TASMANIAN CRAFT FAIR 2012

TASMANIAN CRAFT FAIR 2012

It was my absolute pleasure to be guest artist and demonstrator at the recent premier craft event in Tasmania

November 2-5 in the beautiful town of Deloraine ( nth west of Launceston ) I was the guest of Rotary Australia along with Marlene King of Tasmania to have our quilts hang along side of the Rotary Hoffman Challenge.

Beautiful Deloraine

 Winner of the challenge Marlene King

A very humorous and fun quilt stand to the left of the quilt and the king was clothed (above image) and stand to the right and he is nude..... it had a sensor  and you could hear claps and cheers from the people in the quilt.

 More lovely quilts from the challenge

If you would like to be part of the challenge like I am going to enter for 2013  contact diane@bengeoretreat.com.au for the challenge fabric pack and have a go, there are  wonderful cash prizes for the winners.

Diane Brittlebank from www.bengeoretreat.com.au  and curator of the Rotary Hoffman Challenge asked if I could send 6 quilts and be guest demonstrator at the fair.

Diane and I demo area

 

 Well yes Id love to . Robyn Miller of Sew knit in Launceston was there with the new Bernina 750 for me to demonstrate on and we had a great time . The whole event was run so beautifully. The town opens up their arms and welcomes literally thousands of people from all over Australia to admire and purchase hand made goods from artists and crafts people. There were blacksmiths, painters, ceramic artists, wood workers, jewellers etc ....  beautiful objects everywhere.

 

I have to say I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the quality and the organisation of the whole event.

 

As I was demonstrating free motion quilting ,on black fabric and bright variegated thread quilting my free form feathers and flowers etc just having a great time getting to know the new Bernina I had hundreds of people who chatted to me , they had never seen free motion quilting before . They loved it.So we brought quilting to so many new people which is a great thing.......

 

I try to walk early in the mornings around the town that I am visiting and luckily I took my phone and I captured some lovely textile surprises along the way .

 

Whats that in the tree??????

 

Doilies of course........ Love it .......

 

Whats that on the wall of a hundred and fifty year old building ??????

Crochet  rugs of course ... They looked stunning apparently ladies from the local nursing homes addition to the fair....... watch out poles and statues they also had you covered ... FUN

The school children made a musical interactive bridge , they painted up different object attached them to the bridge and had a bucket of sticks where you were encourage to hid the object to make some great sounds ( I had fun at 6.30 in the morning making a right old racket )

 

 

I would like to thank Rotary, John Christie Director of TCF, Diane Brittlebank, Bernina and Robyn Miller for making me so very welcome and thank you for your wonderful hospitality I had a terrific time , one that I will remember .

 

The fair will return in 2013 for details see www.tascraftfair.com.au