Life - The Tactile Journey

Remarkable Symposium 2011, Queenstown

2011-04-28T17:01:00.000+12:00

The following photos are for those who did not manage to get to symposium. These are some of the winning quilts, I'm sorry they are not in any order. All images are clickable to see more detail, enjoy!

Viewers Choice and Excellence in Machine Quilting Domestic
- Kapiti - Chris Kenna

Jeanette Gillies - Merit

Tania Nyboer - Stroll in the Park - Amateur Traditional Excellence

Camilla Watson - Garden for a Minimalist Apartment Professional Art Excellence

Camilla Watson - Custard Square - Suitcase Award

Clare Smith - City Map - Suitcase and Merit Awards

Clare Smith - A change in the Weather - Merit Award

Alison Laurence, In A Flash - Merit

Rosemary Rush, Retro Razmatazz - Remarkable Use of Colour

Griet Lombard, Block-a-day Therapy - Excellence Professional Innovative

detail

Robin Halverson, Low Tide - Merit

Gael O'Donnell, Currahee - Excellence Bed Quilt

Ansa Breytenbach, Te Timatanga (The Beginning)
Best of Show

Detail

Helen Beaven, Painted Chocolate Blocks
Excellence Amateur Innovative

Liz McKenzie, Gondola Over Wakatipu - Suitcase
and Merit Awards

MaryAnn Georgiou, Herakles The Labours of a Quilter
Merit and 2nd Viewers Choice

Amanda Hasselman, For Freedom - Merit

reverse side

Juliet Fitness, Merino Muster, Dont forget the Dog - Merit

Natalie Murdoch, Pack up your troubles
in an old Kete - Winner ANZAC Challenge

Jean McLean, Spirit of the Gum - Suitcase Award

Lesley O'Rourke, Celtic Wave - Excellence in Machine
Quilting - Long Arm Computerised

Philip M Ward/ Quarryburn Quilting, And then came Colour
Excellence Commercially quilted - quilting

Mary Fletcher, Floral Boquets - Merit

Mary Fletcher, Sweet William - Professional Traditional Excellence

Debby Williams, Starlight Sonata Opus 8
Miniature Excellence

Debby Williams/Barbara Paton, Citrus Sorbet
Group/collaborative excellence

Barbara June Paton, Bushfire -
Excellence in Machine Quilting Long Arm Computerised

Fyvie Murray, Baltimore Album VI with Stars - Merit

Wendy Ward, Michael's Quilt - Merit Award

Wendy Ward, A Woman's Place - Merit Award and Suitcase Award

Wendy Ward, The Raven, Winner Fibrelicious Challenge

Chris Tait, This is the Story of a Girl - Judges Award

Barbara Kaverman, Texas Depths of Field - Merit

Meryl Caudwell, Flowers from Ricky - Merit

Marge Hurst, In my Retirement - Best Traditional Quilt

Donna Cumming, Africa Excellence Comercially Quilted top/piecing Award

Barbara Bilyard - Merit

Heather McLean - Hellebore Sampler - Amateur Art Excellence

Lyn Ogle, A Day's Catch - Best Non-Traditional Quilt

Ruth Wheeler - Winner Remarkables Challenge

Heather Harding, Welsh Traditions - Excellence in hand Quilting

Suzet Pont - Entwined - Merit

The following quilts were not prize winners but were stunning

Fyvie Murray, Balimore Album VII

Robyn Parkinson, Boned Corset

Janice Dowdeswell, Delphinium I

Merrilyn George - Two is Company, Three's a Crowd

Heather Harding, Feathered Circles(Miniature) - Suitcase

Jenny Tayler Pink and Green

Chris Kenna Bronze Feathers

Jeanie O'Sullivan - Albert Picks Roses for Victoria

Griet Lombard, Sunset at Waitarere Beach

Alison Laurence - Journey South

Barbara Kaverman - Once in a Blue Moon

Jenny Tayler - Rainbow Starburst

Finishing Projects

2011-04-04T12:01:00.000+12:00

Gosh has it really been this long since I have posted eeekkk. The blogs I have been reading seem to be posting pictures of things they have recently completed, so who am I to buck the trend here are some recently completed pieces to be exhibited at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka next week as part of the COOTS (Central Otago Outside the Square) group exhibition called "A Common Thread". This series of work I call "Home and Soul Series'. The last one is very large and the photo has some glare on it. This next piece is my contribution to the raffle. We had to make something to go into a basket for a raffle prize.

The pictures below are two recently completed projects, one a glasses case using Wessex embroidery taught by Gay Eaton at a workshop

And these are of my recently completed Hussif. I have been a stitcher and sewer for so long and have finally made this to carry all my necessary tools.

