Best time in Condobolin!!!
A couple of weeks ago Mr Daisy and I filled the Daisymobile with a stack of quilts and headed west to the remote town of Condobolin.
For those who haven't heard of Condobolin, if you took a map of New South Wales and folded it into four Condobolin would be right in the center. The population stands at around 3500.
It's approximately a 7 hour drive from Sydney or you could catch the train that goes once a week.
We enjoyed our drive, zooming along nice big roads with hardly any traffic and beautiful scenery. Mr Daisy drove the whole way so I could get lots of stitching done. He'd even slow done at times so I could thread a batch of needles or take a photo.
We arrived mid-afternoon at the Condobolin Community Center in the heart of town. It was an old hotel built in the early 1900's that is now used for all sorts of community activities and events.
There is a little shop downstairs selling crafts made by the locals.
We had the large room upstairs with lots of space and full of bright, natural light. We set up the tables and then decorated the walls with quilts. The quilts look a little wonky hanging but I like the way the bit of drape showed the softness of the quilts.
The next morning we woke to a loud chorus of bird song, my favourite music!
and I could imagine angels singing as the sun rose through the trees.
We stayed in a beautiful home overlooking the Goobang creek.
But I was there for Whizz Bang fun times and the party was in the classroom. As usual I got involved in teaching and chatting, and I didn't take many photos but here's one of the room in action.
We had the most delicious homemade lunches, a choice of soups with fluffy damper. Everyone had made cakes and slices so there was lots of sewing fuel to keep us going through the day.
The best damper ever!!
The weekend flew by too quickly and before we knew it it was show and tell time.
The wonderful thing about classes is seeing that the variety of colours and fabrics used in these blocks all have striking results. So many beautiful circles.
and to all the lovely ladies who made me feel so welcome.
Our workshop even made the local paper!! A big thank you to Kathy Parnaby for coming out on a Sunday to see what we were up to and for taking the photo, and to the Condobolin Argus.
The area is in serious drought at the moment. It was eye-opening to see how dry everything is.
There is still a beauty to the landscape though.
Just on the edge of town there was a display of classic Aussie utes that had been painted and decorated by different artists. A wonderful example of diverse creativity with a common starting point. Here are a few of my favourites.
We had a cruisy drive home through beautiful scenery, rolling hills, big skies, playful clouds making pictures in the sky, sculptural trees, bushy forest, fields of canola, orchards, There was a moment where we went off track and wound our way over hills admiring views and then wondering for a moment or two if we might be lost forever on winding dirt roads. But we made it home safe and sound with hearts full of new memories.
*****
Other fun things that have been happening ...
We attended the Illawarra Quilt Show opening night. What fun!! So many lovely people to catch up with and beautiful quilts to admire. I got to see my lovely friend Roslyn Lambert win Best In Show with her wonderful version of a Wendy Williams quilt.
I was so excited to see Summer and her Bubbles quilt that she has called Confetti. The red is such a great background for those happy circles of colour. Well done Summer, your quilt was such a joy to see!!
Happy smiles!!
The following are some quilts in the show made by clever quilters who have attended some of my workshops. The information for each quilt is written on the following cards. I'll shush up and let you stroll through the quilts...
*****
Other bits of Show and Tell.
My clever friend Leanne from Mt Vincent Quilts is an award winning long arm quilter. She pattern tested my Pine Star circles and I was over the moon to see them become part of this fun Unicorn quilt with magical sparkly quilting!!
Here are some quick pick photos from recent classes...
Vivian from my class at Sew Can I brought this beauty in for show and tell. This quilt started with a bunch of old scraps that Vivian said she'd use to practise the techniques but then it just kept growing. The quilt is so wonderful in every way. Just a bit more hand quilting and its done!
Alissa from the class at My Sewing Supplies has been busy making circles. Eye candy at its best!
Marissa in our the class at Material Obsession has been making a zillion Yo-Yos in delicious colours.
And finally a random photo of me from my florist days, many, many moons ago. Thanks to my fellow florist friend Leonie for finding these fun photos.
After a lot of consideration, I've decided not to reply to comments for a while. I do enjoy the way replying makes it a two way conversation and a catch up but at the moment I'm feeling so short of time and I could use that time to write more blogposts or get more sewing done to share with you. I hope you'll understand. I'll still read and treasure every comment and they do encourage me to keep sharing my stories and work.
So here is a big thank you bunch of flowers to you all for taking the time to read my blog posts. ( it's an old photo so excuse the blurriness)
Wishing you all fun happy times until I pop in again with tales of exciting adventures.