Catching up with friend plus fitting in a workshop at Carinda NSW.

 

Cathy and her daughter Louise
 Spent a wonderful week end at Carinda teaching "Circle Play" and "No Rulers No Rules".

One of the special things about going out to Carinda was that I got to catch up with friends, It has been over 25 year since I have been out this way. I stayed with Cathy and Oz plus Belinda came out for  the week end, we had a few late nights catching up.

 The first day we had the Circle Play class. Every one enjoyed them selves. We had a good range of colours working through out the class, no ones work was the same.

 Country colours for a table runner

  Helen had lots of fun playing with her colours

 Rachel had soft pinks and oranges

 Ret was bold with her brights

 Black, white and red is always a good colour choice.

Sorry Louise but I couldn't get the photo to rotate, Cathy and Louise's quilt. Have to wait and see who ends up with the quilt. Belinda thought she should have it for helping with the cutting and pressing. Louise after a hard day at class, Time to relax in Dads lounge chair.

 

The second day we had "No Ruler No Rules". This class is a lot of fun. The ladies found it hard to believe that they could do any thing and it was OK.

 Ret had a lot of old blocks she didn't like any more so we cut them up and added slashes here and there.

 Faye had a lovely big pile of scraps to work with. She had a heap of fun trying to use them up.

 On the second day we got Belinda sewing. She was very proud of the piece she made

 Jody was working with Plaids and stripes. It was looking good. Jody also used a lot of little blocks left over from anther quitls.

 Shading from pink, purple to blue.

 The class at the end of the week end. We all had a wonderful time.

After the week end I had to go back to Pilliga to pick Doug up. He had the week end with his mum. (He wasn't too keen on a week end of sewing. Why I don't know). I went for a drive through Come-By-Chance on the way. This is a photo of Comby. Its a big place.
After Pilliga it was off to mum's at Baan Baa. On the way back to mum's we caught up with more family and friends. We have had a lovely time. Then it was time to head back to Toowoomba.

Taupo Symposium

In the middle of all our packing and moving I had a trip to the New Zealand  symposium at Taupo. It was wonderful, had a great time. I went with Bev and we joined up with Laurene, Lorraine, Pam  and Bee. All arrived in Auckland, had a few days in Auckland looking around. Lovely city. So much to see and do, we only had time to see a little bit of the city. Will have to go back for holiday to check out the rest.

 While walking around the War Memorial we found the glass houses, they are stunning buildings and full of the most beautiful  plants. Took heaps of photos but the ones of the green foliage were very inspiring, it's hard to believe there can be so many shades of green in one little area.
 

 When look for a colour scheme for your next quilt you only have to look at nature.


Bev and I got a car to have a 2 day road trip to Taupo. We had a wonderful slow trip checking out every thing on the way. We had the night with Anne and Alistair at Tauranga. Anne has a lovely sewing room. Its up stairs, full of windows and over looking the harbor. Stunning, how she gets any work done with that view I don't know

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  On the road again, This time we had a stop at the Hobbiton movie set.  Unreal, I loved it.

  We spent so much time looking at every thing on the way that we almost missed out on our book in time for the symposium. Got there with one minute to go. Met up with the other lady's once we arrived. We were all staying in the same unit. So now it was time to get ready for our 5 days of  classes.

  The view from our unit, over in the back ground you could see the lake and behind that you could see the snow on the mountains
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  One of my classes was with Kim McLane. It was a great class. Sorry I cant show you more photos. No I didn't do this quilt, the one I picked is not as busy but just as lovely. Though I had better start out  with some thing a little easier. Kim's quilts are all hand work, the second reason I start out with a simpler pattern.
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  Third day into our stay this was the view from our window. Wow, it was bloody cold. Enjoyed every moment, ( don't get this at home ) I did get lots of ribbing from the girls tell me this is what I would get once we moved to Toowoomba. Ha ha

  Pam, Lourene and Bev on our way to class

  Another photo in the fog. All wrapped up in our winter wooly's

 One after noon we had a drive around the lake. The sun set was stunning. We were trying to get photos of the snow on the mountains but missed that and got the sun set.

 My second class was with Robby Eklow. Another great class. We were working on designing our own quilts and it's all done by fusing it together, the only stitching is the quilting. I had packed my work away, so sorry there is no photo. Next time.

 Lorain was also in this class. She has done a wonderful job with her piece, Still has 3 or 4 rings to build out on her quilt.

I tried to get in to Gwen's class but I missed out. Pam and Lourene got in to Gwen's class so I was over there visiting a lot. She is a lovely lady and I really love her work. The symposium also had a exhibition of Gwen's work on display at the Taupo Museum.
The symposium also had a second exhibition with every ones quilts. Stunning!!! It really is a pity I can't put photos up to show you, But I suppose the best thing is to go next time and have a look your self. It really was wonderful.

Back in Oz with no home any more..... Once I arrived back we had 3 days to be out of the house, so it was quickly pack the last few things, do the last bit of cleaning and leave. Very sad I cried most of the way to Toowoomba. ( what are we going to do, My lovely house and garden has gone, wow, what now) All this is running through my head, but once I arrived at Pauline and Rob's house it was all OK. New start, enjoy it all...... We will be house sitting for the Rodger's, (A big thank you to Pauline and Rob for there lovely home ) while here we can look about to see were we would like to settle down. Time to get to the unpacking.