Outside

Inside

Partially closed

Fully closed (front)

Quilting Arts Padfolio

2009-07-31T16:47:00.004+12:00

I made the Decorative Fabric Portfolio from the Quilting Arts Gifts 2008/09 magazine. If I made this again I would either satin stitch the edges or use bias tape or some form of decorative edging as I wasn't happy with the "roughness" of the edges just using zig-zag. I really enjoyed the dying, stamping, screen printing, painting process and cutting up the "made" fabric was exciting and it looked much better when reassembled than it did in one piece.

2009-07-31T16:42:00.003+12:00

I purchased this Amy Butler pattern and it says to use 2 and a half metres of fabric - I used this beautiful fabric

And after I laid out the pattern I discovered that 1.5 metres was more than ample fabric for this pattern this was using directional fabric - so if you were using a fabric that was not directional you would not need even 1.5 metres - as you can see I have

plenty of fabric to spare - to use on lovely things like

pin cushions etc. Will post a pic once I have completed the

top - don't hold your breath!

Its been a while

2009-07-26T16:52:00.005+12:00

Well my foray into blogging has been sporadic, at best! So here is an update on what I have been doing lately:
I am working my way through Kelly Rae Roberts' Book "Take Flight" and am doing the little projects in it - here is what I have done so far.

It is from the first chapter in which D J Pettitt's work is featured. Not totally happy with it - but it is a start, the bits that are influenced by DJ Pettitt are not actually shown in this picture -they are little tags but not quite finished yet. Some of the projects from the book I will make as pages and tie them all together as a finished peice with the little tags.

This next piece is from the second chapter with Laurie Mika . Kelly Rae uses the contributing artists techniques rather than styles as elements in her own art. With Laurie Mika she used polymer clay. My adaptation of it is a little different - here it is

It is on a small 10x10cm canvas - on the side it says "Yes, I am a princess, can't you see my crown". And here is another one, on the side of this one it says "Queens Rule"

News Flash - Studio Out Book Sale

2008-11-06T22:25:00.000+13:00

I have, at last, started listing my surplus books for sale on Trademe. (if this link doesn't work, go to http://www.trademe.co.nz/ and my seller name is wennn) So go have a look and start bidding! I will continue loading up more books, patterns etc over the next few days - so keep checking back. I can only have 50 listings at a time so will have to wait until some sell before I can list more.

Country Day Quilts

2008-11-06T22:00:00.009+13:00

Here are the pictures from the Quilt Exhibition I helped to Judge. There was meant to be a first, second and third, but we could not just leave it at three prizes so we gave a merit prize to this quilt "Enter the Dragon"

The Third Prize quilt was this lovely quilt "Licorice Allsorts" it uses lovely rich Bali fabrics.

The Theme was "Diamonds are Forever" and this second prize quilt was for a Diamond Wedding Anniversary. It was simple but very effective and the basis of the design as a Chrysanthemum Flower. The maker of this quilt is in her 80! year - how fantastic this that.

The Winning Quilt called " Diamonds from the Rainbow" A lovely Quilt inspired by the book "Strata Various" The workmanship and quilting was fantastic. Please excuse the not so good photo

Busy Busy

2008-10-29T07:49:00.002+13:00

What a terrible blogger I have been, with working full time and "working" on the new house has left little time for creating, hence no blogging. I am aiming to get the books onto Trademe in the next couple of weeks - so stay tuned :). I do have some work in an exhibition at the moment "The Silk Road" once I finish full time, this Friday, I will go in next week and get some photos and post here.

I am meant to be working on exhibition pieces for our COOTS exhibition at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka next year! We have a meeting on Friday and are meant to take one completed piece for photographing - oh dear!

On Friday we have the High School Blues Dinner (a sports and cultural awards dinner). The Speakers are Hamish Carter, Olympic Athlete and Sheena Haywood local photographer. Hayley is excited about what award she might receive.

The local Patchwork/Quilting Guild are hosting "Country Day" in Queenstown this weekend and I was asked to Judge the Quilts the theme was "Diamonds are Forever" I am hoping to get some photos and will post them here next week.

More Studio Clean Up

2008-07-27T09:38:00.004+12:00

I have sorted through my books and taken out the ones I no longer want (the above pictures), once my studio has been cleaned and sorted I will list my "no longer required" piles on Trademe, to raise money for future purchases, of course.

This is part of my newly tidied library cupboard, I wonder how long it will stay this way - I can't fit any more books into it. And the ones scattered around the house will have to stay scattered.

