'Girls Stitch In' @ Highfields

Warning, warning!! L-o-n-g post with lots of photos.

Oh my goodness, did I need my sleep last night, but not before putting some drops in my sore tired eyes. I had spent the day at the 'Girls Stitch In' put on by the girls of The Quilters Angel patchwork shop in the Village Green at Highfields north of Toowoomba in the Darling Downs Region of South East Queensland. 

Although it was run both Saturday and yesterday (Sunday) it was the same thing both days. Hubby and I decided to make a weekend of it and decided to give the newly opened Toowoomba Second Range Crossing a go. The original climb up to Toowoomba which is on top of the Great Deviding Range is very steep and if you got caught behind a truck or whatever, you were likely to have to get down to first gear to crawl your way to the top. Particularly tedious if we were towing the caravan as well. However this time, we decided not to take our van and try the new road. Here are a couple of photos as we made a very easy climb - well worth paying a toll to use it.

It will be such an enjoyable drive up the range from now on towing the van, and from what we have heard the 'truckies' just love it as well.

Arrived at our motel for the night (got into our room OK), before heading to the small shopping centre nearby to get some extra milk (again got into our room OK). However, when we went down the road to have dinner, when we returned - the room key would not work in the door. Hubby got the lady from the office, and they tried a second key for the room. No luck either! She then went and got the master key .... hmm didn't want to work at first. She then went through the adjacent room (apparently it was a connecting room) and came in through our room, unlocked it from the inside to let us in, and from then on we had the master key for the night.

Yesterday morning (Sunday) hubby dropped me at the venue for my day of fun and stitching, and what a lovely time I had. To begin with I met up with Kris Meares from Tag-Along Teddies, and then Fiona from BubzRugz - it was wonderful to put faces to names that you chat with on your blog. Kris was one of the guest designers for the weekend. The other guest designer was Natalie Bird of the Birdhouse. These two photos show both Kris' display stand (top photo) and Natalie's display stand (second photo)

Morning tea was the first item of the day.

Then it was into the main room for where we were to have our fun. 

There was a lovely bag of 'goodies' for each of us that included a pattern from each of the designers, along with a traced off stitchery from one or the other ladies to begin, along with the fabric to complete the project.

We had lucky door prizes - I was lucky enough to win one, along with the major prize at the end of the day.

There were also a few 'pop up' stores there as well, so ...... of course you have to buy a few things don't you - can't go home empty handed.

Yep, another quilt pattern and some fabric to make a start on it - but they will be put away for now for when I have a nothing to do situation - ha, ha!

The two projects available to us to begin (alternate drop) are:

From Kris - a lovely bag with extendable sides, along with a tablet pouch.

From Natalie - a very cute draw-string bag, with a pin cushion and thread carrier.

Both ladies held demonstrations of various techniques etc. and I for one, had a wonderful day and although hubby thought I would, I did not snooze on the way home.

Thank you to all who put in such a wonderful effort to make it a great day for us all.

Trust you enjoyed seeing what I got up to yesterday - more soon.

June