Anni Downs - Hatched and Patched - Bathurst AU

I taught for three days at Anni's in Bathurst. It was wonderful to return and spend time with Anni, Pete and their two wonderful children Tim and Sammy as well as visiting with many of my students from my last visit. I was amazed at the amount of finished projects they brought to share with me.

I love this little pillow which Anni's daughter Sammy started in my class last year. It makes me really happy to see young girls stitching.

Here are two Magnolia quilts from my last years class. The top one is Suzanne Glennon Martyn's of Oberon with her wonderful Queensland house in the center. The one below was stitched by Janette Robinson of Bathurst.

Many wonderful Flower Basket Quilts were also shared.

Terri Ann Press of Bathurst stitched the Flower Basket with the doily.

Heather Hacker from Windsor Downs NSW also shared her pincushion she made from Anni's and my pattern which was published in Australian Homespun Magazine a couple of months ago.

Jennifer Edwards from Sydney also finished her Red Clover Quilt.

Roslyn McGovern made her block from Magnolia into a pillow.

During the two day class we had students working on a few different projects. I love the different backgrounds these gals were using for the Robin Run the Hedge Quilts. The plaid one is an old wool blanket.

Many worked on leaves for there tree using all sorts of ribbons and hand dyed threads to create texture. Many also worked on different shapes of leaves.

The one day classes was my Saffron Needle Roll. It was such fun to see all the embellishments and different stitches each student played around with.

Melissa and I had a great time in Bathurst. When we were finished Anni and Pete drove us to Sydney were we spent the night before moving on to Melbourne.

Take care

Sue

Canberra to Bathurst, AU

Melissa and I had a wonderful few days off in Canberra. My friend Joc and her husband Rollo took such good care of us. We learnt a great deal about the history of Canberra and visited many wonderful places.

At the moment there is a wonderful aboriginal art exhibit 'The Canning Stock Road' at the National Museum of Australia. www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions Melissa and I could have spent the whole day there. It was so interesting and the paintings were fascinating.

This is the view of Canberra from Mt Ainsley. It was fabulous to see the whole city.

The trees in Australia remind me of South Africa. I just love the shapes and shades of the bottle trees and all the gum trees that cover Australia.

We had a lovely drive from Canberra to Bathurst. The Big Merino was in Goulburn. I had to take a picture of it as I am so passionate about wool.

The old homes with ironwork in Goulburn were fabulous. Very inspirational!

We were also very fortunate to watch a wallaby and three kangaroos down at the river feeding. They were fabulous to watch.

The next three days I will be teaching at Hatched and Patched in Bathurst. It is owned by Anni and Peter Downs who are just delightful.

Love from down under.

Sue

Addicted to Fabric - Canberra, AU

We flew back from the Gold Coast via Sydney. Sarah and Florence picked us up and drove us to Canberra. It was a lovely drive through the countryside.

Addicted fabric where I taught is a fabulous shop owned by Jenny Adams. It is chock a block with wonderful quilting and dressmaking fabrics along with trims and embellishments. Melissa and I managed to fill our suitcases with a few special pieces.

I taught two classes. The Greta Needle roll and the my Tree quilt.

The Needle rolls were made in a wide assortment of fabrics using velvet, roving balls and embellishment stitches.

The tree class was really fun all added their own borders and embellishing their leaves using fun fabrics and stitches. I was delighted to have two young girls in the class. They did a fabulous job and seemed to have a great time. It is always fun to see how the younger generation use color and interpret design.

As you can see the students got a good start with their pieces. I would love to thank Jenny, Samantha and Kerry for all their hard work putting the workshop together. I am very excited about the possibility of returning to Australia in a couple of years.

I must say one of the most wonderful parts about this trip has been all the finished projects the students have shared with me from the classes I taught last year. These Australian ladies do amazing embellishment.

Canberra was followed with a couple of fun days which I will share tomorrow.

Take care

Sue