Second Workshop at Conference

2008-07-27T09:26:00.002+12:00

The Second workshop I did at Conference was Ailie Snow's "PhanTasy". My theme was "Queens and Princesses" here are three of the six pages I did, these pictures are works in progress. Ailie uses Batik Flannel as her background and she supplied us with these. Have a look at her website her work is very inspiring. She was a lovely tutor although our class members were a bit ho hum and the way the seating was arranged was not conducive to chatting and interacting with others. There were a few ladies who, had we rearranged the class to be more interactive would have been very entertaining.

We met some wonderful ladies at the Conference and are looking forward to the next one in Hamilton in 2010.

Embroidery Conference

2008-07-25T13:47:00.005+12:00

I have been away from home for ten days and although I took my laptop - the motel where I was staying were charging an arm and a leg for internet access so I just didn't do any blogging or surfing - only checking business emails ... boring.

So onto more interesting things - the ANZEG (Association of New Zealand Embroiderers Guild) Conference. (Their website is a shocker but they are updating it in August and changing providers). The Queenstown Branch of the ANZEG sent two of us to, in Hastings, New Zealand (not UK). We travelled to Hastings via Christchurch (where our name was paged over the PA system - opps) we didn't realise we had so little time to change planes. Then to Wellington where we shopped and stayed overnight, notice I said stayed and not slept - we had some drunk men trying to get into our room - hmmm not really what you would expect staying at one of the more upmarket hotels there. We left the next morning in a very very small plane to arrive in Napier. We were collected from the airport by a lovely Guild member there and taken by car to Hastings (20 minute drive). We spent the afternoon and following day exploring Hastings and Havelock North. We really enjoyed Havelock, a little village with boutique shops - just lovely. We had two days of Conference. A presentation by a member who had received a study grant and travelled to the Royal School of Needlework in the UK. The key note speaker was Carol Naylor - a machine embroiderer from the UK - she was a very entertaining speaker and had a power point presentation of her work.

I was lucky enough to have a two-day workshop with Carol. Machine Embroidererd Landscapes. I choose to do a picture of Moer aki Boulders. Apologies for the quality of the Photos - Carols picture have been taken from her catalogue as my camera was not working while at conference. And my piece is mounted behind glass. I will post more later about my other workshop

Snow

2008-07-06T17:57:00.002+12:00

Look what we woke up to on Saturday morning. Beautiful eh.

Studio Cleanup

2008-07-06T17:42:00.003+12:00

My Studio is an absolute tip - a definate non-creativity zone. So over the next few months (thats how long I anticipate it will take) I plan to sort, tidy and sift through the "stuff" and purge what I don't need. I started with my beads. Here is a before and after shot.

Did you notice my little helper in the first shot on the right hand side? Hopefully by the time I finish sorting my studio - It will be time to move into my new one! Hopefully in March next year.

Fabulous Find

2008-07-02T13:16:00.005+12:00

A friend and I travelled down to Invercargill at the end of last week to visit a "Quilt Shop" called Kitz and Thingz here are some photos of the "Shop". It was a house on a diary farm in the middle of nowhere. But what an Aladdan's cave. I didn't get a picture of Bedroom 1 (sorry, was initially too overwhelmed to think about photos). All rooms had lovely book cases loaded with fabrics. The children's room looks small in the photo - this would only be a quarter of what is in there. These pictures only show the tip of the iceberg. There were four Bedrooms containing:

Bedroom 1: The largest range of Flannels I have seen, Batiks and Asian fabrics.

Bedroom 2: Amy Butler, Valorie Wells, a huge selection of Black and Whites, numerous wide fabrics for backings, patterns, jelly rolls, charm packs, and a massive selection of bright and colourful fabrics.

Bedroom 3: Jinny Beyer, Country fabrics, patterns, jelly rolls, etc.

Bedroom 4: Childrens Fabrics including flannels and a selection of lovely toys.

The Hallway: near the entrance - Christsmas Fabrics, down the hallway further Fabric Panels.

The Lounge: Quilting Supplies, other bits and pieces

The Dining Room: Filled with bolts of fabric at half price!!

Needless to say we boosted their bank balance at the expense of our own...... now to find time to get to the machine and turn the purchases into something. Don't go to this shop with your husbands - unless of course they are willing to part company with their $$$, and be prepared to spend some time. We were there for 3 hours!!!

We also went to a little shop in St Andrews Street, Invercargill - of which I cannot remember the name. It was something like "New Vintage" It was tiny and very "Amy Butler". Quite lovely. I purchased some lovely linen to make a skirt - and I go the new Amy Butler book.

