Australian Quilting Cruise 2013 Workshop News

On the last cruise the ladies put forward suggestions for workshops on the January 2013 quilting cruise.  I have put together a quilt that can incorporate some of these ideas.  A larger quilt was suggested. This quilt is designed to use a cutting corner ruler but this is not necessary.  The quilt has 12 main blocks of 12" square.  I have incorporated a 6" or 8" centre panel into these blocks.  Six of these panels can be done in one of several techniques.  I have focused on three of these.

The colours in these photos are not the best. 

One being hand embroidery.  I am not a hand sewer and this took a bit of procrastinating on my part.  It is good sometimes to get out of the square that you work in.  My passion is free machine embroidery.  Once I came up with a theme the designs did come.  I would draw one then embroider it.  I had 'Shakespears Flowers' as the main fabric.  The embroiders fitted in with this theme.

Close up of two of the embroidered panels

I also have this fabric in a butter colourway and am doing another version of this quilt using the lovely 3" panels that is part of the range.  I have not finished this as yet.  This photo is put together in Photoshop to give you a bit of an idea.  The pink and sage is not as dark as shown here.

One of the other requests made on the last cruise was foundation piecing.  I have Incorporated six foundation pieced blocks in this quilt.  The fabric is Michelle Hill's 'Morris Meadows'.  I love the rich colours in these fabrics.  The colours are totally different to the 'Shakespear Flowers' fabric. I have this in a black and pink colourway as well.

Fussy cutting also goes well with this quilt design.  This version of the quilt is using 'Bouquet Gallery' which has a wide boarder fabric.  All the fabric in this quilt come from this range.

Fabric with 6" panels also work well with this design.This quilt has 6" flower panels with little verses. 

I am putting together a bright quilt using 6" cat panels.  This is the centre only still has to have the borders added.

The finished size of the quilt is about 60" x 70" depending on the width of the outside border.  Again the colours in the photos are not very good.  They look better in real life.

This pattern can work with a wide range of fabrics.  Blocks could also be machined embroidered.  I have a limited number of kits for all of these versions.  However, I will be providing a fabric list for those who would like to use fabric from their stash or to use something different.  If you want any further information on these please email me.

Hopefully I will have all these quilted before the cruise.

Dorothy

May UFO Retreat

The May UFO retreat was a great success.  Twelve lovely ladies attended from Campbeltown, the Southen Highlands, Swan Hill, Boorowa, Canberra and the local area.  This was the first retreat at Russellee several of the ladies had attended.  Lots of hand sewing, machine sewing and sharing of ideas made for a very enjoyable weekend.

Busy Sewers

Time Out for the Cook

The weekend was full of laughter and companionship as well as achieving a lot of UFO progress.  There was a great diverse range of patchwork completed during the weekend.

Bernadette's finished quilt top

Our next UFO Retreat in October is almost at capacity.  We are happy to organise another one before the end of the year if there is enough interest.  Contact me for any details.

The 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise next January is also receving bookings.  If you are interested in this it is best to book sooner rather than later as the ship is filling up.

Larraine and I have almost got the samples for one of the workshpos finished.  I hope to have photos of these up on the blog very soon.

Until next time happy quilting.

Dorothy

Quilting Cruise 2013

Preparations are well on the way for our 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise January 2013.

Thirty four wonderful ladies attended our Quilting Cruise earlier this year.  We put forward some different iteneries for our next one. This time they voted for a longer cruise of 14 days. The cruise goes to Noumea, Fiji and three ports in New Zealand.

As there are eight days at sea and plenty of sewing time. Amanda Daly, a NSW Quilting Guild teacher, is coming with us and is doing two of the workshops.  Amanda is a contemporary quilter who loves raw edge appliqué and a little three dimensional quilting and enjoys traditional quilt making as well. See her profile below.

Amanda's profile

I'm a Patchwork Quilter / Textile Artist / Teacher and I've been passionately working with fabric for more than 20 years.

I would describe my work as contemporary, though I also cling to some of the more traditional techniques and increasingly I'd have to describe some of my creative pursuits as a bit arty. I enjoy it all.

I teach classes and workshops in and around Sydney as well as in far flung places in country NSW and interstate. I really enjoy meeting other quilters and sharing my passion for quilting..

