Don't forget!

Hi Ladies,
Don't forget that Tuesday July 12th is a "stay at home and sew" night as we don't have access to the church hall that night. But the following week, Tuesday July 19th is business as usual.

Wish you were here! Postcard from Joy

Radient Rachael at Uluru

Hello Ladies!

Wednesday - We've just left Alice Springs having been there for a week of shopping, resting and sightseeing the West McDonnell Ranges. There are about 6-7 gorges that we had to walk to, climb up or go down to which are awesome and massive. Some are too steep or rough for me to attempt with my ankle which is healing well with all this exercise I am doing.

We are in a place called Wycliffe Wells 385Ks north of Alice (UFOs were sighted here a long time ago supposedly). It has a lot of character and weird space martians about the place but no phone or computer coverage and most of all no TV working! We are heading for Tenant Creek tomorrow. Unsure what coverage will be there.

Our trip is going really well. We have been doing all the touristy things. Rachael* has been doing her own thing and not listening to me at all! My sister-in-law, Bev, is encouraging her to do all these things like more planking, dancing, climbing rocks etc. She is uncontrollable! It was so cold, down to 1 degree at night before getting to the Rock so I knitted her a beanie, scarf and mittens. She lost a mitten so I had to make her another one, totally out of control she is believe me!

I miss you lot very much, especially on Tuesday nights. I have been busy, haven't done any sewing as yet, but I have knitted and made up a Teddy which Judy gave me the pattern for. She/he is sooo cute and gets along with Rachael. It's a bit hard to crochet cats while travelling in the car, so I am knitting easy dish cloths.

Friday - We are in a Roadhouse/bush caravan park, 300Ks this side of Katherine and would you believe there is once again no phone or computer and worst of all no TV coverage!

Beryl, there showers and loos here are all unisex ATCO sheds, clean but older than you and I put together. I have been lucky so far that I haven't had to follow a male (phew!) and there will be no showers either tonight or in the morning. I will wait until I get to a proper park, just as well I have heaps of deodorant!

Saturday - We are heading to a place called Daly Waters which, 14 years ago when we did this trip, they had a pub, oval to park vans on and a night meal of Barramundi and Beef and a singsong which was excellent. It also had a set of traffic lights which are always on red outside the pub. Nothing else, but it was great fun.

The weather is starting to warm up. I think it was 22 degrees here today but in the car travelling along it was a lot hotter. Tomorrow the 3/4 pants and singlet top and sandals are getting taken out of the box under the bed and hat, scarf and coat are being put in there even Rachael's. She will have to wear her dress once more.

Sunday - Here I am in Mataranka for 2 days where there is computer coverage. Brian is fiddling around with TV aerials to get TV and would you believe everyone else in the camp have reception except us! I am about to fly home just to get TV!Tomorrow I'm going swimming in the thermal pools here where the temp of the water is always 34 degrees. So sorry about the weather down there! Today was just 30 degrees, tomorrow 29 degrees, something I will find hard to take!!! (Ha!)

Bye for now!

Joy

* The brief history of Rachael. A while ago Sunbury quilters made trauma dolls and one Tuesday night we took them to a meeting to fill. Glo's trauma doll was stuffed so full she became deformed and we joked that she wouldn't even be accepted at the Reject Shop! Joy (of course!) was the biggest stirrer, winding poor Glo up and as revenge Glo stitched a new doll with all kinds of lumps and bumps and deformities and gave it to Nurse Joy to fix. And Rachael was born! Rachael is now enjoying her caravan trip with Joy and we look forward to seeing the pictures Joy sends us of her escapades.

Hottie Cover Challenge Exhibition!

With such a creative group of people in this group, I thought you all might appreciate hearing about a little project I took part in just recently to support the Margaret Pratt Foundation. It was an interesting challenge and a very original way to raise funds for a very worthwhile but perhaps not widely known cause. I joined in with a group of bloggers, organised by the very talented Cam from Curlypops, to enter the Hottie Challenge. The challenge involved creating a hot water bottle {or hottie} cover using any art or textile techniques that you enjoy working in.

An invitation to the exhibition of all the completed hottie covers!

My little hottie design was inspired by my love of books, reading and children's literature and was intended to look like the spines of books on a shelf or stack. Scattered through these "books" were typewritten excerpts from some of my favourite stories, like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, The Chronicles of Narnia and Matilda. On the front of the hottie I also added a little bookworm out of felt for a bit of fun {and I really like using felt}.