Riversdale Arts

2008-06-21T11:19:00.002+12:00

Feels like Home
Into the Light
Ophiir Bridge

I have been invited to exhibit at the Riversdale Arts Exhibition in July. Here are the pieces I am sending. I don't seem to have done any new work for a long time - its time to get the studio sorted and get some new work done.

School Production

2008-06-21T11:07:00.002+12:00

Here is a copy of the cover of the High School Production's Programme. It is a copy of one of Hayley's pieces from last years NCEA 2 Design Panel. That is actually her in the background. There was no credit anywhere on the programme to say it was her work!!

Quilting Gallery

2008-06-18T22:52:00.001+12:00

Here is a fantastic website/blog with some awesome tutorials on it - well worth a look http://quiltinggallery.com

Layers Lunch

2008-06-12T15:54:00.007+12:00

Today was Lunch with the Layers group, an off-shoot of COOTS. Five members from our area have formed this group to cater to our insatiable need for knowledge and encouragement in the fibre field.

I did not like my Karen Eckmeier Quilted Village (sorry can't find the original photo of it) so the Layers girls encouraged me to turn it over and cut it up. So here it is. I have gessoed a piece of the front (coloured) and a pieced of the back (black) - I quite like the effect, I'm not sure what to do with it next but it was quite liberating to chop it up and I won't be daunted in the future to do this again as I can see more potential.

This next piece is from a Textured Landscapes workshop I did at the Picton MiniSymposium. I didn't like this much either so once again I chopped it - it is in need of some stitching now but I like it more.

Here are some more pictures from my Layers book. You may notice a theme here - I am fixated with architecture at the moment - maybe driven by the fact that we are currently not living in a home of our own - we are renting and we always get a bit unsettled. I am fascinated with old buildings, decaying and no longer used, flakey paint, etc. These next pictures are painted and stamped papers, writing about derelict abandoned buildings and photocopied photographs of the Old Drapery at Ophir. I ripped these up and wove them back together.

The next two are layers of felt, magazine pictures, transfer dyes, writing, organza, and photographs

These lunches are great - we go away thoroughly recharged and ready to produce more work. The emphasis is more on exploring and playing and not necessarily producing a "finished piece" we are all heading in different theme directions.

We are having a COOTS exhibition at the Festival of Colour in Wanaka next year. For our Artist's statements we are using the "I am from .... " poem. It has been fantastic, insipiring and different way to introduce ourselves.

Finished

2008-06-11T22:27:00.005+12:00

I have finished my "Shaded Face" from the workshop I did with Anna Williams She is a great teacher and if you ever get the chance to take a class with her go for it. This class was done at the Picton Mini symposium at Anzac Weekend.

COOTS at Kinloch

2008-06-11T22:15:00.004+12:00

A couple of weeks ago the Coots (Central Otago Outside the Square) ladies went to Kinoch Lodge for the weekend. We made Felt (wet felt). Here is of my pieces, a book Cover front and back. It was a fabulous weekend and we achieved alot. Some of us used an embellisher machine and as a result three ladies put their order in to purchase one.

After Sassaman

2008-05-27T23:01:00.005+12:00

John Gehl - Metal Artist

Ruth Gehl Sunflowers
Fiona McArthur Honouring Peonies
Doris Schoen Nasturtium
Jenny Tayler Tomatoes
Merilyn Williams Dandelions Galore

Dorota Fraser Artichoke
Sheila Emslie A Quilted Garden I and II

Anne Carter Magnolias
Heather Munro La Royale

Robyn Van Reenan - Kowhai
Jenny Taylor - Hallucinogenic Poppies
Wendy Ward - Hellebores
Alison Naylor - Singapore Orchid

We have finally finished our pieces from a Jane Sassaman Workshop in January 2007. The finished quilts are being exhibited at the Cloakroom Gallery in Queenstown until Monday 2 June. Here are some pics of the quilts.

Dubai

2007-07-03T17:12:00.000+12:00

Dubai is unbelievably hot. The air is so thick and moist it is like breathing soup.

We are waiting at the airport for the long flight home. Yesterday we went to see the biggest hotel and then went to the biggest shopping mall - it was huge.

Last day in Venice

2007-07-03T17:07:00.000+12:00

Today we were up and away on a tour to the Islands Murano, Burano and Torcello

The first stop was the island of Murano famous for Venetian Glass.We watched some glass making and toured the showroom and it was back on the boat again and off to Burano

Burano is famous for Lace. It is also a colourful fishing village. We loved this island and we only had 30 minutes here. We went back to the boat to tell the tour guide that we weren’t going on with the tour and that we wanted to stay there. She said that was fine she was bring another tour through there at 4:00pm so we could catch the boat again then. Great.

