Having quilting fun in Australia

I was the guest speaker at Maleny's International Women's Day lunch yesterday, at Maleny, Queensland. There were about 150 in the audience, and around 95% quilters. I managed to bring some of my biggest quilts, including four of the sampler quilts from 'Japanese Quilt Blocks to Mix and Match' and the large sashiko sampler opposite the title page of 'The Ultimate Sashiko Sourcebook', plus the kimono quilt 'Hanui' from my forthcoming 'Japanese Quilt Inspirations'. Everyone enjoyed the quilts and the lunch, and I had a great time meeting the quilters. Many different groups attended and I'll be doing talks and workshops for quite a few of these over the next week, plus a 'sashiko retreat' in Maleny. I took plenty of photos and will be uploading them as soon as I can find a wifi connection for the laptop.

I'm staying with Bev Perel at 'Maleny Magic', a lovely shop with a great selection of Japanese, retro, batik and other fabrics (including some great indiginous Australian designs). She's organised the whole trip and today we'll be off to Caloundra for a talk in the afternoon. More blogging when I can upload the photos, including yesterday's event, the shop and a great panorama of the Glass House Mountains - which will be the view from our retreat classroom! I don't think I've ever taught in a space with a more stunning view or exotic mountains.

It's 7.10 a.m. here and this morning I'm going to Australia Zoo - I would like to see some of the wildlife, especially the ones I would rather see at the zoo than out in the wild (certain snakes and spiders...) It feels like being in a parallel universe a little bit, as I hardly recognise any trees, bird calls etc. Over the last few days, it has been cloudy and rained on and off, so not so much blue sky to be seen, but colours are certainly different in this light. Watched the sunrise over the Pacific Ocean this morning, about 30km away from where we are, up in the hills.