Lovely weekend away

What a great 4 days, I don't think I could have planned it better!

I got the train to Birmingham on Thursday and met Jackie and the group she had travelled over with about lunchtime.  Valarie had just told the group, very nonchalantly ... "my quilt won a prize" so we went straight over to see ...

So may I present the 1st prize Contemporary Quilt ... Dear Jane for the 21st Century

Isn't it great!  121 logos all in hand dyed felted wool.  She won a great money prize, but doesn't get her quilt back for a year as it now goes on a road show

I did take some photos of other quilts, but it is a bit of a grey area as to whether bloggers can load other people's quilts without consent, so I shall leave them for me!

I did manage to do a little bit of shopping!

I got these for a black and white quilt for Lisa's friend Heather

and these for a quilt she is making for Sam

After the Quilt show finished, Jackie and I had a meal with the others then got the plane to Dublin and drove for hours through the night, getting to hers about 1:30am - and straight to bed!


I lost track of the days after that, so no idea what happened on what day, but we went to a fitting for Sabrina's wedding dress (I felt very honoured to be allowed to come along - Jackie and I may be really good friends, but Sabrina has only met me once before, so it was really generous of her to allow be to come.  The dress is jaw droppingly gorgeous, and she looks absolutely stunning.  Just as well I made a few paper tissue pouches - I think they will be needed!)

From there we went to Avoca Mill (in the pretty little village where Ballykissangel was filmed) and had a scrummy lunch (I got two cook books for Niki) and had a tour around the mill, and did some shopping (!)

We also went to see Anne-Marie who had been in the Irish group we travelled over with.  Anne-Marie has a lovely bed and breakfast, and until the 'Hobby Hut' is finished, she has one bedroom fitted out as a fabric shop. Jackie helps her in the shop sometimes

These fabrics came mostly from her shop, although the cupcakes, and the red with white spots were from Festival of Quilts.  Hum, there is another project that I forgot to photograph - yellow and pink bold flowers on beige and brown spots

We also spent time making decorations for the wedding, and tidying the sewing room (actually looking for a zigzag rotary cutter, but we never found that) and went for walks around the parish churches and along the river at St Mullin's - very pretty

Jackie gave me this lovely bag ... and I left her loads of rubbish on my bed!  Air Ryan is very pedantic about size and quantity of luggage, and with all the shopping there was no way I could bring everything home.

Luckily I had considered this in advance, and took clothes that I was happy to lose, and managed to get everything (everything important that is!!!) into one small case

On Sunday we set off for the airport ... via IKEA!!!  We managed to get a perfect storage unit for the sewing room, complete with shelves and baskets and drawers, so I went to fly home and she drove home to start playing and organising.

I came home itching to start sewing, but have to clear this mess up first, and finish some UFOs, sigh