Monday, October 24, 2011

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


Wednesday, September 28, 2011

September Update


The past month has been very busy. Russellee had a Scrapbooking retreat earlier in the month. This was fully booked and very successful. Kylie Tout was our guest tutor for a workshop on saturday night. She shared one of her mini albums with the girls. The three challenges were also provided great layouts with pleasing results.


Carol's 'Boy Layout'



Kaye's 'Prima Challenge Layout'


Bridget's 'Sketch Layout'


Kaye and I also attended a Scrapping Retreat at Edrom Lodge overlooking Twofold Bay. This retreat started on Thrusday and ended Sunday lunch time. This retreat had no classes it was a do it yourself retreat. Thank you Jo for a great weeend. I actually got some layout completed. Kaye then gave me a sightseeing tour around the area. This is a beautiful part of NSW.
Edrom Lodge Ladies

I have organised one of the classes for our next scrapping retreat and have our guest tutor organised.

I am working on one of the classes for the Quilting Cruise next February. Hope to have it designed and made before the school holdiays finish.

We still have a few vacancies for the October UFO Quilting Retreat.

The Australian Quilting Cruise 6 February next year is filling up. We now have 26 ladies coming. I am looking forward to meeting the ladies from all parts of NSW, Queensland and Victoria. I shall keep you informed of how this progresses.


Until next time


Dorothy

Thursday, September 1, 2011

North to Alaska

Kaye and I have just just returned from a magic two and a half weeks to Canada and Alaska to go on the Stitchin' Heaven Alaskan Quilting Cruise. I attended this as an observer. We arrived in Vancouver a week before the cruise and did a Rocky Mountains tour.
The countryside is very beautiful. Vancouver is a beautiful city. There are flowers everwhere. I was very impressed with them. After this we took a bus to Seattle in the USA to join the cruise to Alaska.





The quilting cruise was run by Stitchin' Heaven from Texas. There were 48 ladies attending the classes (including five from Australia) with three instructors. They divided the group into two. I was previliged to meet Toni Whitney whose work I have admired and have I completed some of her designs. She is a wonderful lady and a great teacher. The two ports of call in Alaska, Juno and Skaway, both had beautiful quilt shops. It was very hard to resist buying heaps of fabric. I did manage to restrict myself and buy only a small amount. In Alaska Kaye and I did a rafting tour down one of the rivers. This was not white water rafting but gentley gliding down the river. We saw fantastic countryside and lots of eagles. We did manage to see three black bears on our trip. I took my sewing machine all the way to Alaska as a learning experience to carrying a machine on aircraft. The machine travelled well. I carried it as hand luggage and had no problems with Australian, Cadanian or US customs. The machine travelled in the overhead locker with out any problem.After the cruise we bused our way back to Vancouver for a couple of days before returning home. We sayed in a BnB which was in a central position to the main part of Vancouver. We walked to English Bay and met a local quilter sitting in the park by the bay hand quilting. She said that she often came there to quilt. Now that we are home I am concentrating on organising a UFO Quilting Retreat at Russellee on the 21st - 23rd October and our Australian Quilting Cruise next February. If you would like some information on either of these please contact me by email - russeldr@bigpond.com

Russellee is also having our second Scrapbooking Retreat for the year next weekend. This retreat filled very quickly and I have 12 ladies staying and three coming from Tumut each day. i will give a report on this after the weekend.

Until next time happy quilting and scrapping.

Dorothy

Thursday, July 14, 2011

UFO Patchwork Retreat

Do you have a cupboard full of UFOs? Do you love the company of fellow quilters? Do you love not having to cook or washup? Then bring a UFO or two and come to our next quilting retreat on the 21st - 23 October. The all inclusive cost is $210. This includes all meals, accommodation, a large workroom and great country views. We are located five minutes from the beautiful town of Tumut.

Numbers are limited. We keep our groups small so that you feel welcome and not part of a busy and noisy room.

If you are interest or would like more information please do not hesitate to contact me either by email, russeldr@bigpond.com or by phone, 02 69474216.

See you then

Dorothy

Friday, July 1, 2011

Back Home


Tony and I are back home after a wonderful six weeks overseas. We have seen some wonderful places, great gardens and beautiful palaces. I am starting to get back into the swing of things and I preparing for the Quilting Cruise next February. There has been a lot of enquiries from ladies who would like to come from interstate and bringing their sewing machines. I have looked into taking sewing machines on the planes. They can be taken on as hand luggage and there are a couple of totes designed to carry machines as hand luggage on aircraft. Just Patchwork Tuncurry has the 'Tutto' bag for this purpose. Here is a link to their website if anyone is interested. http://www.justpatchwork.com.au/ I do also have some machines that I can take for interstate ladies but this is on a first in basis.I also have two great design walls from Brindabell Quilting Systems that Iwill be taking on the cruise. These great walls come in three different sizes and fold up into a carry bag for easy transporting.

