Scrapbooking Retreat

Last weekend saw a small Scrapbooking Retreat at Russellee.  I had five lovely ladies attend.  One was very new to Scrapbooking and took to it like a duck to water.  I think that she is now addicted to this wonderful craft.

 

We don't mind having small groups coming to Russellee  It give us the opportunity to really get to know everyone and have more time to help if needed.

 

July is going to be busy with attending Craft Alive at Wodonga to promote the retreats at Russellee as well as our Quilting Cruise next February.  The day after Wodonga Tony and I will be heading off to New Zealand to attend the Taupo Smposium 2013 Fabric Art Festival.  I have been looking forward to this event for over 12 months.  I will be taking part in three workshops with tutors for the US and New Zealand.  One can never stop learning and this Symposium is a great opportunity to see what ladies from all over the world are creating.  I will post a report when we get back.

 

Until next time.

 

Dorothy

Russellee's Retreat Update

Russellee has had a busy six months with retreats.  January saw our 2nd Australian Quilting Retreat at Sea.  This was followed by UFO Quilting weekends and Scrapping weekends plus a small a Card Making weekend.

Our Bali Retreat is now full as is the September Scrapbooking Retreat. We are getting a steady flow of bookings for the 3rd Australian Quilting Cruise – A Quilting Retreat at Sea.  We have some ladies coming for WA.  One is driving her mobile home across and parking it in her friend’s backyard while she is on the cruise.

To promote the Retreats I have decided to do some of the Craft Alive events.  This is the first time that I have been a store holder at this type of event.  My first weekend was at Griffith.  Unfortunately the weather was not kind to us and this Craft Alive was not as successful as all had wished.  Many of the stall holders have been attending for several years and stated that this was by far their worst.  However it was a great learning curve for me and I did secure some bookings which was what I set out to do.

Russellee stall at Griffith Craft Alive

To finish the first six months of the 2013 Russellee is having a Scrapping Retreat the 21st – 23rd June.  There are still a couple of places available for this retreat.  The cost is $260 for two nights accommodation, meals and three workshops.

The second half of 2013 has a busy program.  Two of these retreats are already at capacity but there are spots available in all the rest. 

I have included a Thread Painting Retreat this year as it is over 12 months since I have presented one of these Retreats.  Thread painting is my passion and I am love sharing this with others.

Below is a full program for Russellee which will take us up to the Quilting Cruise in February 2014.

12 – 14 July                      Wodonga Craft Alive -  Retreat promotion

2 – 4 August                     Wagga Wagga Craft Alive -  Retreat promotion

23 – 25 August                 UFO Quilting Retreat - $210 includes two nights accommodation, all meals

13 – 15 September           Scrapbooking Retreat – This retreat is booked out.

15 – 28 October               Quilting Retreat Bali – This retreat is booked out.

1 –3 November                 UFO Quilting Retreat - $210 includes two nights accommodation, all meals

15  – 17 November           Card Making Retreat - $225 includes two nights accommodation, all meals and two card workshops.

23 – 24 November            Thread Painting Retreat - $170 includes workshop, one nights accommodation, all meals

15 – 17 February 2014     Scrapbooking Retreat - $260 – includes two nights accommodation, all meals and three workshops.

27 February 2014             10 night Quilting Cruise – Voyager of the Seas

Our Quilting Retreat at Sea is great value even with the exchange rate as it is at the moment.  Our prices start from $1351.21 US per person inside cabin plus $380 AU per person for the Retreat portion of the cruise.  This retreat price is great value as it includes 10 days use of a huge workroom where the machines can be set up for the entire cruise plus three workshops.

The cruise gives you the opportunity to combine a wonderful holiday Plus the company of great ladies from all parts of the country who share the same passion for patchwork and quilting.

 

Also if the above dates are not suitable for you we cater for small groups from 4 - 10 who wish to create their own retreat.  This can be a weekend or mid week.

If you would like more information on any of these retreats please contact me by phone - 02 69474216 – or email russeldr@bigpond.com

Until next time

 Dorothy

 

 

Jean's Quilt Finished

On our 2^nd Australian Quilting Cruise, conducted earlier this year, we had a remarkable lady, Jean Brown, cruise and quilt with us. This is the second time Jean has attended our Quilting Cruises.  Jean has reached the wonderful age of 84.  She travelled to Sydney on the XPT train the day before the cruise and had all her bags and sewing machine with her.  She stayed the night at the CWA hostel and got herself to the ship next morning.  Jean takes everything in her stride and does not find fault in any one.  She has a remarkable outlook on life and finds beauty where ever she looks.

We had three workshops on the cruise.  Jean chose to do just one.  She has been quilting for many years but has only ever done small hand and machine projects.  The work shop that she chose was the Pinwheel Folly with the embroidered panels.   Her cruise ambition in 2013 being to tackle a bigger project.

Jean obtained the embroidery patterns before the cruise and had her six embroideries completed prior to departure. She arrived onboard with all fabrics to complete the quilt, most from her home cupboard; we were able to supply a fabric on the ship to complete the requirements as she was one short.

Jean did not have much experience with a rotary cutter and arrived with a brand new cutter and board, after a few pointers she mastered the new purchases.  She was on her way to making her quilt.

Her quilt centre was completed on the ship. After she arrived home another lovely lady Roz Sephton who was also on the cruise, helped her with the borders and got her in touch with a lady to quilt it for her.

