New Zealand themed quilt

You've heard it before! Dorothy Clee and I will be teaching on a quilting cruise to Noumea Fiji and New Zealand early next year. This has had me busily designing a New Zealand themed project to keep the quilters busy. The Pacific Island themed quilt is just a few late nights away. Check out Dorothy Clee's blog to see what she has been designing for the cruise at russelleebnb-russellee.blogspot.com There is a link to Dorothy's blog at the bottom of this page. The 14 day cruise leaves mid January next year...6 months worth of sleeps to go! I'd love for you to join us.

What else have I been doing?...well I've had a big birthday complete with lots of cake, champagne, lunches with friends, morning tea with my wonderful thoughtful students, a weekend away, a harbour cruise with my beautiful daughters and dinners with friends and relies. It's turning out to be more of a birthmonth rather than a birthday. I share my birthday with my oldest grandaughter Tegan who is exactly 50 years younger than me, so there is also a special celebration planned just for us birthday girls. Can't wait.

Postcards from the Cruise

We all send postcards home while we are on holiday right? Yes, that's what I thought, so I've designed some cards for the ladies to make while on the Quilting Cruise to Noumea Fiji and New Zealand. I'm hoping that some of these cards, which will be made while sailing between Fiji and New Zealand will be stamped and posted from Auckland back to friends and relies in Oz. Dorothy Clee and I have some intersting projects lined up for the cruise and looking forward to it immensly. Travelling on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship "Voyager of the Seas" we set sail for 14 days of cruising and quilting early next year. I'm sure hubby will find plenty of things to do while I'm teaching, cruising is our favourite holiday.

The New Quilt Exhibition - Manly Art Gallery

My textile piece "Banksia" is a part of the exhibition along with 22 other interesting textile works. The theme is Regeneration and I eagerly responded to the call for entries with a proposal for a piece that depicts the wonderfully natural regenerative powers of the Banksia. Bushfire is part of every Australian summer and the Banksia is one of the marvels of naurally occurring bushfire regeneration. It not only survives the bushfire, it reacts positively to it. My textile work is set on a background of low contrast machine quilting, the beauiful yellow/gold flowers are brought to life with cotton and sik fabrics, embellished with silk ribbon and a variety of threads. The seed pods are textured with the aid of wire form, while red silk ribbon and metallic threads depict the fire. Each of the entries is accompanied by a display box, with details of the initial concept and documentation of the process.

The entry process for this exhibition was very intersting. Rather than submitting an existing work for consideration. The requirements were for a proposal for a new work to fit in with the theme "Regeneration". This process really appealed to me as I'm a bit of a control freak and start most of my new works with fairly detailed sketches and collections of fabrics and other materials. Of course the final outcome more often than not will be significantly different to the original idea as the pieces takes hold of its own destiny, however I still find that the initial sketching and gathering together of materials is a useful one. I was delighted to be accepted and enjoyed the process of making the piece and documenting every stage in order to provide samples and photos for the display case. The exhibition will be on until 3rd June and there are opportunities to meet with some of the artists on Sunday 13th May and for Exhibition tours on 27th May and 3rd June at 3pm.

Quilt Cruise

How about joining Dorothy Clee and myself as tutors on a 14 night Quilting Cruise to Noumea, Fiji and New Zealand early next year?

I've recently returned from a cruise around New Zealand and had a really great time.

Addicted to quilting for years and now I'm also addicted to cruising.
I'd like to share my passion for these activities with you. 8 full days at sea means you'll have the option to participate in 8 days of workshops, plus trips to quilt shops on many of our days in port.
14 days of luxurious and relaxing travel, on the Royal Caribbean Line's - Voyager of the Seas. from $2430 American $'s.
Let me know if you'd like further details.

I'll post some of the photos I took on my recent cruise very soon.

Odd

I don't want to spend too much time with my head down sewing these days...I might miss something.

