely nervous and glad of the copious amounts of bottled water available. I needn't have worried though, I had a lovely bunch of ladies.

My class was Easy Crazy Patchwork and it evolved into a really pleasant stitching session.

Crazy patchwork can be a right messy business! But from chaos, eventually there is order.

Everyone who attended the Gathering had received a fabric ticket with the instruction to enhance & embellish - they are going to be joined and made into a quilt. Well, it's going to be quite a quilt, the blocks / tickets were wonderful. What a bunch of talented ladies with heaps of imagination - go on, take a peek,

And then it was lunch time.................yum!

During our lunch break we had a lucky dip (better than Santa's any day), a fat quarter swap & show & tell.

Suitably refreshed & relaxed we moved onto the afternoon session where I happily morphed into student mode and learned how to do a bit of fabric origami, with Jo. Still a wip, I will share another day.

All things must pass but even after a full day of workshops we had more treats in store,  for just a five minute walk from the college was Jo's shop..........

...................where we were welcomed with drinks & nibbles before embarking upon a little retail therapy. We also had the chance to view all the quilts in Jo's Modern Quilt Exhibition.

All that was left after that for the Ayr group anyway, was a quick Starbucks and the drive home.

What a success The Stitch Gathering was. Jo is a total dynamo and with the help of husband Jonathan, they make a formidable team. Thanks again for all your hard work.

I really enjoyed meeting so many new people,  I met some lovely bloggers too, that so far I have only encountered online and that was a treat.

I hope we can look forward to another Gathering in 2014.