Below I have a photo story of the making of this quilt.  The story finishes with her completed quilt.  Her quilt became much larger then the workshop version.  In fact it became a large double quilt.  It finally was finished last week to become a present for her daughter-in-law.  Her pride in finishing a much larger project than she had ever tackled before was wonderful to see.

Got two done

 

Progressing

 

 

 

 

Da Da blocks are finished

 

Finished at last

 

 

 

 

Quilt Display at Russellee BnB

My son is always growing plants and has a large nursery at the back of Russellee.  He works at the Landcare Nursery.  Tumut had the Festival of the Falling Leaf on this weekend and we decided to have a Nursery and Quilt Display at Russellee.  This was a last minute decision and we set up the display in the garden. 

 

I did not realise how many quilts that I actually still had.  Quilts going back 30 years.  I also had quilt tops that just needed to be quilted. In all I had 32 quilts on display. A lot of them are quilts that I had made as examples for workshops.

My wonderful husband, Tony, set up make shift stands with rails and ladders.  The weather was perfect and the display looked great.  On Saturday we had many visitors.  The information centre asked if we could do Devonshire Teas in the garden.  This went very well. I even sold a small quilt which was a bonus.

I asked my lovely friend, Kaye, to bring some of her beautiful cards as a plug for our Scrapbooking Retreats.  We also promoted our Bali trip and the 3^rd Australian Quilting Cruise.  Plus I handed out programs for both the Quilting Retreats and Scrapbooking Retreats for the rest of the year.  If any one would like one of these email me and I shall send you one.

For something that was a last minute thing for the Festival it was a great promotional weekend for Russellee BnB and our retreats.

 

Until next time

Dorothy

UFO Quilting Retreat

Last weekend Russellee had seven wonderful ladies at the April UFO Retreat.  Ladies came from Canberra, Narrandera, Henty and locally.  There was much laughter amongst the sewing.  The quilts that were brought along to be finished (or nearly finished) were marvellous.  The beautiful work that quilters bring never ceases to amaze me.  The diversity of patterns and fabric available to quilters, both hand and machine, today is fantastic.

 

My sister’s birthday was on the Sunday.  She has not been very well recently and my brother-in-law brought her out for lunch with the ladies.  We had a cake for her and it cheered her up immensely.

This weekend I have a group of card makers from Wagga in.  These ladies have booked Russellee to have a weekend way to allow them to get together to do their card making.  No cooking or cleaning and great company.

 Until next time

Dorothy

Bail Quilting Retreat

Join us on an exciting 14 day fully escorted Quilting, Fabric and Cultural Retreat Bali 15 - 28 October 2013

On arrival in Bali we will be met by or Bali Friend, John, an expat from Canberra.  John will look after and guide us for the next two weeks.

 Our first week is about batiks with exclusive visits to shops crammed with material and also to factories to see how they are produced.  We will visit the Bali Safari & Marine park where you will enjoy a full lunch and have the opportunity to get up personal with an orang-utan.  Be truly amazed by the spectacular Bail Agung theatre show.  Not to be missed.

 

We will then travel, via our own mini bus and dedicated driver, to the tranquil seaside hotel at Candi Dassa.  Candi Dassa will be our sea side home for the remainder of our retreat.  We will have plenty of opportunity to sew our wonderful batik purchases.  Many project ideas will be available or bring your own patterns.

There will be plenty of time sew or to just relax at this magical place.  We have brand new basic Singer Sewing Machines and an airconditioned workroom.

A visit to the ancient village of Tenganan gives an insight into the Balinese culture and also the Ujung Water palace.  A highlight of Candi Dassa is a fish and turtle viewing morning via an outrigger canoe, with an option for snorkelling.

We finish our trip at Jimbaran Beach with a farewell dinner while watching the sun set.  Then sadly we will be taken to the airport by our driver for the return flight to Australia.

 

Come and join us on this magical Retreat.  You do not have to be a quilter to come. For more information contact me at russeldr@bigpond.com

 

Dorothy

Wonderful Scrapping Weekend

We have just had another wonderful Scrapping weekend. The 13 ladies have all attended before and a great time was had by all. they started to arrive at 10 am on the Friday morning and came from Wagga Wagga, Stockinbingal, Cooma, Queanbeyan as well as three ladies from the local area.

The wonderful Scrappers

 During the course of the weekend I conducted three workshops and gave one demonstration.  I am always amazed at the quality of work that is produced in these workshops.  This retreat was no exception. 

Mini Book workshop

Mini Book workshop

Mini Book Workshop

Mini Book workshop

Lavender and Lace challenge.  Thinking out of the square.

Sketch Challenge

Lavender and Lace

There were many jokes and laughter not to mention the eating of food.  I heard one lady say that she had been on a diet so that she could enjoy the food over the weekend.

 Saturday morning seen most of the ladies make a trip to Scrapping4Keeps to add to their stash of paper and embellishments. It is intriguing to see how much they bring to the weekend and there is a lot of idea swapping on the storage devices for hauling all their goodies.

 I usually run two weekends a year.  The second is in September but all the ladies booked for this before they left on Sunday.  Bridget, from Scaping4Keeps, has asked me to run an extra retreat this year as she has a lot of enquiries and she felt that other ladies would like to enjoy a retreat also.  We have planned another weekend for the 21^st – 23^rd June.  If you are interested in attending this please contact me.

 

Dorothy