We wandered around the island, watched them making the lace (well I did), and generally enjoyed the slower pace. Had a very enjoyable day.

We rejoined the tour and went on to Torcello. This was a basically deserted island (only 15 residents) but with a big bascillica and bell tower. Then we were back to the hustle and bustle of Venice.

We had a lovely last Italian dinner and are now waiting to go to the airport and on to Dubai.

Venice

2007-06-30T06:16:00.000+12:00

We arrived to a beautiful day in Venice. We got a boat from the Train Station to our hotel. Our room is tiny. Below our window is a major Gondola point and we hear them taking passengers and singing as they go past our window – very nice.

Today we went to the Cathedral in St Marco square. It is awesome with lots of gold mosaics and the mosaic floor is really interesting.

Trevor went to the top of the bell tower and had amazing views of Venice from there.

Venice is extremely busy with people – it has been the busiest place we have been to by far. Tomorrow we are going for a tour to three Islands Murano (where they make the beautiful glass), Burano (where they make lace) and Torcello.

It is quite humid here but it cools a bit at night. We are ready to get away from all the people.

Last Day in Florence

2007-06-28T19:48:00.000+12:00

Today Trevor and I went our separate ways – I went to the Galleries and he went walking to find motorbike shops.

I was up early to queue for the Uffizi Gallery. At 8:15 in the morning there was already a large queue. It was an hour and a half before I got in. But it was well worth the wait – it is totally mind blowing. The Rembrandt room was closed for renovation but I still got to see many other famous artists – Michaelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Botticelli to name a few very, very impressive. This collection belonged to the Medici Family (Florence’s royalty) They built the Uffizi Gallery to house their collection. The building is three floor and U shaped – its huge.

I then went to the Pitti Palace – which was the home of the Medici Family. The Pitti Palace is at one end of the Ponte Vecchio and the Uffizi Gallery is at the other – the family built a corridor on top of the Ponte Vecchio (bridge) so they could walk between the two without having to mix with the commoners!

The palace is extremely opulent and is also full of art. The ceilings, doors etc are all very decorated. There are five different museums in the palace – art, some of the rooms of the Medici family, costume, modern art, porcelain, silver and treasures from around the world – this family was seriously mega rich!

The Palace also has extensive gardens – here is a small part of them.
That was my day filled in well and truly. Trevor said the motorbike shops were crap – not much in them. He did heaps of walking a even a wee bit of shopping!!!

We went more into the centre of Florence tonight for dinner and came across some students doing street art and musicians playing – lovely atmosphere.
We were a packed up now and heading to Venice.

Siena

2007-06-28T19:44:00.000+12:00

We got up early this morning to go to Siena. Trevor decided to navigate the way to the train station to get the train there. Well after about 20 minutes of walking I decided that I would navigate with the map. We got to the station with minutes to spare thank goodness there weren’t any queues for tickets.
One and a half hours of train journey through Tuscany was lovely. Have I mentioned that so far where ever we have been you have to pay to use the toilet! And they are few and far between. It was a bit cooler today (about 18 degrees) and in Siena it was spitting.
Siena is a hilly gothic style, town with walls around the inner part. Lovely narrow streets and it seems that motor vehicles are not allowed in the centre most part. The shops appear to be larger than Rome and very very nice – it seemed a bit like Queenstown in that it was bustling with tourists but there is only 50,000 people that live there. They were getting ready for a big festival- Il Palio – some pageantry and a horse race around the centre square, which is on next week.

Had a lovely lunch – have I mentioned that the Italian food is very nice – simple and fresh – very tasty.

Got back to Florence around 5:00pm and went to the Uffizi Gallery to see if I could get tickets to visit tomorrow – they had sold all the reservations so I have to get up early to queue – it opens at 8:15 – so another early day tomorrow.

Sightseeing and Shopping

2007-06-26T23:22:00.000+12:00

This morning we got the open topped bus around the area of Florence on the other side of the Arno River. Very beautiful. The city centre itself is quite compact and outside the city the houses seem to have good sized gardens.

Then we went to find the markets – lots of leather – bagsw, handbags, belts etc very exciting – made a couple of purchases!!

All the galleries and museums are closed in Florence on a Monday but we found the Cezanne exhibition was open so we visited that – Trevor really enjoyed it :)

Not far from our hotel are THE SHOPS – all the label ones – I wasn’t allowed in those – although I sneaked into Save the Queen.

Then it was time for more mundane stuff – laundry – it is way too expensive to have it done at the Hotel.
Today it was 36 degrees – very hot – thank god for our air conditioned hotel.

