WOW!!! What a weekend!!!

From the minute we arrived till we left on Sunday afternoon, it was non stop fun! fun! fun!!!!

The ladies who run the Ballarat Quilting weekend do an amazing job, keeping us entertained, fed and watered. Friday evening, we shared a buffet dinner, followed by tutors show and tell, then show and tell from past years.
First thing Saturday morning, once breaky was over, we headed to our class room. The quilt below was what we would be working on for the weekend. Its called Drayton Hall. Designed by Di Ford, inspired by a quilt belonging  to Janet O'Dell.

Straight into fussy cutting hexagons took most of the morning, lunch in the communal dining hall, then more stitching in the afternoon, piecing those hexagons together or prepping our broderie perse centres. Here is a photo of our group. Only 8 of us, we had plenty of one on one attention from Di.

Janet, who owns the quilt that inspired Di's, was also at the retreat, and she came for a visit.

We spread the quilt out on the floor in one of the rooms, and were able to get up close and personal.

Here is a close up of some of the fabrics.

One of the ladies in our class, Ros, brought along a baltimore quilt she has been working on.

And these are some of her fussy cut hexagon patches she has made for a different quilt.

Saturday evening was the gala dinner in the ballroom, with a nautical theme. Many dressed up. We had several mermaids, some coral, a few sailors and many in striped shirts.  Raffle tickets were drawn during the course of the evening, and l was fortunate to win a metre cut of a mustard Jo Morton fabric.

Then we moved over the the Adelphi Theatre, where a special guest was waiting to entertain us. Monica Dullard, comedian, has us rolling in our seats with laughter for  an hour and a half. l haven't laughed so much in a long time. Though not a quilter, "Muriel" as she called herself,  had done her homework and really gave us all a ribbing.

Here she is dressed in her polyester floral dress, showing us her favorite Big Bonds cottontails.

Sunday saw us bright and early back in the class room, this time working on our broderie perse, or cutting our fabrics for the diamonds. After seeing the original quilt, l had decided to "stay true to the original", and am doing mine as squares.

Here we are at the end of the weekend, with show and tell. All the different classes met in one of the rooms and we took turns showing what we had made over the weekend. There was some great show and tell.

There was around 100 women who shared in the weekend. l went knowing only a few, but came home knowing many. New friendships were forged, old ones renewed and strengthened, and wonderful contact made with like minded women. What more could you ask for from such a weekend!!!

l will be back later in the week to share some of the other show and tell we saw.

Thanks for visiting,

Linda.