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

Retreats Past and Future

Last weekend Sandy's quilters from Canberra came for their fourth visit.  There were seven wonderful ladies and they worked on their projects.  Over the course of the weekend some wonderful quilt tops were produced.  They varied greatly in technique and colour.  I have a photo of one of the quilt tops finished.  This braid quilt was made from batks that were purchased in Bali last September on the 'Bali Treasures' trip that Sandy orgainsed.  Pam and her sister travelled down from Brisbane for the retreat.

I have also been working on a quilt made with a jelly roll that I got in Bail on that trip.  The colours are different to what I usually work with.  It has been interesting using such bright colours.  I am going to applique hibiscus and butterflies on it.

On a different note I have a Scrapbooking group next weekend.  This is one of my groups.  All these ladies have been before and the group is a great one.  I have been asked if I could organise an extra Scrapbooking Retreat for the 21st - 23rd June.  This is open to all.  If you would like details please contact me.

The 5th - 7th April is a UFO Quilting weekend.  There are still some places available for this retreat.  If you would like to come no matter what your experience or if you come alone you are always welcome.

Dont' forget that we can orgainise a retreat for your group either for a weekend or during the week.

Dorothy

2nd Australian Quilting Cruise Report

The 'Group"

The 2nd Australian Quilting Cruise on the 'Voyager of the Seas' was a great success.  34 wonderful ladies attended.  Workshops were given by Amanda Daly and myself aided by our wonderful helper, Laraine.  The cruise was 14 days and visited Noumea, Fiji and the north island of New Zealand.

'Voyager of the Seas'

The 'Voyager of the Seas' provided us with a wonderful conference room where we were able to set up the machines for the entire cruise.  The first night on board seen Laraine and I setting up the room with the help of three wonderful crew from the ship connecting the 240 volts we needed for the machines.  Lorelle, our group coordinator, brought three US irons, which were 110 volt and this made things easier.  Irons are always a concern on ships because of fire.  We had to get ones with auto switch off.

A section or the workroom

Some of the group with partners and friends in Auckland.

Ladies, partners and friends, came from all over.  We even had a lady from Concrete, Washington State in the US.  She found us on the Internet last March and decided the cruise was a good way to combine her passion for quilting with a visit to Australia and New Zealand.  We had a lady from Perth and one from Kununurra plus ladies from most other states.

Ann-Maree finishing a UFO

Four workshops plus a mystery workshop were given on the cruise.  However, it was not necessary to do all the workshops.  Some just done one, some done them all.  Three ladies did their own projects.  This was OK.


Jean's in progress

 

Getting there

Da Daa...Finished

Our oldest quilter, Jean, was 84.  She had a wonderful time.  Her Pinwheel Folly Quilt was the hand embroidered version and Jean had her embroidered blocks completed prior to the cruise.  Several others also had their blocks ready, or nearly ready, for the cruise.

Amanda demonstrating a reverse applique butterfly

Amanda did a postcard workshop combining raw edge applique and reverse applique techniques.  She encouraged the ladies to post one at least home to a friend.  I have had feed back that they did indeed arrive home safety.

'In the Round' NZ version

Amanda's second workshop was a 2 day one and was titled 'In the Round'  Amanda did three versions of this: an Australian version, a Pacific Island version and a New Zealand version.  This kept the ladies busy.

In New Zealand we visited some patchwork shops.  A lot of damage was done to the budget at these shops.  Every shop has something different and something different to home.

The mystery workshop was a clutch bag made with two fat quarters.  The complete kit was given to everyone and they could opt to do it on the day or take it home.  Most did it on the day and it was a fun workshop enjoyed by all.

some of the clutch bags finished

Bali Treasures block double size

The final workshop was 'Bali Treasures'.  I did have kits for this but encouraged the ladies to bring their own fabrics as this looks totally different with different fabrics.  The results were amazing with the different colourways.

From this....

to this.

And from this....

To this.

Another version

We had a visit from the captain.  He was very interested it what the group were doing. I gave the ladies a pre cruise challenge titled 'Land of the Long White Cloud'.  We had ten quilts for this and had the fellow cruise goers vote on them.  The captain took part in the vote also.  Over 100 passengers voted on these quilts. 

Laraine spent a lot of extra time in the conference room to help out where necessary.  She is a tireless lady with a wonderful knowledge of quilting.  Always able to help where required and a great 'reverse sewer'.  If any one followed the motto 'Keep Calm and Carry On' it is her.

We were on the ship on Australia Day and there were flags in the amazing 'street' of the ship.  A barbque was held up on the pool deck.  Some of our ladies dressed for the day.

Of course a big part of a quilting retreat is chatting to each other and this Retreat at Sea was no exception.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is the amount of ladies that visited the workroom during the cruise who said if they had only had know about our group that they would have booked in.  We are going to give it another go next year.  The date has been set as the 27th February for a 10 day South Pacific Cruise.  If you are interested contact me or Lorelle. Our emails are on the right of the blog.

Until next time happy quilting
Dorothy