Here is a shopping basket to carry home all the purchases! It is about the size of those “Little Tykes” cars for toddlers.
Tomorrow we are off to Siena for a day trip.

Pisa

2007-06-25T22:38:00.000+12:00

We left Monterosso this morning and headed for Pisa – about a hour by train. Upon arrival we stored our bags and set off. On all the maps we have been given – what looks like a really long way turns out to be about ten minutes – its very encouraging. We walked to the Leaning Tower. You have to book to go up the Tower – we had about an hour and a half to fill in so we had a look around the other buildings there. The Tower was originally built as the Bell Tower to the Cathedral and was started in 1173! There are approximately 300 steps to climb. Our bodies were still sore from the big walk yesterday.

Then we went on to Florence about another hour by train. Our hotel room is quite roomy by European standards and the bed is big and comfy. We set off for a walk from our Hotel. We are staying not far from the Ponte Vecchio Bridge

This bridge is lined with Jewellery shops (Teresa you would love it). I get the feeling that Florence is a shopping mecca. We had a look around – there was a special madri gras type night where the streets were closed off and the restaurants put their tables out into the street, there was live music playing very nice and festive

There was a lovely sunset and we stood on the bridge listening to a great guy singing and watched the sun go down. Very beautiful

Firenze

2007-06-25T22:32:00.000+12:00

Or Florence as we call it. Today (Sunday) we went for a walk near our hotel and came across a local Flea Market. Here is Trevor in front of one of the antique iron stands.

We found lots of treasures we would have loved to have brought home but the airline probably wouldn’t like it

We walked to the Duomo (Large Cathedral) in the middle of Florence – the queue was so huge we didn’t go in, might try again another day. We had lunch in a little Café (they call them Bars here) where you buy slabs of pizza, panini, fruit salad etc.

This afternoon we took an open bus tour up to one of the exclusive hill suburbs Fiesole. Very nice – all the paintings you see of Tuscany (or Toscana as they call it here) are so true they paint it as you see it.

Tonight was another special night – The Feast of St John. Outside our Hotel the street was blocked off. We are on the edge of the Arno River. Directly opposite us there are some gardens and there was an amazing fireworks display there tonight that went for 40 minutes – it just kept going the streets were packed with people out to watch it. The loud bangs echoed off all the buildings and the fireworks were reflected in the river – it was fantastic.

Sorry guys blogger has published these out of order and I dont know how to change it.

Walking the Cinque Terre

2007-06-23T08:17:00.000+12:00

Today we decided to get up early and walk the track between the five villages estimated to take about 6 hours. There was a train strike here today until 9pm in the evening. But that didn’t matter because we could get the boat back to Monterosso.
Off we set – the track between Monterosso and Vernazza – the next village is very steep and narrow. That took about 1 and a half hours to walk very hot and sweaty although it is a bit cooler today and overcast – thank goodness.

This is Vernazza – a beautiful village built into the cliffs. We then set off for Corneglia which didn’t have a port and is set high in the cliff. This took one and a half hours also – more sweat and puffing. We had a lovely lunch here. After that were the villages of Manorola and Riomaggiore which were only about half an hour apart and a little more easier to walk.
On arrival at Riomaggiore we went straight to the office to book the boat trip back because by this time we were buggered and didn’t want to miss the boat. The boat wasn’t operating because of "rough seas" – well the sea was as calm as a good day in NZ!!!! So we thought we had to muck around in this tiny village until 9pm tonight. We thought about hitch hiking but decided not to. There were no taxis or buses. We went back to the train station after lots of mooching around and they said that there might be a train at about 6:00. We went to a bar and had a couple of beers with a nice Australian couple to fill in the time. We were so pleased to get back to Monterosso and have a shower – very hot, tired and sweaty – not a relaxing day at all but glad we did it.

Monterosso

2007-06-23T08:13:00.000+12:00

We left Rome – reluctantly – we really enjoyed it. Our train was delayed and whilst we were waiting we had a cappuccino at the Station – it was nice although they seem to drink their cappuccinos tepid here. Trevor went for a walk to find the Gents and after following about nine signs found it underground but there was a large queue and it was coin operated to enter so he didn’t worry about it – he was away for ages. When he came back he informed me that there was a mega shopping mall under the station but because we only had five minutes or so before our train arrived I couldn’t get to go and see it – bummer!.
The train journey took about four hours – the country side is similar to New Zealand but with lots of Bamboo.

Monterosso is the largest village in the Cinque Terre (pronounced chenkway tear) group of five villages. Our hotel room is considerably bigger than our last one and is back from the beach but very nice. The temperature is cooler here than Rome – feels like about 28.

