Into the (other) Shire ...

We headed south on our annual bus trip on Saturday, to take in Labours of Love at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Art Centre in Gymea, and the counterpoint of the contemporary Evolution, Change, Challenge exhibition at the same lovely venue (galleries, gardens, cafe), By chance we arranged the date enjoy the privilege of  Kay Haerland's talk and trunk show of her life's work, making for a very substantive day of quilting appreciation.

Kay has now retired from teaching, but is in the process of making a series of DVD to pass on  her skills and techniques - the first two are already available (visit Kay' website for details). We'll be ordering them for our library.

The Labours of Love catalogue alone is beautiful - excellent, large images of every quilt, with all the curatorial information - a copy is now in our library.

Do go if you have the opportunity - the contemporary quilts will be gone after tomorrow, but Labours of Love continues until 5th October.

Our day was bookended by shopping at Patchwork Plus in Miranda and Quiltsmith in Annandale, forming long but orderly queues for the registers at both. It takes skill and organisation for shops to cope with more than 30 customers descending all at once, and both welcomed us and looked after us efficiently. Lots of happy parcels came home with us.

Thanks to Georgie for organising such a good day - you set the benchmark high for your final event as workshop coordinator, Georgie. Thanks also to Phyl for keeping us in the right place at the right time, and Warren, our driver.