What happens in Gartmore stays in Gartmore

Or you write a blog post about it telling the whole world :-)

*warning, long blog post*

It seems many moons ago that Sheena touted the idea of a sewing retreat. Lots of organisation and planning later 7 members of the EMQ rocked up to Gartmore house near Aberfoyle. They had laid on snow especially for us :-)

Nice touch!

Hmmm looks promising.

Following instructions I came to this room, wonder what's behind this lovely door?

 

 

A hive of industry that's what!!

After a gorgeous meal and a small glass of wine to two ... We had a show and tell of our first quilts. Here is a gorgeous scrappy trip from Helen.

 

Fabulous modern sampler from Fiona.

It was a bit chilly in the room!

Fresh and sweet first offering from Ann.

 

Teeny tiny embroidery from Tatyana!

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely pouch from Robin

 

 

Sheena brought along this gorgeous Greek cross quilt, part of the fun of showing and telling our first quilts is to remember what we did and didn't know about quilting when we made them, i think at this point we were trying to figure out if there was wadding in the quilt!

 

I have popper envy, Janice brought along this amazing quilted toy box holder with fabbity giant poppers.

I took along my first table runner, my very first quilted project, I was such a rookie I quilted it without a walking foot ...

 

On the Saturday morning I was approached at the breakfast buffet by a lady asking if I was with the quilters, she had seen the sign at the entrance. It turned out she was a fellow quilter who was so chuffed to come through for a chat. I *think* her husband was as enthusiastic, that was how I interpreted his eye rolling :-)

 

All hail the sewing gods!! It's ok it's not some weird ritual, many of us were suffering sore necks/shoulders. Sheena had some fab exercises to keep up moving. Some youngsters who were at the hotel for choir practice saw us through the door ... They ran off when we turned round!!

Saturday night ....

There was more to Saturday night than wine ...

 

There was the pincushion swap! There was an animal theme, we all made them and entered them anonymously then voted for the winners.

 

 

 

It was a draw!

Janice and Helen very worthy winners, sharing the prize. We each got one to take back with us

Sewing sewing sewing, lots of sewing ...

 

 

Lots of fun, lots of laughter.

Finishes!

 

Finishes! Well done Helen!

Ooohhh handbags

View from the sewing room on the Sunday.

Sheena our fab organiser has a finish!

Robins fabulous blocks

 

 

 

Tatyana our long arm quilter extraordinaire is taking some inspiration from the beautiful ceiling in the lounge.

Anne and Fiona organised a thank you from all of us for the lovely Sheena who did such a great job or organising it.

 

One of the lovely Gartmore house staff braved the elements to take a picture of us all with our finishes. I. Far left and had the most minute finish of all. A sore neck prevented anything bigger! But I had a blast. Gartmore we will return.

 

January meeting, a starman joins the EMQ

I like to think David Bowie would have approved of the Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guild. We are artistic, creative challenging in a constructive manner and occasionally a little bit disruptive :-)
First up was a goodly selection of house blocks for Sheena, can't wait to see how this comes together!

Jaquie didn't manage to get to the last meeting where we recieved our swap quilts from Melbourne, here is the one she recieved! What a stunner!

We welcomed a lovely new member! Welcome Ruth! Ruth is relatively new to quilting, but has been creative for many years in other crafts. We loved her show and tell, a beautiful jelly roll quilt made in William Morris fabrics. It was a present for her father who was delighted that it was going to be in a show and tell. We were delighted too, thank you Ruth.

Here is another of Ruth's current projects, big blocks showing off these lovely Japanese fabrics. Watch this space to see what this becomes?

Janice always has lovely different things to show us and this week was no exception. Charming sashiko sampler, done in her usual immaculate style.

Jo is doing a mystery block class, this is an example of what the first block will be. Two places left if you want to sign up!

A newer recruit, Sue is showing a really wonderful way with colour, just look at this quilt, charm packs and cathedral Windows, we want this pattern!

Robin is fast becoming Queen of the improv, you may have seen this on Instagram, it's for a swap. Lucky lucky partner.

Not content with that wee stunner, Robin showed off this beautiful hand pieced top, love the monochrome palette.

Here is Jaquie again with her ornament from the swap at Christmas.

Sheena with a fab jelly roll top, just waiting to be quilted, I have a feeling you may be seeing this again very soon ;-)

You know that feeling when you want a pattern and just can't find one? Not a problem for Audrey, she just makes her own!! What an amazing umbrella hanging! Very topical too ....

Cast your mind back to December when we made blocks for Fiona for a table runner. We made so many it turned into this ace table cloth!

We all know Tatyana is an angel, and to prove it she brought this in, her very own cute wee Tilda skating Angel.

What's this? Well I didn't have a show and tell but I knew we didn't have many mugs at the school venue so I whipped up a wee mug bag to take my own one along. Pattern is here if you want it.

Barbara brought along these lovely little dresses, they are heading off to an orphanage in Malawi. They are just so sweet, just like Barbara.

You can't see her but Jaquie is behind these geese, this is a wedding present. I often think the family and friends of quilters are very lucky people!

Poor Margaret was poorly, hope you are feeling better now! This is her swap mini from Melbourne, another beaut!

And that's it! See you next month.