A few weeks ago I left this weather in Wellington,and travelled to Nelson, to this school

to attend this event.

There were more than 300 other quilters from all over New Zealand attending over the four days of classes, and we also viewed an exhibition, attended a lovely dinner, and made firm friends with many fellow-attendees.

I was lucky enough to work in this classroom

for three days with this group of women (second from the left is our tutor, Ronnie Martin). Somehow Maria escaped being in the photo – but she was definitely in class too!

We learned all sorts of fun techniques with fabric paints, heat guns, transfer media, embossing powder, foils, beads, threads and stamps – to mention only a few. We used these in fabric books, that were as varied as the women who created them.

Here are the middle pages of mine after Day 2:

I have since nearly finished the book, which is based on the theme “Autumn on the Grove”. All the machine sewing has been done, but I could go on hand-embellishing for ages, adding a touch here and there on the four sets of pages. One day I’ll decide it’s finished.

After the Mini-Symposium was over, my friend and I went to this museum:

The costumes from WOW (World of Wearable Art) were amazing – and for a pair of quilters, just the thing to finish off a long-weekend away. We spent over two hours examining the collection, and didn’t even get near the classic cars that form the other half of the museum.

All too soon it was time to catch the plane back to Wellington, and the train home to the Wairarapa. What a great vacation!