Rockhampton Retreat

Just back from my third visit to the Rocky Retreat in Rockhampton Queensland.
Always a fun retreat and I have so many friends there it is wonderful. As usual they made me feel welcome from the start.

We did my favourite workshop - Textured Treasures and the fabrics that were created from just white poplin were incredible. We played with Fabric Painting, Stamping (including carving their own stamps), rubbing, foiling, beading, stencils, paintsticks, sun printing, salt effects and other techniques. It was such a beautiful weather that we moved our tables outside for all the messy stuff.

Then they started stitching them together to create an absolutely original art quilt. Here are some of them.
Sue thought she was really out of her comfort zone but her work was wonderful

 

Gloria just kept laughing as she pieced saying how much fun it was. 

Joyce used a resist technique with glue to create her words

 These are Maureen's cushion tops

 Alexis added some gorgeous foils to her top which really made it sparkle.

 Margaret's water inspired fabrics looks so gorgeous as they get stitched together

 I love the blue and green swirls in Lyn's fabric

I can't wait till they send me pictures of their quilted masterpieces.
Would you like to do this workshop too - just contact me

Rocky Retreat

At the Retreat I taught 3 classes - Breaking the Drought, Aurora and Atlantis. I was so impressed by my students enthusiasm and stamina. Here is Kerry who admitted she was definitely out of her usual comfort zone in terms of mess and randomness but she has told me she has recovered and really likes her Atlantis quilt which is for her mother.
The one above is Laurie's Breaking the Drought - can't wait to see that one finished.

Here are some Auroras - bit shady under the palms.

Classes started early (8:30) but most students were already sewing by 8am and went well past the 'official' end time. Some even went back after dinner and sewed till 10 or 11pm or until the security guard threw them out. I think wine and lollies helped the night owls energy levels.

The school we were based in had very lush landscaping and I loved these seeds. I was told what the tree was called and evidently the berries are full of nasty things and make you itch. Aren't the red ones great amongst the green?

We ate at the school boarders cafeteria and there was never any shortage of food. Most of it designed for hungry teenagers but there was always enough choice for even the fussiest of eaters.


And you can't go to Queensland without seeing a cane toad. Luckily for me - this one was well and truely dead.

So you can see we had great fun and we produced some incredible quilts. If you are interested in me running some workshops for a Retreat or Quilting group or store please have a look at my Workshop Flyer for 2010 and contact me if you are interested and want more info.

Some Finished Quilts

At Rockhampton I was thrilled to be shown some of the quilts that had been made since I last was there.

Joan did my Fabrications workshop and created this wonderful quilt. Don't you love the dragonfly. She got it from Nancy Eha's great book.

Joyce had purchased kits from me over the last few years and brought them to show me. Here is her Delicious quilt and she was making my Power of Three (with the Atlantis we were doing in the workshop) at the Retreat.



Joyce was also responsible for this which appeared on the whiteboard overnight.

Rockhampton

I have just returned from a 5 day teaching trip to Rockhampton. This Retreat is held annually and draws woman from all over Queensland although anyone is welcome. There is a great variety of workshops and you live in a local boarding school where the food is plentiful, classrooms light and airy and gardens are beautiful. The only down side was that this year the usual sleeping quarters were unavailable so we had the girls boarding house and teenage girls don't seem to need as much room in their beds as mature women. My bottom is certainly larger than the average teenager's.

I taught my Fabrications workshop over 3 days (rather than the usual two) and all the students got their quilts to the completed top and basted stage which was wonderful. It was thrilling to see their excitement when we did show and tell and I expect that all of these will be completed very soon. Only one piece of Fantasy Fabric mysteriously disappeared while drying in the garden in the sun - I wonder if a bird has a new exotic nest liner now!






Some of the completed quilts (all in my hand dyed fabrics too!)

I also ran the two day creative beading class which was a lot calmer pace (which I think was appreciated by the students) and we had many laughs. One of my students was 83 years old and I have the most sincere admiration for her. She has the best sense of humour and not only kept up with those with younger eyes and hands - was full of hysterically funny stories.
Here are two of the completed Jewel Boxes which were completed in just one morning.



If you are interested in finding out more about this Retreat which will be running in the last week of September next year - just send an email to (rockyretreat@yahoo.com.au) and I am sure they would love to give you more info.
If you would like to find out where I am teaching these workshops they are listed on my website. I am also taking bookings for next year so feel free to contact me and I can send you some more information.