Firstly the goanna on the roof and yes he/she after taking a walk on the roof (frequently of late) does walk down the brick wall head first. These photos are of the smaller of the two goannas who have made themselves at home in and around our home. We have taken to keeping our doors firmly closed.

Then the hailstorm last Sunday, a very chilly day for December...

...and the photo of the wallaby (taken through my kitchen window) this lovely creature who has also lived in and around our bush garden for years, has taken a liking to our geraniums...yum!

We haven't any pets but are delighted to have so many visits from native animals.
At this rate I'll never finish my quilt.

Fibonacci Workshop

Are you a member of The Quilters' Guild of NSW ?

Why not join me for my 2 day designing quilts with Fibonacci workshop to be held on Monday and Tuesday 24th and 25th October at the Epping creative centre.

Learn about the easy number sequence I use in most of my designs. Start designing your own quilts, or if inspiration is in short supply you could tackle the quilt photographed, or one of my other quilts, or perhaps just use one of them as a jumping off point.

I'm led to believe there are only 3 spaces left

Katoomba in July

The Country Pickin's retreat at CMS in Katoomba was wonderful.
Magnificent views over the 3 sisters, Lyre birds, great food, interesting projects and of course the best of company.

It's taken me a couple of days to recover, perhaps I'm not as young as I used to be.

During our 2 hour lunch breaks everyone found something worthwhile to do, some chose to have a nap, a trip down in the scenic railway to the valley floor, a shopping trip to Katoomba, or just a stroll along the cliff top to admire the view.

Log fires kept us warm and the slight chill in the air outside felt good.

We've booked again for the same weekend next year...looking forward to it already.

I'm off to Tamworth to teach another workshop next weekend, must remember to pack my winter woolies again.

Weekend Retreat Katoomba

With the quilt show over (wasn't it great) it's now time to turn my full attention to helping Robyen at Country Pickin's at the Corner to organise the first of what I'm sure will be many annual Christmas in July quilting retreats.

5 teachers including yours truley will brave the cold mountain air, fill our cars with supplies and head off for a weekend with magnificent views over the three sisters, slow combustion fires to keep us warm, all meals cooked for us including a Christmas in July dinner which along with the many delightful Christmas theme projects will warm our hearts.

There will be extra long lunch breaks so that we can take a walk along the cliff top, or ride the scenic railway to the valley floor. Shopping, or taking a nap might be on the agenda for the less adventurous.

Still a couple of vacancies in workshops including Tita Leach - beautiful Santa Sack, Katrina Hadjimichael - foundation pieced quilt, Vaness Thomas - reindeer and bear, and Margaret Cormack - stained glass table runner. My class is officially full but I could be pursuaded to take just a couple more.

Let Robyen or myself know if you'd like to join us.

The Seven Deadly Sins

I didn't have time to go to the AQC in Melbourne this year. I usually manage to find time to fly down there even if just for the day, but my teaching schedule, my husbands 60th birthday and Easter all made sure that I wouldn't be able to get there this year.

I was represented though by my entry in the themed challenge "The Seven Deadly Sins" My entry was based on the sin of "Greed" and how this sin underpinned the Global Financial Crisis. The quilt was made in layers with the map of the world going down first and covered with white netting to give it a misty, distance look and the crashing dollars, city etc over the top. All raw edge appliqued and extensively free machine quilted. The man at the bottom sweeping up the reduced value $'s is a silhouette taken from a photo I took of my long suffering husband with a broom, he was endlessly patient with me while I took pics from every angle.

I'm looking forward to seeing the other 30 quilts in the exhibition alongside The Quilters' Guild of NSW quilt show in Darling Harbour from June 22nd - 26th. Go to the guild's web site for more information - there's a link a the bottom of this page.

Forster

Last weekend I spent an very engaging couple of days teaching my Fibonacci workshop to the ladies of the Seaside Heritage Quilt group and enjoying the tranquility of Forster / Tuncurry.
Thanks ladies