5th Australian Quilting Cruise Specialist Art Quilt and Foundation Piecing

We now have our 5th Australian Quilt Cruise 31st January 2018 – 13 night New Zealand Cruise Specialist Art Quilt and Foundation Piecing up and running. Bookings are starting to come in if you would like to come with us on this wonderful cruise please contact me.


Cruise Overview
Enjoy a 14 day cruise on the beautiful ‘Radiance of the Seas’ visiting wonderful ports of call in New Zealand while indulging in your passion for Quilting. This cruise is specialising in Art Quilting and Foundation Piecing using the Judy Niemeyer patterns. Three passionate teachers will be taking you step by step through the process of these techniques. Workshop numbers are kept small. Chose one of three great workshops. Our popular Mystery Workshop is again offered to all participants. Every participant will receive a new Singer Workshop Sewing Machine which they can take home. Keep it for future workshops or give it to someone special.
Cabin Prices start from $2654 twin share, which includes cruise workshops and sewing Machine to take home. Friends and Partners are welcome to come along (they receive a $600 discount). The cruise offers plenty of entertainment on board or just to relax. Everyone will share the experience of the wonderful ports of call. Your friends/partners are also included in our Welcome and Farwell events.

Tutors and their Workshops
Chris Dowell – Fascinating Flora
Chris will take you step by step through the designing of a one of a kind Art Quilt with Flora as the inspiration. This workshop also shows you how best to quilt the finished masterpiece. A basic starter kit will be provided.

Christine Dowell (Chris) lives in beautiful Toowoomba, Queensland. Most of her life she has dabbled in art. Mainly drawing and painting but her greatest love is textiles. Chris loves to paint with fabric. Her inspiration comes from the world around her. Chris’s work is a representation of what she sees either from her own experiences or from books and photos from others. Chris creates art quilts using appliqué, thread sketching, fabric painting and dying and sometimes adds beading and hand embroidery. Chris has been fortunate to have quilts accepted into the travelling exhibitions ‘Beneath the Southern Sky’ and ‘Living Colours’. Earlier this year Chris was runner up in the 2016 AQC challenge ‘Tradition with a Twist‘.


Juanita Buggé – Foundation Piecing

 Juanita will take you through the steps of creating a wonderful Judy Niemeyer Quilt. There is a choice of ‘Glacier Star’, ‘Fire Island Hosta’ or ‘Desert Sky’. A pattern of your choice is included. Fabric kits are available for purchase or you are able to bring your own fabric. You do not have to be experienced at foundation piecing as Juanita will take you through all the steps to create these quilts.
Juanita is owner of ‘Sewing Buddies Australia’ which is a Certified Judy Niemeyer Store. Juanita has many years of experience in teaching foundation piecing. Juanita is based in Melbourne and travels to all the big craft shows and shares her passion for Judy Niemeyer Quilts.

Dorothy Clee- Wonderful Landscapes in Fabric and Thread In this workshop Dorothy will take you through the process of quilting a landscape quilt from a photo. You can use one of your own photos or one provided. Techniques included are realistic placement, raw edge appliqué and quilt as you go. Learn how to use different techniques, including paint, to create realism. A basic started kit with an enlargement of your photo is included.
 
Dorothy is an owner of Russellee BnB Craft Retreats Tumut. Dorothy has an Advanced Diploma in Commercial Needlework and has taught Thread Painting and Business Admin at TAFF. Also as a tutor, at Russellee BnB, for many different aspects of quilting both traditional and art quilting. Her passion is Thread Painting and creating Art Quilts based on photos of landscapes, which often include animals. She is continually exploring the many different ways of creating Art quilts.

For information email Dorothy russeldr@bigond.com

 

Upcoming Workshops/Retreats at Russellee BnB Craft Retreats Tumut

Russellee BnB Crafts Retreats is off the a busy year starting with the upcoming 4th Australian Quilting Cruise to NZ on the 22nd February 2015.

We are also hosting Retreats and Workshops at our BnB in Tumut and these are as follows:

Thread Painting Landscapes - 28 - 29 March 2015.

May 2014 Class

UFO Weekend (Finish all those started projects) 17-19 April 2015.

Roz finishing her quilt that she started on the cruise.

Fabric Mosaic with Robyn Taylor - 2-3 May 2015.

These retreats include accommodation.

 
Our Bail/Lombok Quilting Retreat, Fabric and Cultural Tour the 26th July - 8th August 2015 is filling fast.  We only take 10 ladies on this trip.

