I have been sooo looking forward to getting together with quilty friends now that lockdowns and restrictions have eased, so when my friend Nicola (way back in early March!) suggested meeting up at Quiltessentially Clunes 2022 in May I jumped at the chance, I knew some other friends usually go each year so thought it would be a wonderful way to catch up, sew a bit, shop a bit, giggle a lot and enjoy the company.
The four day event (we went to just the last two days) is held in the Clunes Town Hall which is a stunning building with the most amazing interior painted stage
There were tables full of ladies chatting away, the stage was setup with a pop up shop…. I was excited!
Sadly one of our friends Alison wasn’t able to make it at the last minute, so it was just Nicola and me sitting with a table of new quilty friends.
So we opened up our little goody bags with excitement! A few bits of gorgeous Liberty and some buttons and a notebook. Cute.
However, this is where the excitement ended. The Clunes Town Hall is a wonderful building, however it is NOT really conducive to sewing… there are no windows apart from those right up high, and well, it is late May in the Central Highlands of Victoria, so there wasn’t much sunshine to light them. So everyone had to bring their own little lights… on battery power as there were no power points (again, the joys of old buildings!)
But we settled in to have some fun…. and my little cute little friend joined my Bionic Bag with all my sewing things.
But oh, no, the heating didn’t work! They had run out of gas. (apparently on Thurs and Fri it worked really well). And over a weekend with zero chance the Hepburn Shire Council would send someone out to replace the gas cylinders. Argh. And for the entire weekend there was no alternatives brought in! So we froze. Making hand sewing a little difficult to say the least. On the Sunday (after seriously thinking of not going back at all for the second day) I took a hot water bottle and a wheat bag with me. And extra rugs and layers of clothing. It was still pretty miserable.
Oh…. and that weekend it was a MAXIMUM of 8 degrees C in Clunes… with overnight temps 0 degrees C. so it was COLD in there!
Still, we tried to keep our spirits up with some giggles
And some walks around the really cute village of Clunes
There was a stunning trunk show by Trish Harper who is a prolific quilter of AMAZING quilts!
And on Sunday there was a show and tell from various participants and again, there were some stunners! This one is from Denise (who by the way has just started a small business making gorgeous sewn items perfect for gifts head over to her shop https//madeit.com.au/quiltinggiftsbydenise/
So it was an interesting weekend. If you like hand sewing quilts, and you have some friends going, and you take a good supply of personal lighting and enough clothes and hot water bottles to keep yourself warm, then Quiltessentially Clunes will be on next year. You just won’t see me there. I’ll be sewing at home in the Quilt Barn in the warm!
