New Zealand in July Part 3

 To finish off our time in NZ we visited parts of the ares I haven't been to - north of Nelson - we stayed at Motueka for a couple of nights

 Loved the coast line - the weather was a little bleak but who cares?

 busy little chappies in the bush

 On our way to Westport we called in at Lyle

Ian went over the swingy bridge but not for me

 Drove south of Westport - I do love the west coast beaches north or south

 Too many choices for photos

 Pancake Rocks - I have never been there - fabulous - Punakaiki

 DOC have done the most fabulous job here

 The intrepid traveller

 Made our way to Reefton - the town of lights - Reefton was the first place in the Southern Hemisphere to have electricity - we stayed at this motel and because they were full, we got the entire top floor

 Went to visit Waiuta - Ian's great uncles were gold miners here

 Left Reefton and made our way over the Rahu Saddle - look at the snow! No wonder it was cold

 Made our way to Lake Rotoiti and arrived at a perfect moment

Last day in wonderful Wellie before flying back to Perth via Auckland. Caught up with Ken and Raylene for lunch. Great time was had - what's next on the agenda?

New Zealand in July Part 2

The view from my workshop window - the church looks like it is on the hill but when I went outside to take more photos, it was pretty well level

 While we were trading, I did a bit of stitching to try some of our lovely threads and prefelts all woven

 My second two day workshop was Old Doors and Openings and we experimented with  all sorts of different techniques whihc could be used in the end result. Here I am demonstrating something or another

 The class worked really hard and produced some different work - I have shown a selection below but somehow I have lost a few of the really superb ones. Sadly...

 brilliant shrinking texture

 this verlvet sample was too gorgeous almost to cut up

 the lady who brought nothing from the requierments list worked from the kit alone and it ended up rather super

 Loved this one watching it come together

 This was fabulous - my photo not so good

Brilliant class and brilliant people. Thank you to everyone - I thoroughly enjoyed it all/

New Zealand in July part 1

 In July we went to Nelson in New Zealand where I was teaching at the NZ Embroiderers Conference and we were also trading. It was a great week and we started it with a flight from Auckland to Wellington and then to Nelson on a beautiful day

 We stayed up on the hill at Tahunanui - good memories for Ian as he spent his Christmas holidays there at the camping grounds every year

 The view from the balcony at A and T's house - they were not there and generously let us stay

 We had a couple of great meals at the Boatshed Cafe (NZ flounder of course) which was recently re-opened after the storms. Great place

 One morning we woke to cloud cover in the valley - it was certainly crisp in the mornings and cold at night - but when the sun came out.....

 We traded on the Friday Saturday and Sunday and indeed right through but on Monday and Tuesday I taught my workshop - Seeing the Leaves through the Trees - to a lovely group of people - here they are working away and and always, my table is the super messy one.

 More people at work.

 Here I am showing the class how to put their books together - they worked really well and there were some wonderful pages being created. I was impressed with how much they did in the two days - I know that I am not a prolific person in a workshop - I tend to sit and think and ponder on things

Below are some of the pages created, samples made and two people finished their books - I hope all the others do before too long. I don't always run workshops where we actually complete things. We covered quite a large number of different techniques in two days.

Then I had to pack it all away for the next two day workshop but as you can see, there was lots of productivity here.