On the road.....

Well here we are 2,100kms from home! The drive was long and the sights were many and sadly we have witnessed dreadful road kill. To date the tally is 12 wombats and 11 kangaroos. Our first call was Cooma, right in the heartland of the Snowy mountains. We took two nights and three days to get there and on the way we stopped in Mildura and Narrandera. On the way we saw several trees being kept warm..........

and witnessed the unique reverse angle parking

 Narrandera has some wonderful architecture

 and then the mountain trek started......

 the trees have still not recovered from bush fires 9 years ago.....

and then some snow..... I only need a little to excite me!

Our wonderful B and B in Cooma with a warm fire each night. 

Each morning it was very cold and one morning we witnessed minus 5 degrees.....bbbbrrrrrrr

 The local businesses all have snowmen on the roof tops

and one morning the fog set in.......horrible for driving

In the village of Nimmitabel we shared in the biggest bun ever......

 and in the far distance we could see the Australian Alps of Thredbo and Perisher. 

You can just see the snow peaks in the distance

 Yesterday on the way to Nowra we came across a delightful village called Cobargo. There were  several galleries and a brand new cafe 'Chalk and Cheese' which had just opened - I just loved the colour decor inside (not mentioning the toasted almond loaf with maple butter....yum!)

So amongst all of this I am actually working with workshops in Cooma and Nowra before heading to Mittagong for the "Quilting in the Highlands" event. More news of that later......till then take care wherever you are

Temptation chapter 2!

Sorry but there is a lot of temptation and when you have been busy all day preparing workshops like I have, this is a great distraction!! Above are pictures of the idyllic Cotswold Village of Bibury - the camera will be working overtime! (And can you believe these buildings were built in 1380!!)

Now if that is not enough for you then there is Rodmarton Manor and of course....

Wightwick Manor and we haven't even started on the homes of William Morris......

but that is for another day!

For now I must tell you ...if you are feeling tempted and are in the market for the William Morris tour next year (2013) ....well it is almost booked out! So contact Helen to put your name down - tours can only get better from here on! Helen is HERE

UK tour - day one in 8 weeks!!

Helen has just emailed me and mentioned we will be on the road in just 8 weeks for the BIG EVENT!.........crikey's as we say down under! But first we have just one day before we hit the road here at home for workshops in NSW and Victoria - just hope this jolly flu has gone by the weekend as we (well me anyway!), are still feeling pretty low :-(
Excitement is building and the list of all you wonderful fellow Morris devotees is before me. I have met some of you personally, some of you via the internet (Hi Penny in Canada!!)...and under Helen's care we are going to have the most amazing time!
So a sneak peek at what we will be doing one afternoon and a day - well apart from wining, dining and visiting the amazing homes and works of Art from the Master himself..........

 The textile project I have designed was inspired by 'net ceiling',  a ceiling wallpaper produced by Morris in 1895 - a year before he died

 We can applique or embroider and the kits are on their way to the UK. Pray they arrive as the two large boxes cost us over $200 to post!!..........and yes I have been doing some embroidery and loving it!!

The highlights for me are too numerous but I am especially looking forward to dinner at the Victoria & Albert Museum, Evensong at Birmingham Cathedral, lots of these.......

Picture source

.......Dinner at Oxford University especially to see this....

And so much more.....I will share even more temptations later!! For now a bit more of this (and thank you for all your get well wishes - take care wherever you are XX).........

Apologies to Queensland Quilters

I type this from my sick bed to all of you who had booked for the workshops in Brisbane over the next few days - Please accept my heartfelt apologies for not being there............in 20 plus years of teaching I cannot recall having to cancel an engagement before. I won't go into the gory details (as I am inclined to do!), but suffice to say I have obviously picked up a miserable strain of the flu. It started on Sunday and by Monday when I turned up for my weekly hair appointment I couldn't go through with it. I walked straight out and my family will tell you there is something seriously wrong when I cancel a weekly blow-wave! I have slept on and off for 48 hours and the plus side of that is I have probably lost a couple of kgs and given Larry some well earned peace. (And I never thought 5 degrees outside could be so pleasant when one has a fever!!)
So my sincerest apologies once again - we are working on rescheduling the workshops for February or March next year.

(My William Morris blooms always make me feel better)

Take care and hope the bugs don't bite you X

Embroidery meets quilts

I am still here.......I am back in Adelaide for a few days with loads of preparation required before we hit the road for 5 weeks of workshops in NSW and Victoria in 10 days! But first I am returning to Brisbane for a 2nd time in 2 weeks!
Thanks to all the girls who came to the classes at the Koala Convention in Brisbane. Not all workshops went ahead so I have flown home for a few days and then I head back to Brisbane again on Tuesday for workshops with Queensland Quilters. In the meantime I've managed to come down with a sore throat, swollen glands and a runny nose "woe is me".....

As some of you know I have been exploring Morris embroideries closely and my next project is to be a quilt covered in Morris style thread work - I think! My inspiration started with these amazing tablecloths that I was lucky enough to purchase a couple of years ago from Peppergreen Antiques in Berrima which has sadly closed due to both owners passing away. I have been searching for nearly two years now for the right kind of threads. I now have a collection of rayons and silks so when time permits I will be experimenting. Here you can see close-ups of the thread work on the antique cloths I purchased and also a piece of the embroidery thread that is braided - I so wish I could still get it....

My wish is to reproduce some of the embroidered screens that can be seen at Carrick Hill here in my home town. The stitches look very simple - maybe short and long stitch, chain stitch and stem stitch. This a little detail from the Carrick hill website of one of the screens......

(Must mention I was thrilled to see that  there is now a Carrick Hill blog!)

So I am sending this info to all the girls from the Brisbane class and to you who read the blog and may be interested - I promised to share in some stitches from Phyl's wonderful applique which I have shown before on the blog....have fun deciding on what stitches she used and then the last images are from some of my own work "in progress"

and a wee bit of my work.........I am loving two rows of chain stitch - one inside the applique and one outside....then whip the two centre circles of chain

 Great on some felted wool projects.....

Take care wherever you are X

(he is such a serious soul!)