Retreats With "The Quilting Room"

I am very much looking forward to another visit to South Australia next month to catch up with all my lovely girls from previous retreats and meet some new ladies.

I have been returning each year for an annual Victor Harbor retreat hosted by gorgeous Helen Campbell of The Quilting Room.

This year I am teaching "Meryton" from Friday 26 to Monday 29 February. 

                      

                            

I have been receiving progress reports from many of the ladies as they are putting together their centre hexagon medallion for their quilt.  A great head start on the work involved and in selecting colours.

Here are some of the centres made by Christine, Jackie and Danielle:

                        

       

                       

The ladies have created a "Jane Austen Quilt Support Group" which meets regularly so that the ladies can sit and sew and show progress on their quilts.

I received these photos from the recent get together.  This is a stunning "Pemberley" centre.  She has added some amazing birds. Love it.

                            

Danielle had just received her beautiful Japanese version of "Longbourne" from quilter Tracey Browning. It is a masterpiece!

                          

                         

     

Wow!

Next year I will be teaching "Lambton" for The Quilting Room from 24 to 27 February 2017.

                           

                            

      

     

We have a fabulous long weekend in a great setting with superb food, company, laughs, sewing and a great view across to the beach at Victor Harbor.  More information from www.thequiltingroom.com.au.

Summer School at Hobbysew Kings Park

I was back in the classroom this week for the start of Summer School.

A lovely group of ladies spent two days at Hobbysew Kings Park working on various new projects and achieving more on ongoing quilts.

Margaret has worked very hard to complete the foundation pieced blocks and machine appliqué sashings for her "Spikes and Specks" quilt.  It looks amazing.  A series of gorgeous borders to go.

Some of the girls began work on my new layer cake quilt called "Now and Zen".  I have just finished a cushion to match the quilt and quilted it in lots of straight lines.

These are Vicki's bright blocks:

And these blocks are by Meredith:

More photos from Summer School next week.

Lovely Photo Book of The Whitecroft Jane Austen Tour

While I am finding it hard to get motivated to get into work today, I have been looking over the lovely book I had printed through BLog2Print of my Jane Austen tour experiences.

                       

This is a great way of preserving the posts I published on my blog during the tour and brings back many happy memories.

Love it!

    

Happy New Year

I have had a lot of great things happen for me this year!

A huge thank you to all of my friends, students, shop owners and blog readers for being a part of my year.

It is always great to reflect on the past at this time of year.

                         

The highlight of my year was of course my trip to the United Kingdom in September to take part in the Whitecroft "The Life and Times of Jane Austen" Tour.  This was an experience I will never forget.

I have made several new quilts this year which have received prizes and lots of enrolments in class. I received my official accreditation for Teaching Special Workshop Techniques from the Quilters' Guild of NSW.  I have travelled to various locations to teach this year including New Zealand, Victor Harbor, Broken Hill, Wodonga, Stanwell Tops and Castlemaine.

Lots more travelling is on my agenda for the future including a quilting cruise in April, a retreat in Wangaratta in late April and a shop retreat in New Zealand in August. I am also looking forward to returning to Broken Hill, Victor Harbor, Wodonga and Castlemaine next year.

Happy New Year everyone.  I hope 2016 brings you much love and a little time for stitching.

K xx

Thinking of Summer School?

I hope you have all had a wonderful holiday period with friends.  I have been enjoying the cooler weather in Sydney and getting lots of sewing done on new projects.

                      

If you are thinking of joining me for class in Summer School during January, I will be teaching my new design called "Pemberlini" (all hand appliqué) and a quick machine pieced quilt called "Now and Zen", made from a layer cake.  You can also work on any of my other quilts started during the year.

Here are some photos of "Pemberlini":

                       

       

                              

       

This is "Now and Zen" made from a Zen Chic layer cake: (I only seem to have a photo of it before it was quilted!)

                           

        

Dates are as follows:

Hobbysew Kings Park: 7, 8, 16, 19 and 21 January, 2016;

Jukejema Quilting Barn, Nowra: 9 and 14 January, 2016; and

The Stitchers Cupboard, Camden: 11, 13, 15, 18, 20 and 22 January, 2016.

The Stitchers Cupboard Monday Christmas Party

Today was my final class for 2015.  Nothing better than to spend it with my wonderful Monday class at The Stitchers Cupboard.

Some of us got some sewing done (not mentioning any names, Jan) and then we had a delightful lunch together.

Jan excelled herself with her spectacular cooking of individual plum puddings with custard and gifts of fudge and chocolate puddings for all!  We also polished off a whole plate of slice from Sharon's Mum, Margaret.

Thank you beautiful people.  See you in the new year.

I am looking forward to a few days off.

Special Times

I spent a wonderful day with my Mum and big sister in the city centre of Sydney on Sunday.

We took high tea at the Queen Victoria Building.  This beautifully restored shopping precinct was buzzing with Christmas shoppers.  It was built in the 1890s in the Victorian Romanesque style.  Wow!

The setting and gorgeous afternoon tea reminded me so much of my fabulous time in England on the Jane Austen tour.  The Tea Room of the QVB is a beautiful room.

Love the ceiling and the chandeliers.

High tea was yummy!

Here we are.  Not many cakes left....

After tea we went to see "The Sound of Music" at the Capitol Theatre.  It was fabulous.

Beautiful Christmas lights on the way home.

What a wonderful day.