Of awesome meet-ups and new fabric

Before it gets ridiculously late to write about this, I wanted to put together a quick post about the awesome meet-ups and fabric shopping that happened on my recent jaunt to Europe, and even more recent trip to Queensland.

First up my trip to Europe. While I was there, on a drizzly afternoon in Birmingham I met up with the lovely Sabs for a little bit of fabric shopping (more about that later) and lots and lots of gossiping. It was a very enjoyable afternoon, although I'm a little worried that I talked a bit too much, as I had a sore throat afterwards! Sabs kindly showed me her favourite fabric haunts in the centre of Birmingham (although we had unfortunately scheduled our meet-up on a day the markets were closed), and as well as the pieces of fabric I purchased I came home with a lovely piece that Sabs very generously gifted to me.

Me and Sabs

Next up was the enormous and overwhelming meet-up in London, on Goldhawk Road to be exact. There was a massive 35+ people that came along to the meet-up, which in all honesty was a little overwhelming. I only managed to speak to a handful of people.

We gathered outside the tube station, and then split into groups to hit the shops all along Goldhawk Road. After that we all went to 'Liz Cafe' for lunch, where the staff were incredibly accommodating to our massive group. And after lunch there was the swap to beat all swaps. Wow everybody had brought stuff to swap! There was a massive table of fabric, another of notions and another of patterns.

 

It was an amazing day, and sadly I didn't actually get any photos of me with any of the fabulous ladies that I met. However, here's one I've stolen from Roisin of me with Emmie, Alison, Roisin, Vicki Kate, and Amy:

(Pic stolen from Roisin)

I'm sure by now you're just wanting me to get on with it and tell you about the fabric. Ok, ok, I shall oblidge...

This is the almost embarrassingly large stack of fabrics that came home with me from our holiday. From the top:
- Gorgeous almost Liberty style lawn from Macclesfield
- The lovely fabric gifted to me from Sabs
- Green floral chiffon from Birmingham
- Origami cranes chiffon from Birmingham
- Rayon from Birmingham
- The softest voile in the world from Paris
- Another lovely voile from Paris
- Some Liberty Lawn that I got in the London Swap(!!!!)
- Some Liberty Lawn bought on Goldhawk Road
- A stretch sateen from Goldhawk Road (I went halves with Roisin as it only came in 5m pieces)
- An unknown but very soft fabric from the London Swap
- A purple floral voile from Goldhawk Road
- HOT AIR BALLOONS! Poplin from Goldhawk Road
- Some Jersey from the London Swap
- Some textured suiting from the London Swap

It's a really good job that I'd taken across three quilts, so had that space spare in our bags and just about squeezed everything in.

I also mentioned a trip to Queensland at the beginning of the post. I went up to Brisbane for the weekend to see the Quilts 1700-1945 exhibition (which was really interesting, well worth the trip if you're in the area) and see my Gran. However while I was there I met up for afternoon tea with the three lovely ladies pictured below:

Steph, Myself, Liz and Reana-Louise

I had a great afternoon, and the conversation just didn't stop until it was time to go home... and even then it didn't stop as Liz and I ended up going out for dinner too since we still had heaps to chat about.

So that's the wrap-up of the meet-ups I've been to in the last month or so. And I can't believe it's only a week until Frocktails, where I will be joining about 30 other sewcialists for some delicious dinner, yummy cocktails and beautiful frocks. I can't wait!!!