I haven't gone mad. I KNOW Christmas is over!

Over the 2 1/2 years since i made this i have had a ton of requests for a pattern for this block.   I can't believe how popular it is. It's had over 2200 views on Flickr and appears to have been pinned on Pinterest (i WILL join that one of these days!!) a ton of times too.

Writing some instructions has been languishing on my to-do list and has never made it to the top. I finally got a rocket up my bum after receiving a lovely e-mail from Susan in Oklahoma.  Her e-mail brightened my day so much that i really wanted to finally get some instructions done.

There are instructions for how to make this 10" blocks, and i have added fabric calculations for those of you who might want to make a quilt. The links to download the PDFs for the pattern and the templates are on my Patterns/Tutorials tab at the top of the page.

Have fun!

Peeking my head out to wish you all a belated Happy New Year!

I can't believe i haven't blogged since last June.

Well, i can actually. First and foremost as I'm a bit crap keeping up with blogging, but more than anything since the Fat Quarterly retreat last June it's big one massive roller coaster of busyness. You know, the kind of busyness where every waking moment is jammed packed to the brim?

We've been in 2013 for nearly a month now but the strangest thing is that I've only felt like it's a new year for about a week. How does that work?  I guess I'm a bit slow on the uptake.  I wanted to do a round up of this years makes but as there is still a ton of (the most exciting stuff) i can't show you. This will have to do for now....

I am hoping to be a bit less crap in 2013. I have seriously missed keeping up to date with what everyone has been up to and, I've missed you folks.

A belated Happy New Year to you all and I'll be back soon. I hope  :-)

Fat Quarterly Retreat 2012 is over :-(

Today my cheeks still hurt from smiling, my voice is hoarse from laughing and I'm feeling a bit teary at the prospect of having to get back to 'real life'.

I will keep it short and sweet as how the hell do you sum up something THAT amazing in a few paragraphs?  I can't really think coherently today, but i did want to stop by and say Thank you!

It was amazing to have all of the FQ crew in one place at the same time.  Thank you John, Katy, Tacha and Lynne for all your fabulousness. I love you all - you are THE BEST!!!!

Thank you to Lu and Mandy for mucking in and helping us lug stuff between floors to make sure we had everything we needed in the right place at the right time.

Thanks to Terri for giving me the best quote ever that makes me howl with laughter every time it pops into my head:  "Mexican?  I don't even like guacamole".

Thanks to Tom Starkey at Pfaff for loaning us 20 sewing machines, and taking time out of his Bank Holiday weekend to bring and collect them.   Thanks also to our other sponsors for providing us with some great stuff for the goodie bags, and thanks to my hubby Curly Boy for spending a whole day filling them!!

Finally, HUGE thanks goes to all you lovely folks who came to the retreat to hang out with us and make it the best weekend ever. You are a lovely, funny and warm hearted bunch who showed that you wanted it to be as successful as we did, so put your hearts and souls into making it the best weekend ever. Thank you!!

I am sad that i won't get to see you all today but even more excited that I'll get to see you all next year. Roll on 2013!!!

Fat Quarterly Sewing Retreat 2012

I’m a little late to the link party but for those of you that don’t know me, I’m Brioni.  I’m one of the founding members of Fat Quarterly.   I live in Leeds with my curly haired American husband, the most adorable little 2 ½ year boy old ever, and 2 kitties.

(This pic is not how i usually look. i usually have bits of toddler food stuck to me and my hair usually looks like I’ve been dragged through a hedge backwards!)

Just another couple of days running around like a blue-arsed fly* and then i get a whole weekend pfaffing around with bits of fabric at the Fat Quarterly Retreat.  Haha, ‘Pfaff’ geddit? 

Katy, Lynne and I have been busy familiarising myself with our Pfaff machines so that should disaster strike we can hopefully sort it.  I have faith in myself given that i un-jam the work printer on a regular basis and became the queen of un-jamming the automatic hand towel dispensers at Spring Quilt Market in KC.

Curly Boy is currently busy stuffing goodie bags. There is a lot of stuff.  I was tempted to spread it all out on the floor and roll around on it. I didn’t, you’ll be please to know.

I really can’t wait to meet you all and I can’t wait to spend some more time with my Fat Quarterly buddies Tacha, Katy, Lynne and John. This will be the first time that all 5 of us have been in one place at one time so i can’t wait.  Eeeeek!

Hope to see you all at the weekend!!!!

*For those of you who were wondering.... A Bluebottle is the proper name for blue-arsed fly.  They're the large, noisy busy looking flies similar to a worker rushed off their feet, hence the phrase “I'm running around like a blue arsed fly!!

It's been COLD where we are.

 I longed for snow so i could take little J out. Last year when it snowed bucket loads he wasn't with us and was barely walking so i knew it would be a pretty exciting first for all of us. We didn't get a ton of snow and it didn't last very long but thankfully it fell over a weekend when Curly Boy was home and there was enough to make a snowman. Little J helped by patting handfuls of snow onto him and had a whale of time.

On our walk back home there were some pretty decent puddles so Little J had a good splash around. Pity you can't also hear the giggles!

Sewing has been going pretty well but most of it is FQ related or secret projects so i can't show you anything yet, but i can show you this.

This is in Issue 8 of Fat Quarterly available here. I used in total about 18 yards of scraps, strings and fabrics that i wanted out of my stash. Can you believe i didn't use it all?

Bbbrrrr....

You can tell that it is now winter as the kitties are finding the strangest places to curl up and have a nap. Pile of sweaters, on the floor wedged under radiators, stretched out along the landing exactly where the hot water pipes run under the floorboards, a pile of strings on the sofa.

I guess i finally have to accept that it's just not summer anymore *sigh*.

FQ - Issue 7

It would seem that there has been no sewing at all going on since the little man came. Granted it has been a bit hit and miss but there has been some lil FQ projects going on! The pattern for this Crossroads and Roundabouts quilt is available in Issue 7 of Fat Quarterly out on 15th November here. As usual it's chocka block with fabulous patterns so make sure you bag your copy!!!!