Until next post. Happy crafting

Dorothy

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Quilting Cruise Workshop


These colourful assortment of tropical fish will remind you of your visit to the South Pacific on a memborable Quilting Cruise. They are swimming in your own water colour quilt aquarium designed by Connie Rodriques for Whims Watercolor Quilts.


This is one of four workshops that will feature on the Quilting Cruise. All fabrics for the water colour quilt top and the applique are supplied. For a more challenging design you will also receive all the fabric and patterns to create an applique of Grandmothers Sewing Machine which can be appliqued onto your water colour quilt instead of the tropical fish.

Profile - Dorothy Clee


I grew up with fabric and sewing machines. My mother was a dressmaker and all her sisters were very much into craft. It was a natural profression from dressmaking to quilting and on to facbric art.When I left school I attended TAFE colleges and started several years of study in various areas of sewing. I have certificates of proficiency in pattern-making, dressmaking and a distinction in advanced commercial needlecraft. These qualifications and practical experiences have led me to kae up teaching of quilting and fabric embellishment. Free machining being my favourite are of machine sewing. I am currently a part time TAFE teacher and have been for the past twenty years. I started my TAFE proffession as a Advanced Comercial Needlecraft Certificate teacher when a staff member went on long service leave. Ihave been there ever since. However, as most TAFE collages no longer teach sewing I retrained and became a Business Services teacher.Around nine years ago we sold our fram and bought a very large run down hous on the outskirts of Tumut, NSW. We renovated the house and turned it into a bed and breakfast. There were plenty of large rooms in our home for me to be able to start pachwork and quilting workshops. These wrokshops led to the running of livein retreats, both patchwork and scrapbooking. thanks to my sisters passion for scrapbooking. Over the years I have attended numerous workshops with well know teachers bothe from Australia and overseas. They include Angela Madden from England, Vynthia England from the USA as well a learning a lot of techniques from Sharon Pederson from the USA. I have enjoyed a great workshop with Gloria Loughman of Australia.

I love many areas of machine patchwork. From strip piecing, to traditiobnal blocks, bargello, photos on fabric and applique. My favourite areas are machine embroidery and raw edge applllque. Landscaape quilts are of a particular interest to me. The variety of beautiful fabrics on the market today lend themselves to this areas of quilt making.I don't class myself as a quilt artist but as a quilt teacher.
I have a passion for sharing new techniques with students in my workshops. I encourage students to develop these techniques and create their own great quilts. Having patience is something I have plenty of.Three of my quilts have featured in 'Down Under Quilts' and Australian Patchwork and Quilting'. I would love to enter more of my quilts into the many competitions but find that teaching doesn't always allow me to meet the deadlines for these competitions. this doesn't stop me from planning quilts for cometitions! I love to sew, to create, and to learn easier and sometimes quicker ways to achieve a great result. As Angela madden said "If sewing is not successful and fun... why do it?"

Monday, April 18, 2011

Retreat Update

I have been overwhelmed by the response that has received regarding the Quilting Cruise next February. I would like to thank those who have booked already and the ladies who are considering booking. Kaye and I are going on a Quilting Cruise out of America next August. Kaye is a Scrapbooker and not a quilter but she jumped at the chance of coming with me when I asked her. I am looking forward to doing this cruise and getting some ideas for our cruise. The September Scrapbooking Retreat is booked out. This happened within in a week of notice going out with the details. Kylie Tout, from Scrapping Clearly, is doing a workshop on one of her beautiful mini albums. Thank you ladies for your continued support for these retreats. I shall post some information on the Quilting Cruise workshops when they have been finalised. I wish you all a great Easter and happy quilting and scrapbooking. Dorothy

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Austrailan Quilting Cruise

After a suggestion last February by a quilter on a retreat at Russellee as to why there can't be a quilting cruise from Australia like there are in the USA I contacted Lorelle from Crafting Cruises and we have got one happening.

The cruise is a South Pacific Gems 10 night cruise on the 'Rhapsody of the Seas'. I have been asked to arrange the classes. I have some ideas for these and am in the process of putting them together. The classes will all have kits provided.

