Cobram Weekend Workshop 2017
This weekend was organised and created by a fantastic team of ladies in the country victorian town of Cobram right on the Murray River. My cousin Mandy Murnane the owner of Regency Court Motel in Main Street Cobram and her friend Jeanette contacted me over 8 months ago to organise this event. The organised a lovely lady by the name of Peggy to help out also with the kitchen and food for the weekend.
Mandy and Jeanette organised some goodie bags for the people who were going to attend. Making sure they had lots of useful items in their goodie bags. They also organised the marketing and of the event to ensure that the workshop was full with 16 people to attend. With this all done months in advance and all the ladies excited and eager to meet me - Mandy and Jeanette rock!
On the Friday i pack my car, get ready to leave to go to Cobram the day before the workshop to help set up and to also set up my shop items. My mum who is just amazing also came along to help me out with the weekend as she is my right hand man when i have large classes. Mum (Carole) gets around to those while i'm at the other end of the room and lets me know who i need to go to next. Absolutely priceless, when teaching a large room.
Pics of the set up:
Now ready to relax and have dinner after a long 5 hour drive and setting up my shop for a great weekend of sewing and laughs.
Saturday morning comes and we arrive at Strathmerton Bowls Club early to make sure all the final jobs were done before anyone arrived.
Coffee made, shop sorted, gift bags sorted, sewing machine up and ready....... now the wait for the ladies to arrive.
One by one they all arrived with smiles on their faces and an eagerness to learn, they set up thier machines and got themselves a coffee and once seated, Mandy thanked them, introduced me and then it was my turn to talk...lol....he he he
I started by introducing what we were going to do that day and then on sunday. I let them know all about the expectations of the weekend and how much fun we were going to have.
So starting their day we started with some Free Motion Quilting that would help them in their journey for the next day and in their own personal quilting attempts.
The ladies were shown how to stipple, stitch straight lines free motion, swirls, flowers, loops, and many more little tricks and tips throughout the day. I moved around to each one of the students making sure they were getting their movements smooth and their machine speed even, sounds easy but not so much.
After lunch we continued on with more and more sewing the girls really enjoyed having some time to sit and learn their techniques as everyone is different we all have different techniques.
Lunch time:
The day went quick and the girls did an amazing job, some had never done any free motion quilting before and really started from scratch, Whereas others had had a play with it and Youtubed vidoes at home and picked up on the techniques a little quicker.
Pics of the first day:
S after the first day we all went out to dinner at a local pub that was great and got to chat a little more to the ladies then. Once we all finished dinner i think most of us were absolutely stuffed!!! Well i was anyway, so we scampered off to the motel and crashed and burned for another night, well i did anyway lol.
The next morning being Sunday the 2nd and last day of the workshop, we arrived early again, grabbed a coffee on the run at the local Strathmerton Bakery. By the way they have an amazing creation called a Bee Sting.......now that is worth travelling for. So we opened up the door and started getting ready again. The ladies slowly arrived and were nervous about what the day was going to bring them.
Once all were seated and we were ready to go I got into describing what we were going to do and how we were going to do it. I gave them demonstrations on the out lines and again went around to each lady to make sure she was coping with the task. I thought they handled it pretty well if you ask me :)
The second demo was me showing them how to do the zen tangle inside the lines they had stitched, I explained to them the theory of zen quilting ( derives from the zen tangle principle). And then also explained to them that they were then going to separate the outer negative spaces and make the quilting on the outside of the fish zen quilting too.
Lots of nervous faces but they gave it a bloody good go and gee did they do well. Take a look at the work these ladies did in 1 day, remembering some of these ladies had not done any quilting prior to this day.
Finally the weekend was drawing to a close and the ladies were completely exhausted and had definitely had a great weekend.
They had shopped madly at my store as i placed some fabrics on special and they really got some good bargains. They learnt new techniques and some for the first time. I am sure that they all went home happy :)
We also had a draw as a gift to the ladies that one person was going to win $150 worth of quilting done by myself and that winner was Cindy and i can tell you she was over the moon about being able to get herself $150 worth of free quilting. Well done Cindy.
Also this weekend some locals from the Cobram quilters dropped by to catch up with me and Michelle from Boosey Creek Quilters also dropped in especially to visit me and that was just awesome to meet some new interesting people local to the Cobram area.
After we packed up and were totally exhausted - this time all of us!! we crashed back at the motel and had fish n chips for dinner and got ready for the next morning. We decided to leave reasonably early so avoid the long weekend traffic and to make sure we got home before dark.
On the way home we stopped for the Bakery in Strathmerton and of course you guessed it - purchased the largest Bee Sting I could find :), then we also went to the Cactus Country Display and looked at all the different types of cactus from all over the world, simply amazing.
Here are some pics for you to enjoy:
In conclusion it was a very successful weekend all round, i want to say a BIG thank you to my Mum, my cousin Mandy and her gorgeous friend Jeanette and of course the lovely Peggy who served our tea, coffee and cake.
So we are booked again for next year but with a different project of course so keep your eye out for it on my website or on facebook.
Chat again soon xxx
Remember be happy not perfect, its much more fun!
Love Michelle