2013 Bali Group

The highlight of our trips this year and our biggest undertaking yet is our North to Alaska Quilting Cruise. This is the 2nd September 2015.  We are taking a maximum of 24 ladies on this. In conjunction with this trip I have orgained with Debbie Rodd of Rocky Mountain Quilting Tours a pre cruise (this one is full) and a post cruise two week boutique quilting tour visiting quilt shops, quilt groups a class and of course touring the spectacular Rocky Mountains of Canada.

If you would like information on any of these retreats/workshops contact me. email russeldr@bigpond.com

 

 

 

Albury Quilters Come for a Retreat

Vicki’s Quilters from Albury held their annual retreat at Russellee BnB again this weekend.  Their chosen workshop for this retreat was a ‘Landscape Quilt’.  The retreat started with a show and tell of two of the quilts from their last retreat here.  The class was ‘Butterfly Trails’.  This is the workshop that I will be doing on our 4^th Australian Quilting and Embroidery Cruise next February.

 

 

The ladies started by designing their landscape on paper and then auditioning fabrics.  Swapping of fabrics ensured that the right fabric for the landscapes were available. The weekend saw landscapes evolving before our eyes.  Most got to the quilting stage.  Here are a few of the end results read for the next stage.

 

 

3rd Australian Quilting Cruise Report

The 3^rd Australian Quilting Cruise was a great experience.  Thirty four wonderful ladies from as far away as New Zealand, Western Australia and in between attended this retreat.  Laraine Callinan and Christine Dowell helped to make this a very successful Quilting Cruise on the Royal Caribbean ‘Voyager of the Seas’ on a 10 night retreat at sea. 

 

Christine designed two lovely appliqué wall hangings which comprised of all hand dyed fabric kits.  These designs when completed on the ship were very well received by those on the cruise.

I presented a ‘Jelly Roll’ workshop designed around lovely batik fabrics purchased on our Bali Quilting Retreat last October.  I also designed a freezer paper class with a picture as the central inspiration for the piecing.  This was inspired by English patchworker, Angela Madden and her ‘Piecful Sceans’ book.  Angela sent two copies of her book out from England which I used as lucky draws in the workshops.  In all I embroidered 14 lavender fields using free machining and 15 programmed beach scenes.

The final workshop was designed and presented by Laraine Callinan and featured a tool caddy for carrying small quilting equipment. I ordered 40 A5 cutting mats from England for this workshop. This workshop was very much appreciated by the group.

As well as workshops the ship visited Noumea, New Caledonia, Suva and Loutoka in Fiji.  Many exciting shore excursions were enjoyed by all.  Laraine, Chris and a friend, Roz, braved wooden canoes up a river and through rapids to a waterfall followed by a great visit to a local village.

The Voyager of the Seas has a Disney theme.  We had visits to the workroom by some of the characters.  They added a fun atmosphere to the room.

A pre cruise challenge titled 'Tropical Colours' had 17 entries.  A viewers choice award of a Bernette sewing machine donated by Bernina Australia was won by Lydia McGreagor from Queensland. The winner was announced at a Cocktail Party held near the end of the cruise.

A ‘Quilting Retreat at Sea’ is a wonderful way to combine the love of patch working with a great holiday where the ships staff pamper you like royalty and the food is varied and wonderful.  

Roz was my ‘Official’ photographer and did a wonderful job of capturing all aspects of the cruise from the workshops, to around the ship and the ports of call.  I would like to give Roz a big thank you for doing this. This is a link to her Album on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/roslyn.sephton/media_set?set=a.10202528232141585.1073741868.1069076082&type=1 

Our cruise would not take place without the behind the sceans work with bookings and following up the ships requests of our group with the wonderful Lorelle Hardt of Crafting Cruises.

The next Quilting Cruise is scheduled for February 2015 and visits the north Island of New Zealand.  Two special guest tutors have been included with world renowned Helen Godden presenting her 'Flying into colours' workshop along with a surface stitching embroidery specialist Jan Pilgrim. Jan will add another dimension to our cruise with her lovely designs for those wishing to do hand projects.  I have designed a quilt top, (or table runner version) using an old block with a modern twist.

Any one interested in next years cruise can contact me.

Until next time

Dorothy

Thread Painted dog

I finished a thread painting of my sons, Nathan, dog, Jack Daniels today.  The dog is not my most favourite dog in the world but he was a bit of a character to thread paint.

 

Just about finished packing all the stuff to take on the quilting cruise.  Apart from 16 sewing machines I have eight suitcases with power boards, kits, fabric, quilts and lots more.  When you are out at sea you can not go to the shop to buy something you have forgotten.  It is a matter of preparing for everything or else do without.