On the 15th April I flew with several friends to AQC in Melbourne. We had the most wonderful 4 days of quilting heaven - workshops, lectures, dinners, cocktail parties, shopping and friendship and camaraderie. But I will tell more on that shortly.
On Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st April my local area where I live was devastated with a massive flood event. People's lives were lost and a lot of damage was done to homes, farms and livestock in our local community. All of this happened whilst I was still away in Melbourne at the end of AQC. The events were all over the television and I saw my small country town of Dungog suffering great loss. On the home farm front we lost power and telephone communication for several days,the girls couldn't be milked until a generator was sourced, we had our gravel road partly washed away, trees were blown over and many fences were in much need of repair. Overall we did not suffer badly compared to many in our local area. We measured over 16 inches of rain and the wind was unbelievable from reports by DH.
It was an odd feeling watching these events unfold whilst away from home.I felt helpless but knew that DH would cope with all of this in his calm and practical way. Our flight was delayed out of Melbourne for 24 hours and then I had to stay with my daughter in Newcastle until Saturday to wait for the flood waters to recede enough so I could make it safely home. It was an enforced longer than expected holiday for me!I I don't have any photos to show you of the flood on the farm but I know many of you saw the television reports as I had done. The small rural community of Dungog is slowly getting life back together but for many it will never be the same again.
As for AQC - as I said before it was amazing!!!! I loved both workshops I did with two lovely and amazing tutors, Michele Hill and Caroline Sharkey. Both workshops tied in wonderfully together. Micheles was largely about gaining confidence to have a go at designing your own applique quilts. Then the second workshop with Caroline was a nature landscape wall hanging where there were no patterns to follow, new techniques to learn and once again having a go at designing your own individual wall hanging.
There is still a lot of work to go on my projects but I can give you a sneak peak with what I have done so far!
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| The beginnings of my Michele Hill workshop. It is based on a traditional German folkart design but obviously with a modern day twist. And it is straight at the bottom - it is just my bad displaying of the piece! |
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Naturescape Landscape WIP. It still needs a lot of machine embroidery and embellishing.
On the Monday following AQC our small group of quilters travelled by train to Castlemaine to visit the amazing reproduction quilt shop called "Threadbear". It took about an hour and a quarter to get there and it was lovely looking out at the countryside which I must say could have used some of the rain which we had received up home. Needless to say that after my visit to "Threadbear"my stash is now slightly bigger and my wallet slightly lighter! Castlemaine is a lovely country town to visit if you ever get the chance.
As I stated we had to stay an extra 24 hours in Melbourne before we could fly home to Newcastle. What else do a group of girls do in Melbourne for the day BUT go shopping! Clothes are different and very reasonably priced in Melbourne. You can always find something that you need to have. I will say in my defence that my luggage was not overweight - but only just!
Until next time......
Carol
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