Smart Arts gift

I was presented with a beautiful keepsake from the Smart Arts group. The book cover is felted & made by Marj Long. Inside is a set of special postcards made for me, all with a touch of orange & a message on the back.

This postcard by Betty Le Gros.

R Postcard by Lois Cochrane & L back of the card by Jill Donaldson.

R Postcard by Lynne Williams & L back of Lois's making use of an Eygyptian postcard. Thank you to everyone for such a unique, special gift.

Smart Arts Creative Textile Art Exhibition

Last night I had the honour of opening the Smart Arts Creative Textile Art Exhibition at the Redland Museum in Cleveland. This talented, diverse group of 14 members, always amaze & inspire me with their creative output. In the photo above, I'm holding the very special gift they presented to me, so check back tomorrow for the surprise reveal.

Work by Jill Donaldson highlighting a variety of techniques: each beautifully completed.

Inside the Redland Museum entry foyer, 60 Smith St Cleveland, where the work is on display until May 29 & open Monday- Sunday & public holidays also.

Vessels by Susan Lee.

Mereana Bambridge's 'Beads, Beads, Beads' using handmade beads in a very inventive way. So much more to see than I can show here.

Opal Fever- Queenstown

I took my quilt 'Opal' to Queenstown for the tutors exhibition & it hung in good company with L

Caroline Sharkey & R Jeannette DeNicolis Meyer.

L-R Denise, Helen, me, Anne-Marie, Vivien with their Opal Fever quilts. Fewer leaves on the tree now!

Divide & Conquer workshop- Queenstown

Each day the Remarkables greeted us with an amazing vista, so I'll share as many as I can, with you. A small group of enthusiastic students in Divide & Conquer, 2 day workshop, made small wall quilts of their designs.

L-R Les, Jenny, me [ I'm holding Jenny's first quilt which she also quilted in class], Pamela & Sue.

Leaf it Alone workshop- Queenstown

While my first load of washing is rolling around in the machine, I'll blog! Great to be home & sleep-in with today a public holiday in Australia. What a wonderful week at Symposium thanks to the organising committee. Convener Marg will probably be putting her feet up for a rest, after the hard work of her team for the last 3 years.

My suitcase did finally arrive after 3 days [missed my first workshop] being held up in Christchurch by Customs who searched through it, but left my small paint pots & oil sticks in tact. I designed a new, small quilt for the Leaf it Alone workshop & like it so much I'll make up a sample. Petra from 2dye4 kindly gave me paint & supplies for my demonstration. So thanks to all my students over the 5 days, for spending your time with me- it was great fun!

The Remarkables were our photo backdrop for each workshop, the tree losing more leaves as the week progressed.

Printed by Lynette

Printed by Rose-May

Printed by Marian

Printed by Lyn

This fabric was printed by Clare. A full selection of class images will be in the Workshop/Student Photos section of my website, once it is updated in a month or 2 by my webmaster Brenda Gael Smith.

My Classroom

It was great to have the same room, at the Primary School for the 5 teaching days-a brisk 15 minute walk from the hotel to number '2' which was very colourful with the young students' work.

Queenstown #3

Snow on the Remarkables greeted us earlier in the week on one of the coldest days during Symposium. The many colourful leaves provided us with great raw material for printing in the Leaf it Alone workshop. I'll be able to post many more photos once I'm home. I'll try to get rubbings & print before leaving, but as you can imagine many social events take place during a Symposium, such as wine tasting, gala dinner, daily happy hour & exhibitions to view!

Queenstown #2

Queenstown is so beautiful in Autumn. A crisp breeze, the colours of the turning leaves & the Remarkable Mountains with a snow frosting!

Coming from the sub-tropical temperatures of Brisbane it has been a case of putting many layers on & then taking the layers off in the heated classrooms where we are teaching. Thanks for your concern re the missing suitcase- yes, I did buy some clothing items & hand washed each night. It was a slight hiccup when compared to many things. The Christchurch earthquake stories put things into perspective.

Queenstown #1

Sometimes, Chris, the jet-setting lifestyle is not all it is cracked up to be- especially when the carefully packed suitcase doesn't arrive- for 3 days! This is the packet from Qantas to make up for missing luggage.

New Zealand Symposium bound

The New Zealand Remarkable Symposium is underway in Queenstown, centrally located in the South Island. This is what I was packing for 5 days of teaching workshops, a Gala Dinner, a few travel days & much colder temperatures than the warm Autumn weather of Brisbane. The foliage colours will be amazing.

Farewell to Byron

The lighthouse is truly photogenic in any weather or from any angle. Hope you haven't been too bored with seeing it in most of the posts for the last week.

A beautiful rainbow greeted us on the second last day. Ali it makes a great day trip destination.

Cape Byron Lighthouse

This is the motley crew waiting for the lighthouse tour. Some remained on ground level, but I went up the winding, narrow staircase & found vignettes of interest to photograph. The Museum is free with a great historic display.

Lovely sweeping views of the coast from the top & it was easy to cultivate the windswept look for my hair! 

Newrybar

The small village of Newrybar knows it's place in the world [couldn't get the New York clock in the shot] & with the great lunch we had at Harvest Cafe, it can be proud.

Garfish & chips for me, oh so good! And across the road some post lunch browsing.

Byron Bay #4

Surfing is a passion for many Byron residents & visitors. This is such a cute way to get around!

Last night I noticed for the first time, that one of the car companies features the Cape Byron Lighthouse in its TV advertising.

On my walk to this, the most easterly point, the rain shower caught up with me. The drama of the clouds was wonderful.

Byron Bay #3

As with any good reunion, food is a pivotal part. Diane provided these lighthouse placemats for our dinner & I made some drink coasters. Dinner with 9 around the table [a few husbands were able to join us in the fun] in the cottage kitchen was cosy.

Coffee & cake was indulged in as well as lunches eaten in wonderful, newly discovered cafes. Yes there are many hidden treasures in Oz, Chris.