Hi Everyone,
just a quick note to say that the Convergence in Canberra was fantastic, Lovely to meet Sandie again, + Wendy & Pat :-)

Windy, it certainly was, so the dress I put together in 2 hours became my <Elements of Canberra> piece - including  the bits of leaves that got stuck in it when laying it out :-D    . It was certainly an interesting experience, felting in the Gaazebo with only 1 side wall and gale force winds. As I had virtually no control of how the extra pieces were going to sit on the red base felt ( a  thin, single layer batt that is needle felted to prefelt stage) I didn't see any point in trying to cut regular pieces out of the contrasting purple prefelt, with some silk lap that had been dyed in shades of red, magenta, purple & navy. A large piece of the silk lap had fallen on the lawn on the previous day, when I had been making some Nuno squares for butterfly wings, that didn't end up being used, as the wire I had was too fine to hold them up well. However, it was enough to give them body to fall from the shoulder and hip.

I have to fine tune it , as it wasn't fulled properly & kept growing on the night. It will drape well. into folds on the side. The batts are very large, so  I just cut down the centre to make an arm hole, then tied the shoulders, leaving one side open completely, as it was being worn over a top & pants. This was to make it easier to construct & to enable me to change its function later, perhaps to a large cape .  Anyway, on the party night, I managed to use a couple of judicious safety pins to make it into a piece of wearable art.

I'll definitely be going next time, but a note of caution, the time of year has Not been finallised yet. We have to look at suitable venues. It depends on when the chosen venue is available, so No decision has been made at this time. We are only just beginning to  talk about it now. Rest assured, I'll keep you posted, as I will be part of it :-)

Meanwhile, the Victorian Feltmakers (Inc) will be having a retreat at Arabri Lodge in Warburton East again, next May, so I'm looking forward to that .  We had a great time last year didn't we, Kerry? Thankyou, again, for giving so generously of yourself and your Roberta.

Natalie, your purse is lovely, I haven't had a chance to look at the other pictures, yet.

Welcome all newcomers, it was rude of me to not say so first.

I finally finished my doll in the early hours of Saturday, so I could take it to our meeting, as they wanted follow up from Eva Kuniczak's workshop. I am doing a Landscape workshop with Birgitte next week, so have a hectic time from this Friday on, with nursing.  I have to catch up on everything else in the next few days.

I managed to fall flat on my back as I was about to leave the convergenced & drive home&  caused a bit of havoc by the early hours of Monday. I had to call in sick. When I went to the Dr later, for a certificate, he pulled my chair out from behind me, to check me out &  as I was trying to locate it to sit down , it shot backwards,so I sat on the floor with a thump, further damaging things. All I could do was laugh, which perplexed this overseas trainee. I finally get some treatment for it tomorrow, thank goodness, as the 2 days off sickleave wasn't enough. Pushing the jolly drug trolley around on carpet& uneven floors caused a bit of havoc.

I've taken it easy, today, just sorted out paperwork post convergence, but hope to get into a bit of felting in the next couple of days. I will try to post some pictures soon

Best wishes to all.

Barb Mewburn