Last week I spent 5 lovely days with 10 other members of the Contemporary Quilt group on a retreat at Rydal Hall in the Lake District. I took my ipad with the expectation that I would be able to blog whilst there. That didn't work out as the wireless network was too, too slow for Wordpress. I did, with some patience (and a little bit of swearing), manage to read my email and got the most wonderful news. My Ruins 4 quilt has been selected for Quilt Visions 2016! I floated on a cloud of smugness for the rest of the week!! Which must have been rather irritating for my fellow retreat members. Sorry about that. One of the great things about the retreat is the amount of sharing we do. We share ideas, we share materials and we find solutions to problems together. All done with lots of coffee, cake and the odd glass of wine. Everybody is encouraged to bring a book or books that they have found inspirational in the previous 12 months. There was a wonderful variety but I fell in love with this one. I think the level of neatness and precision appeals to my 'tidy' gene and it definitely got me thinking about how some of my breakdown prints would look as book covers. I am not somebody who uses sketchbooks or notebooks routinely as part of my design process but I do love the idea of owning them. Maybe making my own would encourage me to use them?