My hottie cover design!

All of the finished hottie covers will be displayed in Opendrawer's Gallery from Friday July 1st to Sunday July 24th, 2011. If you'd like to pop in and see some amazing designs Opendrawer can be found at, 1158 Toorak Road in Camberwell.

The actual Opening night for the exhibition is next Friday July 1st from 6 - 8 PM and all of the Hotties will be for available for sale for $50 (with all of the proceeds going directly to The Margaret Pratt Foundation).

Each Hottie will also have a dedicated money box where visitors can make a donation for the Hottie that they love the most.... when everything is tallied at the end of the exhibition, that Hottie will win the grand trophy! Trust me when I say there is some pretty tough competition, from some incredibly creative people.

If you can't make it to the gallery itself, there is a flickr group where you can take a look at the wonderful entries from Cam's group here. Well worth a look!

Best wishes,
Kylie x

Melbourne Costume Collection

At Tuesday night's sit and sew this week, Ailsa told us about an amazing heritage exhibition of Australian clothing and textiles.

A view of the exhibition space - source

Take a look at this great article about Loel and the collection on The Age website. There are also a lovely series of review pieces on the collection by Nicole Jenkins from the Circa Vintage Clothing blog. If you scroll down past the first post on this link, you can read through Nicole's reviews. For anyone that loves vintage clothing, costumes or textiles Nicole's blog is a great read in general.

A gorgeous flapper dress from the 20's - source

And for those of you that might be interested in attending here is a bit of information on the collection...

The Costume Collection, 39 Greenaway Street, Bulleen.
For enquiries and tour bookings, telephone: (03) 9852 1794

Learn about the history of the collection by owners Bryan and Loel Thomson, then tour the fascinating collection of Australian costume dating from 1788.

Loel is a private collector who has dedicated her time and resources to the collection, preservation and display of two hundred years of Australian fashion.

The collection is open to Group Tours by Appointment Only.

The Textile Art Festival...

While in Queensland over the long weekend I attended the Textile Art Festival, held at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre each long weekend in conjunction with The Scrapbooking Convention.

Textile Tattoo Challenge Entry - taken by Bronwyn

There was so much to see that it was a little overwhelming, but definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Brisbane in June!

There were:

• The Art Quilt Challenge, 
• Thread Studio Pocket, 
• Art quilts of various themes, 
• Down Under Postcard Challenge, 
• Artists @ work, 
• make and take workshops, 
• demonstations and...
• of course the all important vendors selling so many different embellishments from buttons, ribbons, lace, yarns, fabrics, paints, threads, felting machines and the list goes on.

Textile Tattoo Challenge Entry - taken by Bronwyn

I know that I will certainly be there again next year and will also take in the scrapbooking. Hope you enjoy looking at the site!

Cheers,
Bronwyn

Amazing art quilt! {taken by Bronwyn}

Our new book has arrived and we have a new pattern as well!

Kaffe Fassett's book, Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts,  is now part of our library and is a wondeful book to browse and become inspired by the way he views his world.  It is number 132 in our collection.

If you visit this site you can find more information about this amazing designer.  http://www.kaffefassett.com/Biography.html.

Andrea has donated a beautiful pattern called My Blue Heaven ,which should inspire those of us who enjoy playing with all shades of blue.   It is number 66 in the pattern box.   Follow this link to find more information about this project.  http://www.patchworkpumpkin.com.au/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=31

Thanks Andrea!!

Elves Challenge Update...

We hope everyone has been enjoying the stained glass challenge! This is a reminder that all projects should be brought to the Christmas in July function at Riddells Creek Hotel. Each quilter entering a project will receive a small gift! Remember, your challenges won't be judged but will be admired!

merry little elf! source

From the Christmas Elves

New Book Coming

Keep your eyes and ears open for the arrival of our newest addition to the library. I have ordered Kaffe Fassatt's beautiful book Simple Shapes Spectacular Quilts, published in 2010. It is not only a book of patterns for both beginner and expert but encourages us to also explore the geometric shapes and patterns we can observe in the natural environment. I will let you know when it arrives.

Follow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Z4Pj5aLZjw to hear Kaffe talk about his book and developing our powers of observation to see our world in new and wonderful ways.

On my recent trip to Vietnam I used up a lot of space on my camera card with pictures of tiles and other patterns in the old buildings and temples. I just might use them after listening to Kaffe.

Enjoy! Glo :-)