Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Home again after Symposium

I spent a wonderful week away in Taupo. Lake Taupo is the largest Lake

 in New Zealand.  P1020033 P1020082 P1020084 
 at the NZ Quilt Symposium. The weather was picture perfect, as the week before had been freezing temperatures, and snow on the outskirts. The weather for us was cold, but beautiful sunny days. Our thermals were well used, and I’m very glad I bought one or two more to take with me. Sharon and I added some $$ to the business’s in Taupo, as well as the Merchant Mall at the symposium.  Books from Quiltmania, a little bit of fabric ( not much as I have so much already) and a few little handworking kits. I did a class with Kim McLean from


 Australia 2013-07-21 15.14.45 which was interesting, and a really good class with Phillipa Naylor from England, learning Trapanto which was very different for me, and very enjoyable. A great tutor! . This class was not something I would normally have done, but as I had a free day I thought ,,,Why Not! I’m really pleased I did it, as it was so much fun. We even had an elderly gentleman in the class, who said he had bought his wife ( who was a cross stitcher ) a new sewing machine, but after a couple of lessons, she decided to go back to her cross stitch. So, not wanting to have wasted his money, her husband took over the lessons, and now thoroughly enjoys making

 quilts!2013-07-23 08.37.52 2013-07-23 16.23.03 
This was a class sample – not my work unfortunately.

As we had a couple of free days, we popped over to Rotorua to see Cottage Flair Patchwork, and decided to have lunch at the 2013-07-19 14.02.28 Rotorua Museum  cafe. This is a great looking building.

After a week at home, our Guild put on a class with Gwen Marston from USA which was absolutely excellent. She is a lovely lady and we had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend of carefree quiltmaking!

 2013-07-27 10.26.36

On the Sunday the workshop committee ladies organised a high tea for our lunch. We all bought a plate of food, and were able to use beautiful old fashioned china which really did make the tea taste nicer. haha!

   2013-07-28 12.49.19 2013-07-28 12.51.38

I’ll show a pic of what I made next time.
In the meantime its back to the drawing board, or should I say sewing machine to remake 72 x 9 patch blocks


I have made 72 x 9 patch blocks but cut them wrong. Now I have to start all over again. What to do with the mistakes!!
Thanks for dropping by
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4 comments:

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I have heard of all the ladies you mention teaching - word gets around on all of these instructors. Beautiful quilts and beautiful scenery!

Pine Valley Quilts said...

Hi

Delightful post, love the way you added all the pictures and made a great story. An awesome week with a (delightful) friend.

Raewyn said...

Sounds likeyou had a wonderful time - and how awesome that you were able to take advantage of Gwen being in NZ.

FlourishingPalms said...

Your photos of NZ and Lake Taupo are gorgeous! Looks like a place I'd like to go too! How fun that you could take classes with two such talented ladies. I love Kim McLean's work, though I have no patience for it myself. And it's cool that you could take a class from an American! I'm sure you learned a lot from both of them. The tea looks so lovely. That's something I wish we did here in the US, but everyone's on the go with their Starbucks! As you know, I'm terribly sorry about the all wrong nine patches. You can surely find something else to sew them into... pillow cases to go with the quilt?!