I spend as much time as possible in my studio, blissfully detached from the rest of the world dabbling in this and that. I work towards deadlines for shows, challenges and exhibitions, create original quilts and write patterns both for sale and publication. I also find time to create quilts purely for my own enjoyment because that's what I feel driven to do. I feel the need to spend some time being creative every day, there is just never ever enough time.

To find out more about me and to view some of my quilts, visit www.amandaspatch.blogspot.com www1.tpg.com.au/thedalys/quilts

I have arranged visits to Quilting Shops in New Zealand.  One of the shops has also offered to do a demonstation for us. Two of my workshops will be of a more traditional nature.  One will provide a choice of technique for the main block.  These techniques were suggested by the ladies on the last cruise.  I shall be posting photos of one of  these workshops very soon.

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The bookings are being done by Crafting Cruises, an American Company coordinated by Lorelle Hardt and her husband.  Lorelle is an Australian and her parents live in Melbourne.  Next year apart from this cruise she is running the Fourth Australian Scrapbooking Cruise in conjunction with the quilting cruise. The ship has two large conference rooms that we have booked (no need to pack up each day) and the Quilting and Scrapbooking will be run separately. We have ladies who have scrapbooking friends and they are sharing a cabin.

The cruise is leaving from Sydney on the Royal Caribbean ship ‘Voyager of the Seas’ on the 13^th January.  A link to more information and costings is below.

http://www.craftingcruises.com/cruisepdf/QuiltCruise2013.pdf

We have a limited number of sewing machines for hire for ladies that are travelling long distance and who are unable to bring their own machine. However most ladies on the last cruise did bring their own machine and we did not have any problems with them.

 If you require any more information please do not hesitate to contact. Email  russeldr@bigpond.com or phone 02 69474216.

Until next time

Dorothy

Busy March

March have been very busy at Russellee.  We started the month with a Scrapping Retreat followed by a Quilting Retreat the next weekend and then a week to Queensland for my brother's wedding.

Twelve ladies attended the Scrapping Retreat.  As usual lots of great layouts came out of the weekend.  Our guest tutor was Kylie Symons from Tumut.  Kylie was going to do the class on Saturday night but as the weather was deteriorating she came out Saturday afternoon.  Her great class featured a lot of painting and doodling techniques.  This was a different layout then most of the ladies had done before and they were impressed with the results.  Thank you Kylie.

Kaye gave a great mini album lesson on the Saturday night.  This album consisted of three sheets of cardstock and bamboo skewers.  After the lesson several more of these albums turned up over the rest of the weekend.  Thank you Kaye.

In all there were three classes and three challenges.  It never ceases to amaze me how a group can use the same papers in different ways.

The highlight of the weekend was the road into town being cut by flood waters on Sunday morning.  This did not open again until Monday morning.  Lunch did not arrive from town and nine of the ladies were not able to go home.  The up side was that they had another night of scrapping.  I managed to feed all for the rest of the weekend including our missed lunch that was coming from town.

The next weekend we had six ladies (unfortunately three could not attend due to flooding).  The workshop for the weekend was a dragon fly quilt designed by Southwind Designs.  Most achieved in completing the centre panel with one outside boarder being started. 

This weekend did not go without its dramas with one of the ladies having an accident on the Sunday morning.  Three kangaroos hopped in front of her car hitting the car and causing her to run into a tree.  Luckily she only had a scratch on her arm but the car was extensively damaged.

The Tuesday after the Quilting retreat Pam, Tony and I headed to Toowoomba for my brother's wedding.  We went up early as I had to ice the cake.  The weather was not the best on the Saturday and the ceremony had to be performed inside instead of the garden.  However it was a nice ceremony and the venue was great.  The meal was beautiful.  Rennie and Elly are now in Fiji for two weeks.


Future Retreats

My next retreat is a UFO Quilting Retreat the first weekend in May.  The next Scrapping Retreat is the last weekend in August.  Both of these are almost at capacity. If you are interested in either of these contact me on russeldr@bigpond.com.

Our next Quilting Cruise is well into planning.  I have a guest tutor, Amanda Daly from Sydney coming with us.  This is a longer cruise and booking are already coming in.  For more information contact me.