Pantheon

2007-06-21T17:31:00.000+12:00

Trevor was up and away for a walk at 5:30. There were lots of people heading to work. Today we didn’t have anything planned so asked the nice young gentlemen on reception where he thought we should go. He recommended we get a bus to see the Pantheon and the Castel Saint Angelo (for those coming to Rome you take the number 64 bus). That was fun – we weren’t quite sure where to get off and the bus was so crowded, Trevor was standing separate from me. We were on the right street and I motioned to Trevor that we should get off at the next stop. A lovely elderly gentleman said to me that we should get off at this stop so I got off but Trevor didn’t see me get off until I was on the pavement and the bus was starting to move away! Trevor’s lack of Italian made it difficult to tell the driver to stop, some nice woman helped him to stop the bus.

Beside the Pantheon there was a lovely café where Trevor decided to taste the Italian cappuccino and I had a gelato ice cream – sorry girls too hot to drink coffees

Then we set off to find the Piazza Navona – one of the largest Piazzas in Italy. This was beautiful and is known for its delicious eateries in the evening (more about this later).

A short walk (everything thing here is not far from each other – even though on the map it looks like miles its really a short distance) across the Tiber River and we were at the Castel Saint Angelo. This is near the Vatican and is a huge fortress type castle in very original condition. The statue on the top is the Archangel Michael sheathing his sword after the end of a plague (without looking up my guidebook I can’t remember when this was). There is a secrete tunnel from the Castel to the Vatican. The age of things and the beauty of them doesn’t stop amazing us at every turn.

Just down the street from our hotel is this fantastic store, a cross between diary, liquor store and deli – it is fantastic – we could learn so much from the Italians. They don’t seem to have as much bureauocracy here and the place is better for it – OSH would have a field day here and maybe it should be compulsory for them to visit Rome to see how anal they are at home.

Trevor is fascinated by the amount of scooters and how they are used here

This is just around the corner from our hotel.

We booked a Tour “Rome Illuminated” which was to be a tour of Rome at night. The only problem was that for the first hour and twenty minutes it was still daylight! As part of the tour we went back to the Piazza Navona – it was packed with people and buskers – really crowded – such a contrast to when we were there earlier in the day. Trevor had a look at the prices at the Restaurants – they averaged between 30-40 euros for a main ($60-$80nz approx).
We are off to Cinque Terre today not sure if there will be internet access there so may be a few days before I can do any posts.

The Vatican

2007-06-20T18:32:00.000+12:00

We decided to book a tour of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Bascilica. Thank goodness we did this was the queue into the Vatican. These walls are all around the Vatican City and this was only one side we saw the queue go around three of these walls – not sure how much further it went after that. Our guide estimated that they would have approx 3 hours wait in the 31 degree heat – We just walked straight in. Although being with a tour you didn’t get to wander wherever you wanted he was very informative and we got the best vantage points and explanations of things. The Sistine Chapel was amazing (we weren’t able to take any photos in there though

This is a photo of one of the many ceilings in the Vatican Museum

Trevor standing in St Peter’s Square in front of the building where the Pope gives his speeches – On a Wednesday. We went on Tuesday to avoid the crowds! Sometimes you are unable to get into some parts of the Vatican on a Wednesday

After we got back to our hotel we walked to the Trevi Fountain – absolutely amazing – thousands of people there and very hot. Got back to Hotel for a wee sleep and woke up at 4:00am!

We are just mucking around today – we leave Rome for Cinque Terre tomorrow – will be very educational figuring out which train we are on.

The Colosseo

2007-06-20T00:43:00.000+12:00

We went to The Colosseo and The Roman Forum mind blowing

We then we to the Spanish Steps but couldn’t find the Trevi Fountain (so we ate a gelato instead). Then went onto the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which had an exhibition on there about the WW1. The monument (which is massive) was completed in 1921. It had an elevator which went to the top and had views all over Rome

Very hot and sweaty now so back to Hotel for siesta.

I am typing this at 4:30am (bloody jet lag) but other than that we feel good and are off to the Vatican Museum, St Peter’s Bascilica and Sistine Chapel today. Caio

Italy - instalment number 1

2007-06-20T00:39:00.001+12:00

Its 4:30am (Dubai time) we are an hour away from landing in Dubai Airport. It feels like we have been flying for a week! Emirates are great and having your own tv in the seat in front is a god send. There are about 900 different channels, games, movies etc. I have watched The pursuit of Happyness, and Dejavu. Trevor has watched Wild Hogs, Holiday, Bugs Life and played Black Jack as well as looking through the information channels about the aeroplane and Dubai. There is a wicked sun rise happening here. By my watch it is about 12.30 Sunday lunch time in New Zealand

This is some of the transit area of Dubai Airport. It is really strange seeing the flight schedules on the monitors in Arabic. The monitors in English have flights to hundreds of destinations – places like Damascus (who goes there?).

