Alaskan Quilting Cruise 2015

A wonderful way to see Alaska is on a cruise ship.  Combine this with indulging in your passion for patchwork and you have a Retreat at Sea.  Come North to Alaska with Chris Dowell, Dorothy Clee and Crafting Cruises for this trip of a life time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We will be sailing on the beautiful Radiance of the Seas for this amazing experience with a round trip from Vancouver.  Leaving on the 4^th September and returning on the 11^th September 2015.

There are three workshops which will be held during sea days.  A jelly roll quilt ,  ‘Country Colours’, with Dorothy and an appliqué project, ‘Furry Friends’, with Chris.  Chris has designed her projects especially for the cruise.  Both these workshops have an Australian and an Alaskan theme. And of course we have a ‘Mystery’ workshop. Sewing machines are provided and kits are available.

Visit quilt shops at Juneau and Ketchikan within walking distance to the ship. Cruise the amazing Tracy Arm Fjord. Lorelle from Crafting Cruises is putting together some suggestions for pre and post tours of the Canadian Rocky Mountains.

I have also arranged a pre and post cruise two week Rocky Mountain Quilting Tour with Debbie Rod.  This visits Canada’s largest quilt shop, meet with Canmore Mountain Cabin Quilters, enjoy an all day appliqué workshop with a local quilter and of course sight seeing in the Rocky Mountains.  Visit Banff, Lake Louise, and the Icefields Parkway and Jasper.

This tour is very personalised and the groups are small.  The pre cruise tour is booked out but the post cruise tour has vacancies.

This is a wonderful way to combine a love of quilting with a trip of a life time visiting beautiful countryside and seeing wonderful sights.  Bring an extra suitcase for all the lovely fabrics that will tempt us to buy.

For information and pricing on the Alaskan Quilting Cruise and optional Rocky Mountain Quilting Tour please contact me. russeldr@bigpond.com

Bits and Bobs

It has been awhile since I have posted.  Been putting reports on Facebook. Anyway the past few months have been very busy.

Tony and I took nine lovely ladies to Bail for our annual Bail Quilting Retreat, Fabric and Cultural tour.  This was a great success with lots of fabric buying, sightseeing and of course sewing.  This is a link to my Bail Quilting Retreat 2014 album https://www.facebook.com/dorothy.clee.9/media_set?set=a.887340287950740.1073741831.100000243312215&type=3

Since I come home from Bail I have been concentrating on our 4^th Australian Quilting and Embroidery Cruise.  We have 34 ladies coming plus partners and friends.  This cruise is going to New Zealand on the 22^nd February 2015.  There is still time to join us on this cruise.

I have managed to fit in a weekend in Melbourne attending an Alison Holt workshop.  This is my finished project.

I shall try not to be so long between posts next time.

Take care

Dorothy

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.

 

 

Quilts in and American Magazine

I have been fortunate to have my quilt 'Broughton Castle' featured in the July/August 'Machine Quilting Unlimited' magazine.  When I received the magazine in the mail I was delighted to also see that there was a story on the Living Colour Exhibit in the same magazine and that my very dear friend, Chris Dowell, had her entry in this exhibit also featured in the magazine.

Chris has been the inspiration for me to develop my quilts and to put them out there into competitions.  This year my New Years resolution was to have a go and do this.  'Broughton Castle' was my first quilt for this resolution.  I entered it into the Fibre Art Section of the Art Show at Easter and it won.

Thanks to Chris I am also working  on two other quilts, one large and one small, that I hope to enter into two quilt displays in August.

Russellee BnB Craft Retreats Newsletter

Russellee has had a very busy six months and I would like to thank all those who attended one of our retreats either scrapbooking or patchwork. 

The year started off with our first UFO retreat for the year in February.  This was followed by the 3^rd Australian Quilting Cruise. Ladies came from all parts of the country as well as five from New Zealand.

We arrived home from the Cruise on the 9^th March and this was followed by our first Scrapbooking Retreat for the year. Helen Godden fitted her ‘Crack Pots’  workshop into her busy schedule in March. Eleven ladies from around the area as well as one travelling from Victoria.  We thank Helen and her mum for doing this for us.