The 'Rhapsody of the Seas' is a beautiful ship and I have crusied on her many times. There is a very large conference room which we will using for the group. This can be accessed 24 hours if you wish. As well as classes there will be plenty of time for you to do your own project. A good time to finish some UFOs.
We will be having prizes and givaways and special group events. You are most welcome to bring your partner or non quilting friend. There are plenty of events on the ship to keep them occupied while you are indulging in your passion.
For more information I can be contacted, russeldr@bigpond.com or Lorelle, lorelle@thecruisecrew.com
I will keep you posted on the classes.
Dorothy

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

March Scrapbooking Retreat

The March Retreat was a great success. Fourteen ladies attended. This was the biggest group that we have had at one of the Scrapping Retreats. A great time was had by all and some really beautiful layouts came together over the weekend.
I gave the ladies a page to do before the retreat and bring it along. This was a page on themselves. I was overwhellemed by the beautiful layouts that resulted from this challenge. Raewyn did a great job of journaling on her layout. I was very impresses with the book she added to the layout. In all there were three classes and three challanges over the weekend. Kaye Snow conducted the Saturday afternoon class in different techniques of inking your own papers. She showed five different techniques using Tim Holtz inks. There was a choice of two colour ways. It was about a 50 50 choice in the colour ways. This class was held in three groups.

After the classes were completed the challenge was to make a layout using these papers. the results were stunning.
We also had a sketch challenge and a kit challenge. The kit challenge had papers and colours that the ladies may not have chosen themselves and the results suprised them. Beautiful layouts. I would like to thank Tarra Orr from Canada for allowing me to use one of her layouts as a class.
Planning is on the way for the next retreat in September. Out guest tutor will be Kylie Tout.
Dorothy

Friday, February 25, 2011

Sandys Quilters


Sandy's Canberra Quilters
Last weekend seen ten ladies from Canberra, surrounds and one from Brisbane enjoy there second retreat at Russellee. Twelve or more quilt tops were well on the way or completed by the end of the weekend. Not all were quilters, however, there was one tatter and one long stitcher.
The ladies enjoyed a great weekend sewing. The conversation was great, lots of laughter and the company was great. Midnight oil was burnt on Saturday night. A good time was held by all and lots of sewing was achieved.Sandy also put forward the idea of doing a Quilting Cruise. I passed this onto Lorelle of Crafting Cruises and the idea is being followed up. Shall keep you posted.
Until next time.
Dorothy

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Scrapbooking Cruise

Pam and I are back on dry land after the 2nd Annual Scrapbook Cruise 6th - 13th January 2011. This was a 7 night Tasmania Cruise on the Royal Caribbean Rhapsody of the Seas.
Lorelle and Rob Hardt for Crafting Cruises again hosted a great Scrapping Cruise.

Our wonderful teacher, Melissa Kennedy from KasierCraft, again gave us great classes. We actually completed seven layouts and a couple of cards with her. Considering that we only had two and a half days at sea Melissa did very well.

In all about 36 ladies and 22 extra family members were in the group. They came from all over the country from Western Australia, Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. I have included a group photo of the ladies however some in the back are a bit hard to see. Not sure how to overcome this with so many.

Lorelle and Rob had their beautiful baby daughter, Cassandra, with them. They also had a lot of baby sitters with sisters and cousins. Unfortunately Lorelle's mum had a mishap at the start of the cruise and had to go into hospital in Melbourne.
The floods in Queensland played havoc on the group a bit with one lady from Rockhampton unable to attend due to the floods and some of the Brisbane ladies having difficulty in getting home. Not to mention anxious times with text messages from loved ones in Ipswitch and Toowamba. However, all are safe even though houses were affected.

Raewyn Gilchrist from Wagga (there were 15 in her party although not all Scrappers) gave a bonus class. I would like to thank Raewyn for all the effort she put into getting this class ready. Although my layout is not completed some of the ladies did some lovely layouts using Raewyn's kits.

Melissa's layouts had lovely papers from the Prima Annabella rang, the Kasier Seaside range and American Crafts Enchanted range. Thank you Melissa for put together great kits. Melissa also gave a prize for the lady who completed the most layouts. One lady did 50 odd layouts during the cruise. Even though we only had 2½ days at sea we had access to the Scrapbooking room at all times which was great.

Pam was lucky enough to win one of the luck draws. The prize was a signed Tim Holtz's A Compendium of Curriosities book. Great techniques in it.
I would recommend a Scrapping Cruise to all those who are addicted to the craft. I have put a link into Lorelle's email for those who are interested in the 3rd Annual Australian Scrapbooking Cruise.
Until next time
Happy Scrapping
Dorothy