The six hour flight to Rome didn’t seem too long although the in flight entertainment was not as good as the long haul flight to Dubai. I slept most of it. We sat beside a couple on their honeymoon – not sure what nationality they were but definitely Middle Eastern. She was wearing a head scarf and had lots of henna tattoos – they were off on a cruise – couldn’t quite make out where – They had a honeymoon cake that someone had given them and they didn’t like it – he tried to give it to us but we felt that we had been eating all the way from New Zealand to Rome – so a cake was just too much.

We arrived at Rome expecting to take ages to get through customs etc. We got off the plane, walked towards baggage claim – were stopped at a door by an Italian wanting to look at our passport, he gave a cursory glance, we collected our luggage and that was it!

We were greeting by a lovely young Italian driver complete with suit, sunglasses and Mercedes! He proceeded to drive us from the airport to our hotel at a speed of, on average, 150kms/hr while most of the time speaking on his mobile!. We arrive safely. It is about 31 degrees.

Our Hotel room is the size of our bathroom at home with a tiny wee ensuite. It is lovely and cool and really quiet the whole building is stone. We went for a walk around and found this fountain just around the corner. We refreshed our hot feet in it.

We to bed at 5:00pm and slept till 6:00am.

Italy

2007-06-15T07:28:00.000+12:00

Well we are nearly all packed and ready to go. We leave Queenstown tomorrow morning (Saturday) at 8:50am weather permitting, fingers crossed, but we don't leave Christchurch until 6:00pm Sat so have time to drive if needed. Hopefully I will be able to use my laptop and post our progress and pictures as we go.

Franklin Arts Festival

2007-06-15T07:24:00.000+12:00

I have just heard that my Marrakech Bag that I won first prize with last year is being used in the television add on the Living Channel advertising this years Franklin Arts Festival - o how exciting - shame we only have poor mans TV.

I won't know until we get back from Italy how this year's entry went.

Into the Light

2007-06-07T20:28:00.000+12:00

After a frantic last minute dash I finished this piece to be submitted to the Franklin Arts Festival. I really like this one and the comments from home were very enthusiastic. I'm now worried it will sell as I did not put a large price on it.

More Journal Pages

2007-06-07T20:24:00.000+12:00

Here is my contribution to the "Illuminations" journal

Journal Round Robin

2007-05-16T16:50:00.000+12:00

I am involved in a Textile Group called COOTS (Central Otago Outside the Square) and I have organised a Journal Round Robin for this year. Here are photos of some of the pages I have completed for some of the Journals. The first is "Best Reads of 2006" my choice for this page was "Jo Seagar Cooks" a recipe book - just for something different. The next one is "Best" and I did best Season - Autumn for my page. Using a poem from Brian Turner from the Book - Timeless Land which are paintings by Grahame Sydney and poems by Brian Turner.

The Third one is Cat Dreams - for my inspiration for this page I used the Book "Slinky Malinky" by Lynley Dodds - from the Hairy Maclairy (sp) series.

Exciting News

2007-05-01T15:46:00.000+12:00

On a personal level, Trevor met with Architect John Blair yesterday and he has agreed to design our new house - how exciting. Almost all of Trevor's work in the past three years has been John's design - they are great.

Display of tea cosies

2007-05-01T15:40:00.000+12:00

QEG

2007-05-01T15:25:00.000+12:00

The Queenstown Embroiderer's Guild co-hosted our annual Friendship Day in Garston (45 minutes south of Queenstown) on Saturday. It was an uncharacteristically cold and bleak day there. We meet with other ANZEG members from Fiordland, Invercargill, Gore, Dunedin, East Otago. We had a fantastic turn out of over 60 ladies which made for a lovely display of work. We felt we may need to find a more appropriate venue to cope with the growing number of ladies travelling to this day.

A lovely shared morning tea was had and then we caught up with other Guilds news and programmes for the year together with a bit of stitching. Here is a pic of our Tea Cosies which were a guilt challenge last year for the launch of our recipe book.

Arrowtown Autumn Festival

2007-04-25T17:26:00.000+12:00

Woohoo I won "Best Local Applied Artist" at the Arrowtown Autumn Festival for my piece "Ophir Bridge". I am using this posting as a practice for this blog.