Sandy’s Quilters from Canberra also came in March. This was their fifth year of coming.  To finish off March I had my sister’s, Pam, 70^th  birthday at Russellee.

Laraine and I took some time out and attended the Norfolk Island Quilting Retreat with Michelle Yea.  Both Tony and Bill came with us as we had a very enjoyable 10 days of quilting and sightseeing.  Norfolk is a beautiful place.

I made and effort and finished a project of raw edge appliqué and entered it into the Tumut Art Show in the fibre art section and to my surprise it won and I also sold it.  I find it very difficult to get the time to finish projects for competition and it was hard going getting the piece finished but it was worth the effort.

A group of lovely ladies from Sydney came for a five day retreat at the end of April.  Some of these ladies have been on our cruises and one was also at Norfolk.  It was wonderful being able to catch up with them again.

Robyn Taylor from Wagga came over and gave these ladies a workshop on her Fabric Mosaic technique.  They also invited Roz to join in and the resulting pictures were stunning.

In May a group of ladies came for their third Mothers and Daughters Card Making weekend.  This group come from different areas of the state and use the weekend to catch up with each other and make some beautiful cards.

I also had a thread painting weekend in May.  It has been three years since I presented one.  Had ladies travel from Sydney, Mittagong, Wagga and The Rock as well as local.  A small group but the results were great.

The end of May saw Tony, James, Liam and I head off to Uluru for a road trip. (Tony’s idea.) It was a long, long way but the scenery was spectacular.  I have lots of inspirational photos for thread painting and hope have one done in time for the Desert Sands Exhibition in August.

Back home and another UFO Retreat.  This Retreat was a bit different to our other  UFO quilting retreats as we had two knitters and a lovely teenager working on an appliqué project for her HSC.  It was great to see the younger generation interested in sewing.

I am working on two quilts for the Canberra Quilt Show in August.  Nothing like a bit of pressure to get things moving.  I promised myself that this year I would enter some of my work into shows.  Have managed one and two more to go. (I hope).

As to the rest of the year.  July is fairly quite as far as Retreats go but August has two retreats plus I am doing two craft shows to promote the cruise and the retreats.

October is our Bail Quilting Retreat.  We still have one spot left on this.  Two ladies are coming from New Zealand to join us at Bail.

 

I am planning to have another UFO Retreat 7 – 9 November and a Thread Painting workshop 6-7 December.  In  between I have a scrapbooking retreat plus three private retreats.

The second half is going to be busy but life is best when busy.

 

Take Care

Dorothy

 

Thread Painting Retreat

Last weekend five ladies attended the Thread Painting Retreat at
Russellee.  The ladies came from Sydney, Mittagong, Wagga, The Rock and Batlow.  The results of their efforts for the weekend were well received.  The workshop concentrated on landscapes. 

At first the landscapes seemed to not be happening as we started with the background.  Once the foreground and the main features started to be added the delight of the ladies was evident as the landscapes evolved before their eyes.

 

All were very happy with the results.  A couple still need a bit of finishing but they are well on the way.  Looking forward to seeing photos of the finished work.

Russellee's next retreat is a UFO Retreat in June.  This retreat is full.  We will be having another UFO Retreat 7-9 November.  If you are interested in coming please contact me.

Our Quilting Retreat at  Sea next February is half full.  If you would like any information please contact me or Lorelle.  Next year we are sailing to New Zealand and my guest teachers are Helen Godden and Jan Pilgrim.  Jan is doing two lovely hand stitched projects on this cruise.  She has just sent me a photo of her second workshop of a New Zealand Christmas Bush featuring stumpwork leaves

Bali in October has three spots left.  We only do one of these retreats a year.  This is a fabulous two weeks of fabric shopping, cloths shopping, sightseeing and of course sewing.  The sewing machines are provided and we have a wonderful time sewing the beautiful fabric that we buy there.  A highlight of this trip is a hands on class in making a Batik runner.

 

Dorothy

Thread Painting Finished

Autumn around Tumut this year has been just beautiful.  The golden trees and the green paddocks are a pleasure to look at.  I have taken several photos and have created a thread painting of one of them.  

This is a view of the  poplars at the Tumut Pioneer Bridge from the entrance to the Canoe Club.