Until next time happy quilting and scrapping

Dorothy

Quilting Cruise Report

Our Australian Quilt Cruise was a great success. With my great organiser, Lorelle and wonderful helper, Laraine we enjoyed the company of 34 wonderful ladies on our cruise of the South Pacific. The ladies (and some husbands) came from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. We visited Noumea, Vila, Lifou and The Isle of Pines.

On the cruising days we conducted three workshops, These being a watercolour wall hanging with tropical fish, a landscape quilt that I designed for the cruise and a quilt as you go table runner designed by Sharon Pederson. I would like to thank Sharon for allowing me to share this table runner with the ladies.

We cruised on the beautiful Royal Caribbean 'Rhapsody of the Seas' This ship had a large conference room with was able to cater for all our sewing machines.

A pre cruise challenge titled 'Tropical Delight' was well received with voting for this challenge judged by the many other cruisers that visited us during the time spent onboard. We had two equal first place and two equal second winners.

On port days several of the ladies went on optional tours, both in the sea and on land.

Others stayed behind and with the tireless help of Laraine worked on their projects. In Noumea we had an overnight stay due to Cyclone Jasmine (we did not have any rough seas thanks to the Captain of the ship keeping us away from Jasmine). On the first day fabric shops were located and mapped. The next morning I took several of the ladies on a fabric shopping spree. We actualy contributed to the local economy.

In all it was a great cruise. I met many wonderful fellow quilters and have many fond memories. We will be running another cruise next year and after consulting the cruise company we have secured a booking on the new ship to the Australian cruising scene the 'Voyager of the Seas'. This cruise of 14 nights duration will sail to Noumea, Fiji and New Zealand commencing on the 13th January 2013 departing from Sydney and retruning to Sydney. I am hoping to organise visits to a quilt shop in Auckland and Wellington that are not far from where the ship docks.

I will keep you posted on this cruise.

Happu quilting

Dorothy

The time has come

After 12 months of planning and organising the time has come for our Australian Quilting Cruise next week. There are 34 ladies attending this curise. They are from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. It has been a challenge for me to organise the classes and pack all the kits. It has been a great learning curve.

We leave Monday on the beautiful Royal Caribbean ship 'The Rhapsody of the Seas'. This ship has a great conference room which we are using for our classes. In all there will be four classes with lots of additional kits available for those who want to keep quilting.

As well as the quilting there are also ports of call and a host of activities on board the ship. When we get back I shall put up a full report.

Russellee BnB is also having a Scrapbooking Retreat the first weekend in March and two quilting retreats. One is the second weekend in March and the other is the first weekend in May. There is also a group of quilters from Canberra coming in a couple of weeks orgainising their own retreat.

have a great week and until next time

Dorothy

October News

October has been a busy month. Last weekend Russellee had a UFO Quilting Retreat. Six ladies addtended this retreat and it was a great three days. Lots of quilting, lots of great food and lots of talking. I enjoyed this weekend very much as I was able to sew a quilt myself. I had the fabric for a few years in my stash and our Alaskan trip inspired me to get it out and make a quilt. I was please with the results.

Most of the month has been organising kits and ordering fabric for the Quilting Cruise in February. We have 27 ladies coming on the curise at the moment. I did not realise the amount of effort that goes into putting together kits for 30 ladies. I have almost finished the landscape workshop that I am doing on the curise. Most of the fabric arrived last week with only one to come. I shall post it on the blog as soon as I quilt and bind it.

Next year is shaping up to being a busy one with quilting and scrapbooking retreats as well as the Quilting Cruise. I have lots of ideas for workshops. I am trying to find different tecniques and new products for these workshops.Russellee will be having a Quilting Retreat 9-11 March 2012. this will be a Dance of the Dragonflies quilt designed by Annette Ornelas. We will be also having a UFO retreat the 4-6 May 2012.

Both these retreats have bookings already. If you are interested in them contact me by email russeldr@bigpond.com and I will send out information on these retreats.

The Scrapbooking Retreat 2-4 March is almost at capacity. This retreat was almost at capacity within a couple of days of announcing it.

If you have a group of quilters or scrapbookers that are looking for a venue for their own weekend away contact me and we will see what we can do for you.

Until next time

Dorothy