Far from it, just extremely busy. I have been travelling all over teaching and also visiting Melbourne for AQC- and when I have not been travelling I've been either writing, or madly house hunting. Yes, we are in the process of hunting for a house to buy and must have seen a good 50 houses by now. 7 on Saturday just passed alone. Its enormously time consuming and at times irritatingly frustrating.
Here are some of the students from a one day Free Motion Machine Quilting workshop run a couple of weeks ago at Milton NSW through My Patch Fabrics, we fill a church hall and sew up a storm!
As always I'm made to feel very welcome and may have indulged in some lovely fabric from the store after class!
Batehaven Bay, the beach 5 minutes walk from our cabin...very hard to take!!
I stayed with my family (they go off and play whilst I go off and work) an extra night on the South Coast and we visited beautiful Sunshine Bay, where whale watching occurs.
We were lucky enough to see a dolphin just as we were leaving. The beach is amazing with lots to explore, interesting rock formations, rock pools, gorgeous beach and nice little inlets you can walk to across the rocks.
Have to say we all topped up on some lovely fresh fish whilst staying at Batehaven Bay. Very yummy! On the way home we stopped at Braidwood and raided the old fashioned Lolly Shop for sweets and ice cream.
Had to be done! Just as we prepared to leave there was the beginnings of what grew into a rather enormous electrical storm we skirted on the way home, offering up some spectacular coloured clouds.
There have been classes at Rosemont the Patchwork Shop as well, more machine quilting with beginners.
Linda was learning not only to free motion quilt, she was learning her new sewing machine, a Bernina 750.
You could not wipe the smile off her face! I take as much delight in teaching quilters to machine quilt their own quilts as they do from learning to quilt.
We lost a couple of students for the end of class photo who had to leave early, but you can see the ladies have all been highly productive!
Its lovely the way new connections are made between new and old friends, with a good deal of laughter and fun besides learning. Oh and thanks to Theresa and Barry, we enjoyed a sumptuous lunch and morning afternoon tea to keep us all going. It was a 2 day class.
Whilst I was at AQC in Melbourne I visited the Bernina stand of course and what do you think was there? A "naked" 7 series machine (photos with permission, thanks Cathy!). Fabulous to see if you have ever wondered what the inside of one looks like.
It was at work embroidering a lovely design and so it was fun seeing the parts working away, and the electronics lit up inside like a Christmas tree. These are substantially heavy machines- so quiet to sew on with the fabulous new hook system, and they are so spacious with a 10 inch space between needle and the inside of the freearm. I've just been sewing a Ponte di Roma knit skirt this afternoon on my overlocker and 750QE and it handles knit fabrics just as nicely as it quilts! No rippling, perfect feeding of fabric, lovely stitches. Will photograph skirt once I decide between a standard straight hem or adding a flounce. I am out of thread and can't finish till I buy more.
I've been playing with a Loes Hinse skirt pattern and love the shape of it!
AQC was as always wonderful with some fantastic quilts. I had my Baltimore Ladies Remembered on display in the Best of the Best exhibition representing the ACT. I really enjoyed viewing the quilts from Korea, the AQC/ APQ challenge entries, work from the tutors and some lovely small quilts from South Africa. There is so much to see its good to take a couple of days to absorb the quilts. I could not take more than about 10 steps in any direction before running into someone I knew, so there was a lot of fun catching up with old and new friends to do, as well as basking in the gorgeous surrounds of a World Heritage Listed building. If you have never seen the Royal Exhibition Building it is as stunning inside as the gardens outside.
I enjoyed the lectures from David Taylor and Judy Coates Perez, both of whom make astonishingly beautiful work. The Gala dinner was really good fun catching up with a bunch of my Tasmanian friends and ones from interstate too.
Here is proof that I dressed for the occasion! Shockingly bad photo, I know...but that is what you get photographing yourself in a dimly lit hotel room with an iphone, lol!
I managed to squeeze some time to enjoy parts of the Melbourne Museum I had missed on a previous visit. One display was about insects and bugs area, with some seriously hairy and scarey tarantulas. If you dislike spiders, scroll down FAST!!
These ones are mounted in between two sheets of glass so that you can see both sides.
I'm not big on spiders, at least not at this size. But they were a lot more furry than I had imagined, and had some sported lovely striped legs. There was also one live one on display who is serving time in quarantine as it was illegally imported into the country, and forms part of an educational display.
There are more quilt making classes coming up soon- and I am busy with making new work and trying to get a couple of winter garments for my wardrobe sewn as well. The hunt for the right house for my family's needs continues. Good thing we are in no hurry as the right house for the right price is proving elusive. A couple of have come close, and we have discovered corners and parts of Canberra we have never been to before and learning enormous amounts about the real estate game here. One bonus is we are enjoying some truly beautiful autumn displays in streets around.
Mum- you asked to see some autumn trees, this is one just up the road about 20 metres from our house! More to come soon.
Happy Quilting,
Stephanie
