Accreditation finally

I've been an active member of The Quilters' Guild of NSW for years and teaching patchwork and quilting and in particular my own designs and my passion for Fibonacci for around 15 years. I've even been the coordinator for the teacher accreditation program for 3 years but only just got around to becoming an accredited teacher myself.

So now it's official. Accredited Teacher - Special Techniques

Do you belong to the NSW Quilters' Guild? If not, now is a good time to join, membership fees are $55 are are due at the end of June. Why not join at the quilt show at Darling Harbour 16th - 20th June. Held at the Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour. You are going aren't you? I spend at least 3 days there, any less and I wouldn't get through it all.

There are many benefits to being a member of the guild. Meet some lovely people, borrow from a large library, attend workshops, regular meetings and weekends away, have your quilts valued, enter challenges, help with community quilts, receive a quarterly magazine "The Template" full of interesting stuff and you'll be eligible to enter a quilt or two in next years show... I'm sure there are even more benefits. Find out for yourself.

Typical behaviour

I quite often buy things on impulse, my husband is the same. We are not unhappy about this tendancy, but sometime a bit of planning would go a long way.

A while ago we were out shopping for a coffee table for the family room. We couldn't find one we liked, so on impulse we bought a very beautiful and very large octagonal table for our patio instead

It seemed like a good thing to do at the time. It fits beautifully into our patio and looks stunning. We love how it comfortably seats 8 and we can squeeze even more in if we need to, but it's really far too big for four and it's so wide we often have to rely heavily on the lazy susan my son in law built for us just to be able to share the nibblies. The seating plan is always an issue, as sitting four of us equally spaced around it (my husbands preference) makes us all feel too far apart and sitting on one side (my preference) does seem a bit unbalanced. If we had given it even a bit of thought we would probably have chosen something more versatile.
Of course it's not really a problem and it's easy to fix - just invite more people.

I bought an embellisher machine at the Quilt Show last June, it was about 4.30pm on the last day and I hadn't even looked at one before, let alone actually tried it out. I just walked past the stall and bought it. No pre-planning, no thought - just impulse.

It sat in it's box until last December, then it actually made it out of the box and onto the bench in my studio. I finally got around to plugging it in and trying it out a couple of weeks ago after spending a fortune on supplies while at AQC.

It's a bit like the patio table, maybe a bit more thought was needed. I'll try it again but I must say I'm not hooked yet - Must try some other raw materials and see if that makes a difference.

I like the spontaneous and impulsive side of me, it makes life more interesting and I need to come up with creative solutions more often.

AQC in a day !

Once Upon a Time. My entry in the AQC Remember challenge



The fruits of my shopping spree at AQC



I had an amazingly full and rewarding day at AQC in Melbourne. I flew down to Melbourne on the 7.15am flight and back on the 7.15pm.

I know it probably makes more sense to go for the weekend but it always seems just so much more adventurous when we do it in a day.

Joined by 5 friends, we got out of bed at around 4am and arrived home very tired indeed at around 10.30pm. We did battle with the Melbourne trams, saw some really great quilt exhibitions, shopped until we dropped, ever mindful of the 7kg cabin baggage limit and the need to avoid sharp objects, we bumped into people we knew and chatted with some we met over lunch, we even road tested the newly available HQ16, and yes I really do want one of these!

My entry in the AQC Remember challenge was there. I remember bedtime stories and had great fun arranging scenes from Little Red Riding Hood, Alice in Wonderland and other childhood favourites in my entry titled "Once Upon a Time". I loved the winning entry and the other 31 quilts in the exhibition.

A good day was had by all, though I slept fo 12 hours straight on Saturday night.

I have just a few short weeks to rebuild my strength for my one day wonder trip to the Textile Art Festival in Brisbane!